FTM-500D into Jeep Renegade

[KD7RJC]

This was my experience installing a Yaesu FTM-500DR into a 2015 Jeep Renegade Trailhawk.

The single most difficult part was figuring out where to put the control head. I didn't want to go with a cupholder mount, the overhead console wasn't as suited as it was in my 2015 Frontier, and I wanted it to look as close to fac'try as possible.

I settled on the mostly empty switch panel below the radio. This switch panel on this particular Renegade has only the hazard switch in it, the other eight positions are unpopulated. Since the hazard switch is important this meant relocating the hazard switch function up to a new button installed up between the center HVAC ducts, and since the switch is just a momentary telling the computer to turn on the hazards there weren't any OEM-type hazard switches that would do the job. I did find such a switch on Amazon, one of those kits with a bunch of possible labels to use.

This is the switch panel as it started:



The cable connector uses yellow for 12V power to the light on the models that don't have heated seats, green with red stripe for the sense-wire for the switch, and black with violet stripe for the ground for both the light and the switch:



The switch panel itself pulled apart:


The dash without the switch panel along with the alignment of the switch panel individual switch positions:




And with a clone of the YSK-7800 head separation mounting plate:




...to be continued...

 

[KD7RJC]

...continuing...

I had to make room in the HVAC register housing for the new location of the hazard switch.




The black plastic rods that stick towards the center and have metal slides on them required rework to clear where the switch would go (large nut):


I filed and cut grooves to let me mount the metal slider in a different position:




Then I bent the metal and test-fit before cutting the plastic rods shorter:




This left room for the switch to be installed in the front of the HVAC ducts:



...to be continued...

 

[KD7RJC]

...continuing...

A friend of mine helped chose a resistor to step-down the voltage to the LED so it wouldn't be so bright, then we soldered the wires to some breadboard jumper wires that I socketed into a 2x5 header that fit neatly up against the factory header:



we heatshrinked over the joint and put zip-ties on so it wouldn't be able to easily back out.

Final result for moving the hazard switch:




Now I can actually start the radio install itself.

 

[KD7RJC]

On to the install...

I actually started with the antenna, I was holding off until I figured out what I wanted to do. After visiting a hamfest and seeing a hatchback SUV with an antenna mount that looked promising I ended up buying the Comet RS-730. It had the most options for orienting the bracket, and was part of a kit that includes a cable.



Ended up taking apart the mount and reversing the orientation of the triangular piece relative to the bracket it bolts to, this gave clearance to the taillight for the thumbscrew.



At the bottom of the liftgate there are standoffs that are used to adjust the hatch relative to the opening. These are keyhole-shaped and there's room for the necked-down wire to clear the standoff once everything is back together.


I fished the cable up and through the hatch, over to the rubber cable passthrough to the body, and around above the headliner down to the rear cargo area bulkhead.









Cable at the standoff on the hatch:



...to be continued...

 

[KD7RJC]

...continuing...

Antenna installed:




And I can rotate the antenna to vertical with the hatch open if I want to, when parked somewhere:


This Jeep has an auxiliary fuse panel located in the rear driver's side bulkhead in the cargo area. Since this particular Renegade doesn't have a lot of features, the only fuse installed is a 30A job for the power inverter. The line-side has two sockets populated with terminals ganged together, the load-side has only the terminal for the inverter, the second socket is unpopulated.


I took a meter to it and found that it's connected to battery, unswitched. Consulting the manual and opening the fuse panel under the hood there's a 70A fuse and a large gauge wire supplying to this aux fuse panel. This is how I'm going to power the radio. I ordered a junkyard-pull fuse panel from a more upoptioned vehicle for parts and stripped it down.








For anyone who cares, this fuse block is from an Italian manufacturer called MTA, and is part number 0301564. The terminals appear to be common MTA terminals for mini-fuses.

...to be continued...

 

[KD7RJC]

...continuing, back to the control head.

