so here was what i was thinking
The 2 rzr's i was looking into getting something similar to the Rugged Radio or PCI antenna kits. I have had that antenna you recommended in my shopping cart all day. I may pull the trigger. As far as the RZR's are concerned i am not trying nor expecting to get all the range i can. i only bought these units because i got a really good price on them. Id be happy if i can get enough range to keep the front/rear cars connected... the handhelds ALMOST do it for where we ride, but not quite. plus i like the idea of having stuff built in... I actually have the same light mounts already and think i have an extra laying around somewhere. What you did was what i was planning on doing.
Shop around. PCI/RR is very overpriced in my experience. They charge a lot for their "kits", and you can often find the individual items a lot cheaper.
That antenna has been a good performer and has taken a lot of abuse. I do most of my riding in the Sierra mountains, Eastern Sierra around Mono Lake/Mammoth Mountain, and a lot up east of Mt. Shasta. Lots of trees and lots of rough roads.
For the short range you want, thats a helluva lot of radio. If you got a good price, that's fine, but those are big RF decks. If you decide to scale them down a bit, let me know and there are some really good low priced alternatives. I've been buying used Motorola CDM-1250's and 1550's for around the $100 - $150 range. They'll do remote head and are quite a bit lighter. You can crank the power down on those too. If your hand held radios worked most of the time, adding an external antenna alone probably would have worked out well enough.
The mount has worked pretty well. I've got a few of them, but not sure why. They've done pretty well up there.
The truck i will leave the unit at full power, but i didnt even consider the permanent mount thing. Thats a good point and something i could do myself. I will need to look into if i need a bulkhead or whatnot. I assume they make a particular sealant/silicone too? I can definitely pull the head liner and install the mount thats not a concern. What antenna would you recommend in this case? i really dont want a 5' antenna on top of my daily driver. Again, im not that concerned with Maximum range but would like a decent amount for this vehicle. It is rare but ive been known to just take the back of the pack with the truck depending on where/what we are doing.
Installing your own NMO mount is pretty easy. You'll need a 3/4" hole saw or punch. You'll want to use a fairly fine tooth one, not one designed for wood. They sell specific NMO hole saws that have some depth limitation to them, which is good. You can get suitable metal rated hole saws from Home Depot, also. I've used those in a pinch at work. Just make sure it's a true 3/4 inch/0.750 inch hole saw. Some of the "3/4 trade size" ones are for 3/4" conduit fittings, and they are somewhere around 1 1/8". Good idea to do some practice holes on some old sheet metal if you can.
A properly installed NMO mount will not need any additional sealing. They have an O-ring in the base that will seal it. I've had them installed on all my vehicles since the early 1990's, and never had one leak.
After 30 years of doing this stuff for a living, I tend to stick with Larsen or Laird brand stuff. Never had them fail on me.
I use these mounts:
https://www.theantennafarm.com/catalog/larsen-nmok-9088
You'll need to install the connector yourself, or have someone do it for you. Having the connector installed last makes it much easier to install the cable, plus, you only use the amount of cable you actually need, no bundling it up under the dashboard somewhere.
As for the antenna, this is what I'm using on my personal truck. About 18" tall, so no problems:
That antenna will need to be cut/tuned for your frequencies, but that's easy to do. They include a cut chart with the antenna that gets you pretty darn close.
Mounted up on the top/center of the cab will give you excellent performance.
The toy hauler i already have a drive on flag pole that sits approx 10' or so above the trailer. I was looking into the cheaper Tram or what not base station antennas to use with my flag pole. As i dont forsee it being used very often (we do more day rides than overnight trips) and it wont be abused. I cant swallow the cost of a name brand base antenna. But the tram one is fairly inexpensive and would probably work out well
Probably good enough. Budgets are a real thing, so I understand. I do this stuff for a living, so spec'ing out higher end stuff comes pretty easy for me. I have seen some pretty crappy Tram branded stuff. I've talked to one of their sales guys at a trade show, and I'm not really sure he knew much about what he was selling. They are fine for hobby use, but not suitable for professional or public safety use by any means.
I called Kenwood and asked them about the unit and power consumption. They gave me the name to a local dealer who can turn the power down on the RZR ones for the cost of 1 hour labor (total for both units). I asked them for a quote for the antenna's and coax as well i just dont want to end up paying 3x as much as what is fair if you know what i mean.
Bench rates will be somewhere around the $85/hour or a bit more. Turning down the power on these is as easy as programming the channel for low power. The 110 watt mobiles run 110 or so on high and about 45 watts on low. If you can program yourself, you can save the money. If you don't have the software and cable, then it might be worth it to have the shop do it, but be aware they may/should ask to see your license.
A TK-790H running the full 110 watts is going to pull just under 25 amps while transmitting. At the low power setting (45 watts) it is going to pull about 12 amps. With a decent battery and not transmitting a whole lot, you'll be OK. Even at 110 watts, you would be using it in short bursts, so not that much different than running a small winch.
With the radio just sitting there not transmitting, it'll draw around 1 amp, maybe a bit more if you have the volume cranked up and someone is talking.
Ive known i need a license for the "sport" radios and have been looking into it. Its definitely on my radar as well as a non commercial class a.
Yeah, I'm fortunate that my trailer is rated right around 9900 lbs. I had a Class B for a while at work, but wasn't using it anymore and didn't want to keep going through the physicals for the renewal.
Heres a picture of the trailer and how we typically setup our flag pole.
That's a really nice looking trailer! We looked at those, but a 5th wheel was out of the question since I needed the bed clear for my son's buggy. When he was 12, we bought him a Polaris Ace 150. He outgrew that and I found him a 2016 Ace 570 a few months ago. That takes up most of the bed. The Ranger rides in the back of a Sandstorm 271. Looks like down in Southern California?
Im pretty mechanically inclined, and technically inclined. This is just something new to me that i know nothing about.
You shouldn't have a problem with this. Hard part is proper programming of the radio once you have your license. Soldering on antenna connectors can be a challenge, but paying a shop to do it and tune your antennas for you can be a good option. Doing that stuff right takes some skill and test equipment.
Only point I'd make is to make sure you secure the radios really well. They are heavy and will really bounce around. You'll want to through bolt them and make sure you put a large backer plate in there.