It took me a while but I have finally got my two Uniden scanners (a BCD996XT and a BCT15) installed in my new Ford Escape in a way that has them hidden from sight but still fully functional. I've also installed two BC-RH96 remote heads (well, just one at the moment; the second one is still in the mail), a Garmin 18x GPS puck antenna and a Carcam dash camera. It's all hardwired in with a West Mountain Radio RigRunner 4008 and switched to turn on and off with the ignition with a Power Werx APO3 auto switch. Loving it! Here's some pics:
I started with a wiring diagram so that I would remember what the heck I was doing as I went. It's not a full-on electrical schematic, but it served my purposes nicely.
I used an orange crate (tangerine crate, really) that you can get in the grocery store as a base to hold the two scanners. The long side of the crate matches perfectly the width of the scanners once you remove the outer sleeve from them. I "finished" it off with some wood to complete the frame then wrapped it in electrical tape for two reasons: one, it's black; two, when wrapped three times around the electrical tape becomes a bit of a cushion for the scanners to rest on, lessening vibration.
Next I needed to locate a hole in the firewall of the Escape to run power from the battery. I decided I wanted the power for everything to be on a completely different circuit from the built-in Ford electronics. I found a rubber gasket behind and above the brake pedal that could be removed and replaced very easily, yet sat snugly in place. I poked a hole in it with a small screwdriver then ran the wire through it.
The hole from the engine side so you can see its relative position to the battery. There's a ground screw to the left of the white brake fluid jug; that's where I attached my ground wire.
The next step was getting the centre console removed so that I could run wires alongside the transmission shifter and fuse box, out of sight where they wouldn't look ugly. There are six clips holding that sucker in place, and removing them the first time was – honestly – the hardest part of this whole process. In this pic you can see the scanners already loosely in place (a test fit of the orange crate). Ignore the 12V DC splitter, that was just holding the scanners upright.
There's a small hole in the plastic underlining of the console (I assume leftover from the manufacturing process) so I decided I would make this hole larger and run all of my wires through it.
Once all the wiring was done, it looked like this:
There is one wire at the bottom there that isn't sheathed for protection from the sharp edges of the enlarged hole. That's because it's the cable for one of the BC-RH96 remote heads. Once the second one arrives (hopefully by the end of the week), I'll wrap them both up together for protection.
Next I used some industrial strength Velcro to stick my DIY Altoids audio mixer into place. You can see the mixer in this thread: http://forums.radioreference.com/pictures-your-shack-mobile-setup/226060-my-mobile-home-shacks.html
While I had the console cover off, I removed the Microsoft Sync badge from near the front and used the holes as the mounting point for the BC-RH96 remote head(s):
Once everything was reassembled the scanners looked pretty good in place, and with the lid closed would be well hidden.
The last thing I did was hook up the power. The wires from the battery run to the APO3 auto switch and then to the RigRunner. The APO3 monitors voltage and when the ignition is on and the battery voltage exceeds 13V it switches on the power to the RigRunner and from there it is distributed to all of the devices, including the GPS antenna and the Carcam. Here's a pic of all the wiring in place under the dash, well forward in the passenger footwell and close to the centre behind the fuse box. I took the cover off just for the pic so you can also the wires running past:
The whole thing works perfectly. Here's a video of it all being powered on with the ignition: Uniden Scanners Hardwired in 2012 Ford Escape - YouTube. And here's a video of it being powered off: Uniden Scanners Hardwired in 2012 Ford Escape Part 2 - YouTube.
I'm very happy with the way it all turned out.
I started with a wiring diagram so that I would remember what the heck I was doing as I went. It's not a full-on electrical schematic, but it served my purposes nicely.
I used an orange crate (tangerine crate, really) that you can get in the grocery store as a base to hold the two scanners. The long side of the crate matches perfectly the width of the scanners once you remove the outer sleeve from them. I "finished" it off with some wood to complete the frame then wrapped it in electrical tape for two reasons: one, it's black; two, when wrapped three times around the electrical tape becomes a bit of a cushion for the scanners to rest on, lessening vibration.
Next I needed to locate a hole in the firewall of the Escape to run power from the battery. I decided I wanted the power for everything to be on a completely different circuit from the built-in Ford electronics. I found a rubber gasket behind and above the brake pedal that could be removed and replaced very easily, yet sat snugly in place. I poked a hole in it with a small screwdriver then ran the wire through it.
The hole from the engine side so you can see its relative position to the battery. There's a ground screw to the left of the white brake fluid jug; that's where I attached my ground wire.
The next step was getting the centre console removed so that I could run wires alongside the transmission shifter and fuse box, out of sight where they wouldn't look ugly. There are six clips holding that sucker in place, and removing them the first time was – honestly – the hardest part of this whole process. In this pic you can see the scanners already loosely in place (a test fit of the orange crate). Ignore the 12V DC splitter, that was just holding the scanners upright.
There's a small hole in the plastic underlining of the console (I assume leftover from the manufacturing process) so I decided I would make this hole larger and run all of my wires through it.
Once all the wiring was done, it looked like this:
There is one wire at the bottom there that isn't sheathed for protection from the sharp edges of the enlarged hole. That's because it's the cable for one of the BC-RH96 remote heads. Once the second one arrives (hopefully by the end of the week), I'll wrap them both up together for protection.
Next I used some industrial strength Velcro to stick my DIY Altoids audio mixer into place. You can see the mixer in this thread: http://forums.radioreference.com/pictures-your-shack-mobile-setup/226060-my-mobile-home-shacks.html
While I had the console cover off, I removed the Microsoft Sync badge from near the front and used the holes as the mounting point for the BC-RH96 remote head(s):
Once everything was reassembled the scanners looked pretty good in place, and with the lid closed would be well hidden.
The last thing I did was hook up the power. The wires from the battery run to the APO3 auto switch and then to the RigRunner. The APO3 monitors voltage and when the ignition is on and the battery voltage exceeds 13V it switches on the power to the RigRunner and from there it is distributed to all of the devices, including the GPS antenna and the Carcam. Here's a pic of all the wiring in place under the dash, well forward in the passenger footwell and close to the centre behind the fuse box. I took the cover off just for the pic so you can also the wires running past:
The whole thing works perfectly. Here's a video of it all being powered on with the ignition: Uniden Scanners Hardwired in 2012 Ford Escape - YouTube. And here's a video of it being powered off: Uniden Scanners Hardwired in 2012 Ford Escape Part 2 - YouTube.
I'm very happy with the way it all turned out.