Commuter Durango

Been a member of the site for a while. Just thought I would throw in my set up. The vehicle is an 06 Durango Limited that I picked up for a commuter. Very low mileage and garage kept.
I have a Kenwood TK-790 (VHF) / Tk-890 (UHF) put together with a control head in the dash and one in the back lift gate area. This set up works great for me. It will hold 160 channels total. I have a bank for local Public Service, two meter and 440 Ham. There is a bank for all the NOAA Weather frequencies. A bank for GMRS. A bank with all the two meter and 440 repeater pair combinations for my area. I also have a bank for receive that covers all the FRS and Dot frequencies for amusement. I have separate scan lists for each bank. What I like with the Kenwood is that you can scan as many frequencies as you want. The setup will do a fixed cross band repeat. It will do multiple PL tones.It is very easy to operate and has a 14 character display. The antennas are a 1/4 wave for two meter and a Laird Phantom for UHF,

The next radio is a Motorola CDM4550 that has the head remote mounted on the console. This covers UHF and is for Ham DMR and a back up Public Service monitor. The antenna is the UHF quarter wave on the right side.

The last Radio is a n Icom IC-706mkIIg. It is remote head mounted also. I used a Pan-A-Vise cell phone mount fro the Head to mount to. The Radio is under the front passenger seat. My antenna for this is a Tar Heel mounted to an Opek deck and hatch mount. There is also a braided strap from the hatch to the main body. Works very well. This give me HF and six meters.

All the radio decks are behind the second row seats. There is a Otpima Yellow top batter that handles all the power requirements for the Radios. There is a 8 gauge wire coming from the main battery. It goes to a 100 amp solenoid that is operated by a voltage sensitive relay. When the main battery reaches 13.8 volts, the relay will energize and when the voltage drops below 13.8, the relay falls out. I have a pillar post voltage gauge that monitors the voltage of the auxiliary battery.
Another little feature is the trailer hitch plug. It is the seven pin style for large trailers etc. The socket has a 12 volt supply all the time. I purchased a connector at the local auto parts. Wired in a pig tail with Anderson power poles. Now I can plug a charger in or use to supply most any 12 volt accessory.

If you insist on carrying that battery in the passenger compartment, may I suggest making those battery terminals safe by insulating them, and consider placing the battery inside an enclosure...

Battery Boxes - BatteryMart.com

Battery is an accident looking to happen.

I am obviously missing something. Why do you need a charger or accessory at your trailer hitch?

The battery is secured with a bracket to the seat track bolts. I will get a cover for the positive terminal. Also won't post anything else here.

HummerMike said:

The battery is secured with a bracket to the seat track bolts. I will get a cover for the positive terminal. Also won't post anything else here.

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Hey Mike. Everything mentioned on this thread was given with the utmost respect and really is positive criticism and should be taken as positive feedback. Electronic techs and engineers tend to give their honest opinion even when its not asked for. And we tend to look for ways to improve on anything. So please don't take it as a slam and feel open and free to post on this site. I wouldn't leave because one of us rubbed you the wrong way. It was not the intent.

I happen to think the radios and antenna set up are very nice. I'm kind of interested how you have the Kenwood control head installed/anchored in the dash. I too was not crazy about the spare battery set up being in the passenger area - to me it was more cosmetic. Might be better if it was moved to the rear cargo area? Maybe mounted and enclosed in wooden box/platform?

Other than that, please take the "criticism" from people as something constructive. No one hear means any harm by their suggestions!

Mike

Nice install Mike! I like! As " Gone fishn " said we meant no harm, just good old fashioned critiquing, as a lot of us have installs as nice or not, as yours. Don't let this put a damper on your experience here ok? Nice job on the photos too. 73, n9zas .

Thanks for a lift up. I was just trying to give my take on an install. I spend two hours a day, six days a week in this vehicle. I am an old Ham. This is my mobile shack. I am currently assembling a 300 watt solid state amplifier that will reside on the left side foot well. I need the second battery for all my mobile shack power requirements.
Yes, the battery looks a little scary in the pic. I went with the AGM battery for safety since it is in the car compartment. I do need to get the positive wiring a little better tidying up and insulate the positive. I have no option for a battery box where it is located. This space works perfect. Again, it is behind the second row seats. Another words, in the foot well of the third row seats. I keep the third row seats folded down for added carry space in the back.I still have 4 bucket seats for people. You don't even see the radios and battery when the third row seat is down.
The pig tail off the trailer plug gives me a 12 volt source while tailgating at a Ham Fest so to try out radios. I also have a small AC inverter and DC air compressor that I have mated to the Anderson Power Poles.
The Kenwood dual band radio head is mounted in a double single din radio adapter. I have a Pioneer Stereo with Navigation in the top slot. It works great. I built up the Kenwood TK set up from pieces I gathered over a years time. The VHF RF deck came out of a Canadian low power TK-790 with the 136-156Mhz split. I took the deck and installed in a 110 watt 148-174Mhz case. This gives me a perfect split for two meter ham and still covers public service and receives NOAA well also.
My next addition is a Bluetooth set up to switch between the three control heads to allow hands free talk back. I will use one of the original steering wheel radio buttons for key up. Hopefully the three hand mics will stay in the console storage.

