Assistance Needed: Having difficulty locating the through cabin grommets for 2-Way Radio

[GTGallop]

Hey - Hoping someone here can help. First order of business in the new Ranger is getting my Ham Radio installed. My chief issue is where to pass power and antenna cables through the floor, firewall, and / or rear wall between the cabin and bed. Was this truck built without any Blub-Plugs or Grommets? It would be an awesome platform for Police Departments and Search and Rescue or even Fleet/Service Trucks. I can't imagine Ford didn't plan ahead for wires to pass through.

Your help in locating these is greatly appreciated. THANK YOU!

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[dmeyer302]

If there’s an “approved” place to do this, I don’t know about it. However, there’s an easy place to drill a hole.

 

[GTGallop]

TKS! I'm open to drilling but that's not the first option. If I do, I'll make the hole bigger and put a grommet in so it seals up and the sheet metal doesn't chafe the wire and cause a short.

 

[Msfitoy]

You run cables from the outside in...these are my CB and SW...

 

[Trey1940]

If you've never used a grommet piercing tool, it's worth three times what it costs. I went through the right side of the main harness grommet about midway between the wires and the edge and ran a scrap piece of 16 gauge wire through it. From there, I soaped up an 8-wire jacketed cable and pulled it back through the hole. Snug, watertight fit that will never chafe.

For power on my ham install, I used fuse taps right from the fuse panel under the steering wheel, there are 20 amp circuits available for both ignition hot and constant hot, as well as plenty of bolts nearby to ground to.

Where are you mounting the antenna? I drilled a permanent mount in the middle of my roof so I didn't have to run the antenna cable through anything, but assuming you can assemble the PL-259 plug after you've run the cable, you can run the antenna cable through the main harness the same way I did with the 8-wire cable.

If you need any pictures let me know!

 

[GTGallop]

For power on my ham install, I used fuse taps right from the fuse panel under the steering wheel, there are 20 amp circuits available for both ignition hot and constant hot, as well as plenty of bolts nearby to ground to.

Interesting... I've always wanted to do that but was told we always run radios directly from the battery to cut out any interference. Are you happy with that install? No hum? Low noise floor? If so, I'm going to look at doing that. And thank you for the tip about the GPT!

 

[JonB]

I have an Icom ID-5100 in my Ranger. The head is on a dash vent mount. The radio body is under the passenger seat. The wiring goes from the battery through a grommet on the lower right (passenger) side of the firewall. From there it sneaks over to the radio body. I built a custom antenna mount that attaches to the left rear frame. No holes in the body. Under the "electronics" forum there is a whole discussion of this including pictures of my installation and others.

Jon
KC9OO

 

[Trey1940]

Interesting... I've always wanted to do that but was told we always run radios directly from the battery to cut out any interference. Are you happy with that install? No hum? Low noise floor? If so, I'm going to look at doing that. And thank you for the tip about the GPT!

It's been just fine! No hum or other weirdness in either direction. I'd imagine the hot side of the fuse block would come directly from the battery, so I'm sure the route isn't very circuitous (heh). Mine is a temporary install, I'm eventually going to run a distribution block to the rear seat area because my Whelen Cantrol needs like 50 amps of fused power under the seat adjacent to where my radio chassis is mounted.

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