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2013 F150 (Raptor) - ideas?

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Jay911

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Well, I finally pulled the trigger. A little bit of post sale accessory installs at the dealer and I am going to come home with a 2013 Ford F150 Supercrew Raptor.

Looking for advice on some installs from others with either late model F150s or late model Raptors. There was a thread from a year or so ago that I participated in where I remember a fellow mounting his ham antenna on the edge of the side of the tailgate, using a trunk lip mount. I'm not sure I want to do that because I expect the tailgate to be going up and down somewhat often. I have a trunklip mount on order, a Comet HD5M (which I don't think would adjust to fit the tailgate side, anyway), and I'm wondering if it would work on the hood/fender - unfortunately I didn't spend much time looking at the truck today, and this is the best pic I have of that end:

HNIDuCT.jpg


The tricky bit is I want to park the truck in the garage, or else I'd put something on the roof (well, there's also a moonroof up there which would hamper things).

Any ideas? I don't think even a typical L-bracket NMO/SO239 fender mount would work on that hood/fender.

The other question I have is probably answerable by anyone with a recent F-series with the "upfitter" switches. Anybody put any radio gear (transceivers or scanners) on these switched outputs? IIRC there are 2x30A, 1x20A, 1x15A. Would it be acceptable to run a 50W Kenwood TM-D710A into one of the 30A outputs or run it right to the battery instead?

Thanks in advance and I think I have a couple weekends' worth of playing coming up :)
 

Jay911

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The other question I have is probably answerable by anyone with a recent F-series with the "upfitter" switches. Anybody put any radio gear (transceivers or scanners) on these switched outputs? IIRC there are 2x30A, 1x20A, 1x15A. Would it be acceptable to run a 50W Kenwood TM-D710A into one of the 30A outputs or run it right to the battery instead?

Update: Found an owner's manual link online which states these are 30/30/15/10, not 30/30/20/15.
 

krokus

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Would it be acceptable to run a 50W Kenwood TM-D710A into one of the 30A outputs or run it right to the battery instead?

What is the max current draw of the D710? My gut says it should work fine, but you could have some electrical noise issues.

Another option: install a RigRunner supplied by the battery, possibly with a heavy-duty relay inline, which is controlled by a lower rated switch or accessory power.
 

LowbandGuy

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I have a 2011 F150 extended cab which I have several radios installed. I have a bunch of pictures taken when I was doing the installation, they are wired into a Blue Sea fuse block. If you're interested I can email them to you.

I've been looking online this week at the Raptor and wondering if I would like one! Nice truck!
 

Jay911

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What is the max current draw of the D710? My gut says it should work fine, but you could have some electrical noise issues.

Another option: install a RigRunner supplied by the battery, possibly with a heavy-duty relay inline, which is controlled by a lower rated switch or accessory power.

I don't know the draw offhand. I have the radio currently in my Subaru car wired to the battery with an APO3 cutoff relay inline. Just figured I could save time snaking wires thru the firewall if I could use the provided gear that's already routed into the cabin.

I have a 2011 F150 extended cab which I have several radios installed. I have a bunch of pictures taken when I was doing the installation, they are wired into a Blue Sea fuse block. If you're interested I can email them to you.

I've been looking online this week at the Raptor and wondering if I would like one! Nice truck!

Sure, I wouldn't mind - jay911@gmail.com is the best way to get hold of me.

I don't take possession of the truck until Tuesday but I've been in love with the thing ever since I heard about them a few years ago. I live in a decidedly rural area where they don't bother plowing roads in winter too quickly. There's also an off-highway-vehicle zone not too far away which has the potential to be fun. :)
 

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I've got a 2011 XLT (non-Raptor) crew cab. My antennas are on the roof, though, permanent NMO's.

All my radios are remote head with the RF decks mounted behind the rear seat. One trick I found that made life easy was that the seat bolts behind the rear seats are spaced just right for Uni-strut. I used 3 separate pieces behind the rear seat to hold radios, wiring blocks, timer,etc. Good solid way to mount the radios down, and plenty of room back there.

#6 wire off the battery to behind the rear seat to power everything, no issues.

No interference from the truck electronics on VHF, UHF or 800MHz, that I've noticed.

Nice looking truck!
 

mikewazowski

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Did the same with an F150 and F250. Radios are remote mounted under the rear seats. I bought double height brackets which allowed me to stack the radios.
 

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Jay: the upfitter switches are also ignition switched. They are not live unless the truck is running. Other than not having constant power to the upfitters, the 30A, or. Even the 15A one will run your 710 just fine. Another note, the upfitter switches are low current, controlling relays that I 'think' are to the left of the steering wheel, behind the dash.
 
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AK9R

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Jay, I have a 2011 F150 XLT SCrew 4WD 5.0 short bed.

I elected to install a dual battery system. I bought a cross-bed tool box that has butterfly lids so that they open towards each other. My antennas are mounted to the box lids. I have an Optima yellow top mounted inside the box. All radios are powered from that battery.

If your truck has the towing package, you'll have a 7-pin wiring harness plug near the hitch. One of the circuits in that plug is the trailer battery charging circuit. It's intended to charge a battery on the trailer while the truck's engine is running. I tapped into that circuit and ran a wire up to my second battery. In 2.5 years, that circuit has never failed to keep the second battery charged. I did not use any kind of battery isolator because Ford's trailer battery circuit is only energized when the engine is running. When the engine is running, it charges the second battery. When the engine is off, the second battery is isolated from the truck's electrical system so running the radios won't run down the truck's primary battery.

