2020 Chevy Silverado install

[slowmover]

How did you clean out the metal shavings and feed the coax through?

Fishtape (Eletrical Tool Supply).
You’ll use it elsewhere.

 

[HM1529]

Makes me jealous. I wish I could drill on my F-150, but my job has a parking garage. But isn't the hardest part pulling down the headliner?

Sti-Co Flexi-whip?

 

[jim202]

I always pull off the external rear bed light off the cab roof to do antenna installs on pickup trucks. It lets you look inside the area between the roof and the head liner. Then it allows you to also snake the rear corner to run your coax down. You only have to possibly open up the molding at the rear bottom corner if the whole area is sealed up. Then you can grab the snake and tie on a wire on to it. Pull the wire back up to the rear bed light hole. Then connect the coax cable to the wire and pull down to the floor.

If your installing more than one antenna, you can attach another wire to the end of the coax before you pull it into the corner post to allow another coax cable to be pulled in. Keep doing this for as many coax cables you need to install.

 

[OhSixTJ]

I always pull off the external rear bed light off the cab roof to do antenna installs on pickup trucks. It lets you look inside the area between the roof and the head liner. Then it allows you to also snake the rear corner to run your coax down. You only have to possibly open up the molding at the rear bottom corner if the whole area is sealed up. Then you can grab the snake and tie on a wire on to it. Pull the wire back up to the rear bed light hole. Then connect the coax cable to the wire and pull down to the floor.

the problem is you can’t do that on this particular truck.

 

[03msc]

I always pull off the external rear bed light off the cab roof to do antenna installs on pickup trucks. It lets you look inside the area between the roof and the head liner. Then it allows you to also snake the rear corner to run your coax down. You only have to possibly open up the molding at the rear bottom corner if the whole area is sealed up. Then you can grab the snake and tie on a wire on to it. Pull the wire back up to the rear bed light hole. Then connect the coax cable to the wire and pull down to the floor.

If your installing more than one antenna, you can attach another wire to the end of the coax before you pull it into the corner post to allow another coax cable to be pulled in. Keep doing this for as many coax cables you need to install.

Doesn’t on many trucks these days. My 2015 Silverado you can’t see more than about 6 inches into the cab.

Used to could back in the day. No more for most trucks

 

[jhooten]

Okay, you have the cable to the edge of the headliner. The A and B-pillars in the four door cabs have airbags in them. Which way did you go to get the cable down without interfering with the bags?

 

[jhooten]

How did you clean out the metal shavings and feed the coax through?

Use a shop vac as you drill the hole. Cuts way down on the clean up.

 

[mmckenna]

mmckenna, where did you find a black NMO2/70SH. Thats what i want.

I didn't. It was chrome, but I swapped the cone and spring from a different model to match a setup on my work truck. As stated, you can buy black cones and springs, but the whip is chrome. They did use to make a dual band 2 meter/70 centimeter all black shorty, but it had an open coil in the center and no spring. I'm not sure if those are still available.

 

[mmckenna]

Makes me jealous. I wish I could drill on my F-150, but my job has a parking garage. But isn't the hardest part pulling down the headliner?

Unless the parking garage is very low clearance (as in a few inches) it's not a problem. Use a 1/4 wave VHF whip (will act as a 3/4 wave on 70cm) and they will flex just fine. My dad has a 2018 Chevy Silverado and it gets parked in the garage every day. He's got the 1/4 wave whip on it. No damage to the mount/antenna after 2+ years of doing it.

And you don't need to pull down the head liner. I've never done that on any of these trucks.

 

[mmckenna]

Safety update....not certain about the Ford pickup, but the Explorer (newer models) have embedded crash senors in the door pillars (Front). If somehow damaged on installation, they can cause the airbags to deploy. (Please don't ask how I know that!)

Part of the job of installing is to make sure you don't damage anything and know where you are routing cable. I've done installs on a couple of F-350's, (2017 and 2018's) and no issues. I always ran the cable down the back corner of the cab to the RF decks behind the seats.

 

[mmckenna]

How did you clean out the metal shavings and feed the coax through?

Shop vac.
Or, as OhSixTJ said, just leave them there. There isn't a lot of metal shaving generated by the NMO hole saws. It's a real thin kerf blade and most of it ends up on top. On the steel body trucks, you can just use a magnet to get most of it.

 

[CanesFan95]

Believe me, I'd love to do a roof install. I really just don't wanna be dingin' in the parking garage every day. I only have about 8-9 inches of extra clearance before I'll be dinging.

 

[CanesFan95]

I once had a bad experience in a parking garage years ago. I had a Wilson 1000 CB anetnna on the trunk and was not a bad antenna. One day driving up the parking garage, it was dinging as usual and somehow got snagged/caught in the sprinkler pipes and got yanked off the truck and coax ripped apart. Thank God that wasn't an NMO or it might have done damage to the trunk.

 

[kb4mdz]

Makes me jealous. I wish I could drill on my F-150, but my job has a parking garage. But isn't the hardest part pulling down the headliner?

Did lots of installs over the last mmmm, 26 years. Rarely had to pull down the headliner. Very rarely. Pulled plastic trim off the sides and the windshield pillars and used a 6 ft or so metal fishtape to feed from the new antenna hole toward the open area, with the coax taped smoothly to the fish.

Biggest and most important is placing the hole; centered side to side, and away from the cross-ribs. That's where removing the dome light can help. Clue: Use a roll of electrical tape on the roof and step back and see if it's centered side-to-side.

And do be careful pulling off plastic trims; some pplastics are really chea.p and snap easily.

Have Ripley hole saw, will travel for beer (but not very far)

 

[mmckenna]

Have Ripley hole saw, will travel for beer (but not very far)

That's my retirement plan. Travel the country in an RV doing proper antenna installs for hobbyists.

 

[CanesFan95]

I still have a hard time visualizing how to not have to pull down the headliner. Instead of " Just drill the damn hole.", maybe the signature could say "Just pull down the damn headliner."

 

[mmckenna]

I still have a hard time visualizing how to not have to pull down the headliner. Instead of " Just drill the damn hole.", maybe the signature could say "Just pull down the damn headliner."

There's usually a bit of space between the headliner and the roof of the vehicle. In fact, I'm having a hard time remembering the last time I had to pull down a headliner on a vehicle. If you were doing a ton of mounts on one vehicle, it would make some sense to do it to get the cable routing done right, but for one or two NMO mounts, it's usually not an issue.

 

[n0xvz]

That's my retirement plan. Travel the country in an RV doing proper antenna installs for hobbyists.

Retire soon. I need some work done...

 

[mmckenna]

Retire soon. I need some work done...

Gimme 10 years or so, still having way too much fun at work.

 

[CanesFan95]

So mmckenna, am I seeing this right, you like encryption?