Ham radio mount

I am planning on installing a Yaesu FTM-300DR IN MY 2020 TRD Off Road. I want to mount the body of the radio under the passenger seat and don’t want to interfere with the heat/ac vents under there. Is there a bracket that mounts to the seat frame that anyone knows about? Or how has anyone else accomplished this?

 

I zip tied mine under the seat.

 

I was hoping for a bolt in application. I do quite a bit of off road and wanted the radio as secure as possible.

 

Yaesu makes a pretty rugged radio and you can get heavier duty zip ties.

All that said, get some steel from home depot, a punch, drill, hammer, nuts and bolts and fabricate what you need.

Not sure anyone makes a bracket.

 

Mine is zip tied and I've done some pretty rough stuff in it. Never had an issue.

 

I lined the bottom of the radio with "hook" velcro and slapped it to the carpet under the pass seat. Immovable. Even off road.

 

I did the same for my FT8900 under the passenger front seat of my Wrangler. Haven't had any issues.

 

I screwed my icom 2730 standard bracket into the carpet under the driver’s seat with 1/2” sheet metal screws. They’ll go through the padding and into the vent plastic which gives it a bit of extra retention power if you don’t care about the 4 little holes in the duct.

Photos are from the side (door), the mike and speaker from the side, and from the front of the seat. Excuse the dirt; didn’t feel like vacuuming before taking the pics.

Control head, speaker, antenna, and power wiring are tucked under the center console covers; power runs from the battery through the firewall to the console. The external speaker, mic and control head are mounted with 3m Dual lock tape. Small notches in the plastic accommodate the control head and speaker wires.

My truck spends a lot of time off pavement and I’m incapable of driving slowly; it’s held up nicely for just shy of 2 years. Velcro on the carpet should do the trick as well. There’s not a lot of opportunity for movement down there.

 

Forgot to mention that the flat part of the quarter panel is just big enough to punch a 3/4” hole for a NMO mount. The only issue is that this section of the quarter panel is unsupported and will flex. If someone pulls on the antenna, it will likely bend the sheet metal. In “normal use” it’s fine as is. There’s a little bit of flex, but not excessive.

The solution (if you want that super clean effect) is to pull the quarter panel and epoxy a diagonal support brace in place. Forgot to take pics.

Theres a little bit of outward camber, but a slight bend at the base of the whip solves that problem.

The rg58 runs through a cutout and then an existing firewall plug on the passenger side and then under the dash to the center console where it meets up with the rest of the wires.

No known RFI issues; I consciously kept the coax separated from factory wire bundles. The antenna is 1/2 wave on 2m and some multiple on 440 and has close to a 1:1 swr across the tx bands. While I haven’t done field strength tests, it seems to radiate pretty well in all directions. Can’t put the antenna on the roof since there’s often stuff on the rack, and I park the truck in my garage.

 

Or trunk lip NMO on hood...

(shown on my 4R but same concept on the Taco)

 

Thanks everyone! I’ll post pics when I get it all installed.