I started with the 8C modular cable. I had to pull the dash left side cover, the A-pillar insert, the driver's kick panel, the driver's knee bolster, the driver's rocker cover, the middle panel on the driver's B-pillar, loosening the driver's side lower B-pillar at the rocker, and loosening the rear door rocker cover. I fished my cable pulling rod up from the door to tie on the cable on the spool in the cargo area, pulling it in to the rear door opening:








Then after I made sure to feed the cable through the factory cable management loops I pushed it through the area under the B-pillar plastic and up through the driver's sill and up past the kick-panel, across a metal bit of structure, then into the center stack:










The two holes circled in green were drilled to bolt the YSK-7800 clone mounting plate to.

...to be continued...

 

[KD7RJC]

...continuing...

Modifications to make the switch panel hold an 8P8C coupler:






Similar holes driled in the old switch panel, enlarged to clear the screws:


And mounting plate screwed on:


I may end up putting some paint on the screw heads and washers so they're less visible, we'll see how much the vehicle is used without the control head installed though. If it's always on then I might leave it be.

Control head:


...to be continued...

 

[KD7RJC]

...and finally installing the radio itself, tying it all together.

In hindsight I should have installed the radio into the passenger's side cargo area bulkhead, and put the antenna on the driver's side. It would have been easier to physically install it without having to be as concerned about clearing the fuse block.

Drilled and riveted the factory bracket to the sheet metal, since there already are factory rivets in this area:


I ended up adding a terminal connector and stub of a wire to the fuse block:


Clearance to the seatbelt mechanism and fuse block:


And radio installed:


It's alive!







I tested with my SWR meter on 146.540 and 440.600, got 1.00 and 1.01 respectively with the Comet antenna. I'd call that a success.

I hadn't yet programmed the radio so I haven't really used it much yet, receive is excellent listening to others.

Only major thing left, I need to figure out where to mount the handmic hanger. But that's comparatively minor an issue.

 

[jeepsandradios]

Looks like a good install. I still can't get into the 500 but I'm old and like the 400 display.

 

[KD7RJC]

Looks like a good install. I still can't get into the 500 but I'm old and like the 400 display.

I had considered the 400 but by the time I got off my butt to start doing this they weren't available new anymore. Yaesu had put the FTM-500 on sale and I ended up buying two so I could upfit two vehicles.

FTM-400s come up for sale on the offerup/craigslist classifieds and at hamfests but sellers are wanting as much for them as for the 500. For now I sort of understand that since if someone just missed the boat and wants one there's a very limited supply, but a lot of other radios have sales asking-prices the same or even higher than they are brand new right now. I've seen FTM-500Ds at hamfests and on sites like ebay where the asking price is more than I paid for the radio new-in-box that I put in the Jeep.

It really was the combination of the speaker integrated into the control head and the handmic jack on the control head that made this appeal from the Yaesu point of view, and that the 3rd party repop of the YSK-7800 mounting plate fits the 500's control head sealed the deal. And of course the use of commodity 'modular' cable that I either had or could get cheap.

I may end up testing how tolerant the FTM-500D is to having a Y-adapter and a second cable on the control head cabling, I'd like to put an 8P8C jack in the plastic bulkhead and a short length of cable to that Y-adapter plugged directly into the radio body, so that if we are ever operating at a campsite or in a park we could just take the control head off the dash, string a cheap Ethernet cable from the cargo area to a picnic table or something, and plug in and operate that way. But it would need to be good even with the ~20' of cable running up to the dash as essentially an open bridge tap. If it doesn't like that then I'd have to unplug the existing, but that wouldn't be too bad either, just not as automatic.

 

[KD7RJC]

Had a chance to test it today, made a contact on a repeater in the 70cm band around 10 miles away. I was originally transmitting at 25W and the contact said that I was crystal-clear and suggested try low power, at 5W I was also crystal clear. So sounds like I lucked into a good install.

Also, if you want to use one of those dashboard magnetic phone mounts for a Yaesu handmic, I found that a 5mm fender washer fits on the back side of the handmic up against the stock plastic button and the factory screw will hold it on, the screw head protruding only barely. It seems enough to hold the handmic solidly on the "APPS2CAR" magnetic phone holders I have installed. I may add another magnet dash mount to free-up where the passenger's phone goes, we'll see.