Is the guage cluster on your door pillar after market, or an option? That's cool! Didn't have that in my Durango when I had it. 73, n9zas

It's after market. It is a universal three pod. It and the gauges came from GlowShift. The Durango has no factory Oil Pressure read out. I wanted oil pressure and to monitor the voltage of the second battery. The volt gauge comes on when either of the two VHF or UHF radios are turned on.
Even though the radio / navigation screen goes to a night time dark screen, I still, most of the time, keep the screen folded down at night. So, I added the clock on the pillar post to keep up with time .

What were your reasons for using a separate battery instead of running a lead from the vehicle battery to a power block of some sort? Serious question.

03msc said:

What were your reasons for using a separate battery instead of running a lead from the vehicle battery to a power block of some sort? Serious question.

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I have a a Second 1000cca battery with a transfer switch under the hood of my C2500. Redundancy is a good thing! Look under the hood of any Ambulance or service vehicle. . 73, n9zas

My reason for the second battery is that I don't take any chance of running the cranking battery down with my radios. I may turn he Kenwood set up on and turn the grill speaker on while I'm outside in the yard working. Hams like to set up and operate from mountain tops etc. to make contacts. I'm one of those. Also with HF operating SSB or AM the noise from the ignition and alternator is always an obstacle to overcome.

Picture the alternator charging the main battery. The main battery makes a fine filter capacitor. Now from the main battery post through the cable to the rear battery, there are 6 fer-rite chokes on this cable. A RF choke of sort to get rid of ignition noise. Then to the second battery which acts as a large filter capacitor also. This is my reasoning and it seems to work. I have none, what so ever ignition or alternator issues on my HF Radio.

HummerMike said:

My reason for the second battery is that I don't take any chance of running the cranking battery down with my radios. I may turn he Kenwood set up on and turn the grill speaker on while I'm outside in the yard working. Hams like to set up and operate from mountain tops etc. to make contacts. I'm one of those. Also with HF operating SSB or AM the noise from the ignition and alternator is always an obstacle to overcome.

Picture the alternator charging the main battery. The main battery makes a fine filter capacitor. Now from the main battery post through the cable to the rear battery, there are 6 fer-rite chokes on this cable. A RF choke of sort to get rid of ignition noise. Then to the second battery which acts as a large filter capacitor also. This is my reasoning and it seems to work. I have none, what so ever ignition or alternator issues on my HF Radio.

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OK, cool. I wasn't questioning you in any accusatory manner, I was just wondering your particular reason. I figured there had to be a reason!

Good deal. Didn't take it that way at all. I have got many great ideas off of this site. I followed WX4EMT's Tahoe build from the start. Don't mind sharing what little I have come across over the years.

Mike

HummerMike said:

My reason for the second battery is that I don't take any chance of running the cranking battery down with my radios. I may turn he Kenwood set up on and turn the grill speaker on while I'm outside in the yard working. Hams like to set up and operate from mountain tops etc. to make contacts. I'm one of those. Also with HF operating SSB or AM the noise from the ignition and alternator is always an obstacle to overcome.

Picture the alternator charging the main battery. The main battery makes a fine filter capacitor. Now from the main battery post through the cable to the rear battery, there are 6 fer-rite chokes on this cable. A RF choke of sort to get rid of ignition noise. Then to the second battery which acts as a large filter capacitor also. This is my reasoning and it seems to work. I have none, what so ever ignition or alternator issues on my HF Radio.

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Been there done that to the battery a few times so your second battery is a great idea. Your setup is great!. How do you like your Motorola XPR radio?. It looks great where it's mounted, but I have heard (no pun intended) the internal speaker sucks and to use an external one. Also is that Velcro securing that radio?. Velcro is the savior on some of my vehicle radios.