There are rubber plugs in the bed that line up almost perfectly with the vents in the back of the cab wall. Pretty easy to snake power and antenna wiring through there. I used some accordion tubing to protect the wiring.

You can fold down the rear seat back. Below the rear seat outboard head rests between the seat back and the back wall of the cab are latches for the seat back. They are tricky to manipulate, but you can get them released so you can fold the seat back forward. Check YouTube for some videos of how to do this. Some car stereo installers are using the back wall of the cab to install amplifiers. There's not much space between the seat back and cab wall, but you might be able to remote mount some radios there.

However, I have not gone that route...yet. An XLT with "captains chairs" gets two separate front seats with a console between. I just took out that console and installed a Jotto Desk Lazy-L console. My radios, for now, are in the console. You don't have this option because I believe the Raptor has the "flow through" console that has HVAC ducting running to the back seats.

A guy at work has a black Raptor. He doesn't get to drive it much because his wife takes it from him. She likes big trucks!
 

AK9R

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Read the Geotool web site very carefully about installing his mounts on newer F150s. He leads you believe that it can be done, but it's not a straightforward process.
 

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I got a 2013 F-150 supercrew a couple of months ago. I used the Pro Fit vehicle specific NMO antenna mounts for my scanner and Ham radio. Unfortunately they are designed for the left side, so when I reversed one for the right side it looks a little "backward" if you really concentrate on looking at it. Nothing I couldn't live with.

I didn't want to drill holes in a new vehicle and I have a garage door clearance issue, so I chose this option.

Antenna Mounts for Trucks and SUV's, NMO Mounts and Fender Mounts

I believe the model I used was FO2ANTPF

The scanner, a Uniden 996XT, is mounted in the center console. I have the remote head and it fits perfectly in the space just below the heater control knobs, after you remove the snap-in panel. It almost looks like a factory installed option.

The amateur radio, which I don't use very much, is a Moto VHF mounted in the console. It's a little inconvenient to lift the lid for changing channels, adjusting volume, etc. But it is out of sight and out of mind for security purposes.

On the wiring, I ran a separate circuit off the battery for the radios, which is on a relay and is on ignition sense.

The scanner has an amplified speaker and is under the driver's seat. The amateur radio is under the passenger seat. Plenty of volume.
 

AK9R

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Jay, if you want to put your TM-D710's control head closer to eye level, you might consider this mount:

Ford F-150 2009-2014 ProClip Center Mount - ProClip USA

I'm using one of these mounts in my F150 and it's very handy having the D710 head up where I can see it. I attached the base of the standard D710 control head mount to the flat plate on the ProClip mount and then attached the D710 control head to its mount. If the Raptor has the same storage tray in the top center of the dashboard, you can lift out the rubber liner, drill a hole, and run the control head cables down into the dashboard to get them out of the way.
 

Jay911

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Now that's an interesting device. I'd seen people talk about ProClip before but I didn't know they were like that. I'm gonna have to look into that one. ) And yes, that storage tray is present.

Thanks everyone for the great ideas!
 

Jay911

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The truck is great... first snow of the year right now but sadly I'm cooped up with either a bug or food poisoning... no desire to risk dirtying the interior quite yet ;)

As for the radio installs, as I said, I've still been fighting some sickness (and working when I'm not sick) so I haven't done much yet. I've picked up some ProClips (two) and am looking at fixing the Uniden HP mount to one, and the beavertail mount for the Kenwood radio to the other, perhaps today, prior to installing them on the truck maybe tomorrow.

Still working on antenna solutions. I have a Spectrum Force magmount that I thought would be OK for the scanner, but it turns out the Raptor fenders are plastic and the hood aluminum, so no magnetism. I tried putting the antenna on the short section of roof between the windshield and moonroof, but it's about 3" too tall for my garage and either flops over and falls to the side of the truck, or stays on but has a permanent bend in it from being pushed over at the coil. I'm now contemplating an Austin Spectra using a Profit fender mount. I've ordered the Profit mount, but holding off on the antenna immediately because I need to figure out what I can mount inside the Profit. From the images I've seen of the Profit, the hole in it might be too small for the cable/NMO mount I can find to fit the Spectra. Plus, I am wondering if 12' of cable (terminated in BNC, boooo Scanner Master :/ ) is long enough to reach from the left fender, across the engine bay to the pass-thru grommet, and then thru my dash halfway again to reach the scanner.
 

AK9R

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I've ordered the Profit mount, but holding off on the antenna immediately because I need to figure out what I can mount inside the Profit. From the images I've seen of the Profit, the hole in it might be too small for the cable/NMO mount I can find to fit the Spectra. Plus...
Most NMO cable adapters (the part that has the threads to which the antenna attaches and then has a cable to connect to the radio) are made for 3/4" diameter holes. The images of the Pro-Fit mounts appear to have 3/4" diameter holes.
 

Jay911

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Scanner Master's NMO hole mount (the cable and threaded base) mentions it requires a 3/8" hole, and there is a review specifically giving them grief for this. Guess I'll try to find a different one.
 

AK9R

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The standard NMO mount sold by Larsen, Maxrad, Antenex, etc., use a 3/4" hole though they sell versions that use a 3/8" hole because some installers prefer that type. I've owned NMO mounts from Diamond and they also are designed for a 3/4" hole.
 
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