2006 Tacoma

[wn24fd]

Just a few shots of a recent install in my 06 Tacoma. Icom 2720H and a Motorola CDM1550 LS+ UHF.

[bwca44]

Very sweet, wonderful use of all space avaliable. My next car will hopefully be a tacoma..but they are (and most toyotas that I have seen) very hard to mount equipment in. What are the swith and dial for?

[chris_a_rodgers]

Originally Posted by bwca44

What are the swith and dial for?

Looks to be for a siren and horn from a whelen unit.

[Rt169Radio]

Clean and compact,did that Icom 2720H just fit in there or did you have to work to get it in?

[liftedtacoma4x]

What is the Motorola radio used for? Nice install looks great.

[wn24fd]

Chris, you are correct. One of my friends was able to take apart, and successfully remote a whelen siren by extending the wires that go to the knob and button, and mounting the "brain" under the seat and putting the switch and button into the console. Rt, the fit was a tad bit tight, but it did fit right in there. Lifted, I use it for my fire department.

[Dann]

Very Nice Setup.

[kb0rpj]

how did you get the cables into the icom radio.. drill holes in the side or front?

[wn24fd]

I'm not sure what you mean. It's a remote head unit, so there is only 1 wire that goes to the control head.

[ScannaMan9]

Antenna's?

[divemaster500]

Very cool! Great use of space with all the good stuff!

[KD0LDK]

Lookin good! Really like the creativity with the remote mount siren, sucker would take up tons of room if that wasn't an option.

[kb0rpj]

my question is how did you route the wire for the remote head.. did you drill a hole and run into the bottom? or is there already some gap for the cable to run through?

[wn24fd]

Ah I gotcha. The space where the head for the icom is mounted is a space to keep pens or whatever with a little rubber mat in it. I drilled a hole under the mat, and ran the wire from under the seat, through the console and through the hole. If I ever took the icom out, you would never know there was a hole there.

[wn24fd]

Here is the antenna setup. The UHF antenna is from PCTEL. The dual band antenna is from Maxrad and has seen its fair share of wear and tear, so I'm looking to replace it with one from Laird Tech.

[K9WSS]

Can you separate the antennas? Even not transmitting, you have them WAY TOO close; you might get an interaction in receivers with such a close proximity. Also when/if you DO transmit, you could possibly cause damage to the receiver that the other antenna is connected to. I've seen it happen, and it's not cheap to repair the front end of a receiver.

[wn24fd]

Yeah, I plan on doing that tonight. One of my friends installed the antenna and didn't realize that they had to be seperated. What is the minimun spacing between the antennas? Would 6 inches be sufficient?

[K9WSS]

Originally Posted by wn24fd

Yeah, I plan on doing that tonight. One of my friends installed the antenna and didn't realize that they had to be seperated. What is the minimun spacing between the antennas? Would 6 inches be sufficient?

Put one of them on the opposite side(s) of the trunk. Feasibly, they should be a 1/4 wave apart, but most of the time, that's just not possible.

[mmckenna]

The more separation, the better. My dad's truck had a Yaesu FT7800 and an Icom UHF commercial radio. FT7800 had a dual band shorty and the UHF had a 1/4 wave. About 20 inches apart, or just over 1/4 wave on 2 meters. The 35 watt UHF radio wrecked the front end of the Yaesu. There is a little zener diode in there that blows to protect the radio. Surface mount components, so we couldn't' fix it ourselves. Had to send it off for repair, about $125.
So, it was more than 1/4 wave on UHF, and it still damaged the radio. Best thing to do is add some vertical separation if you can. Put one antenna on the roof of the truck, and the other down on the fender. Make sure you use good quality coax, also. I've been buying dual shield RG-58 NMO mounts, with good results.

[izzyj4]

Anyway, wn24fd nice set up. How's things in Rockland?