Any Ideas? GMRS mobile radio mounting locations

CDO275

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Good morning, did some searching this morning through the forums and didn't really see what I am looking for. I recently purchased a KG-1000G Wouxun 50 Watt GMRS radio for my TJ. I've sat in the jeep and contemplated mounting locations for the main body of the radio. Its decent size and will only fit a few places that I can see, just not much room in our TJS for things like this: Radio body is below.
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1) Inside the console: Plenty of room in there, however likely will get too hot and the radio might not be able to cool itself
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2) behind the console: out of the way, but not totally, passengers in back seat may bump, unit is exposed
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3) under the passenger seat: seems to be out of the way, will need to fabricate a bracket to mount to the seat bolt, wondering if the when the seat is moved forward if it will dislodge the radio. Anyone have their radio mounted or something mounted under the seat here?
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4) Under the glovebox to the side of the tub: kind of in the way?
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The head unit will be mounted at the top of the windshield header, just looking for some input and to see if anyone else has mounted one somewhere. I do not want to mount the radio on top of my dash, any input would be appreciated.
 
if your running a soft top and switch out to a hard top you just change the door surround bolts?
 
Lots of people mount stereo amplifiers under the steering column. Newer TJ's that came with satellite radio had that box mounted there also. I dont know if your controls are on the mic or if you need access to the box though.
 
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no picture handy, but I mounted my ham body on a bracket under the steering column behind the knee bolster. It wasn't the easiest getting there, but once there it is done. I expected to need an external speaker with that placement, but I can hear it just fine.

with that spot taken, when I break down and get the 1000g, i'll probably mount on the rear fender just behind the rear seat. under my seats gets wet from time to time :)

edit - haha, what viking said...
 
Lots of people mount stereo amplifiers under the steering column. Newer TJ's that came with satellite radio had that box mounted there also. I dont know if your controls are on the mic or if you need access to the box though.
I do not need access to the box, there is a remote head that contains all the controls
 
no picture handy, but I mounted my ham body on a bracket under the steering column behind the knee bolster. It wasn't the easiest getting there, but once there it is done. I expected to need an external speaker with that placement, but I can hear it just fine.

with that spot taken, when I break down and get the 1000g, i'll probably mount on the rear fender just behind the rear seat. under my seats gets wet from time to time :)

edit - haha, what viking said...
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I was thinking here too, I just dont know if my head unit cable is long enough, I know the battery wires definitely are not, but those could easily be extended, the head cable could not be.
 
I dont have it anymore but the satellite radio controller that I removed from under the steering column was about the same size as your radio and since you dont need access to the box, under the column seems ideal, close to the things you need it to be and completely hidden.
 
Don't have a picture of mine but I used industrial strength velcro and stuck it on the side of my console. GMRS on the drivers side and the intercom on the passenger side.
 
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Not sure of the size of the unit but I mounted my Midland on the divers side

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Mine was a little too big for this, but that’s 100% what i had planned to do. My radio body was a bit bigger and ended up under my seat.

I had planned a few other spots for when I could fabricate brackets to move it but still plan to leave it under the seat anyway.
 
I had one of these brackets initially before I bought the ARR overhead bar. Sold the bracket to someone here on the forum who used it for a cell phone mount. o_O

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With the detachable head faceplate, you have lots of options. I put my unit under the passenger seat. Nice location because it allows a shorter run to the antenna (mine is mounted on the back), so I got away with just 9' of coax. (But my antenna was on the passenger side too, mind you.) I can slide and tumble the seat without any problems.

I agree that inside the console is not ideal, but mainly because the speaker sound would be compromised. Unless you run an external speaker, of course.

Driver side footwell, as suggested above, might be nice too. Especially if you're mounting the antenna on the driver's side. You could also go below the driver's seat, of course. (Note: I think that 2003 and later models have lower seats than early models like mine, so YMMV.)

Arizona mount is popular, but not if you enjoy dropping the windshield, or swapping hard top and soft top. Plus, I think that the Arizona has less appeal when you can already control where your controls are by putting that faceplate just about anywhere you want.
 
I just looped them that way.

The Arizona Rocky Road antenna mount is essentially a rectangular steel tube with a few predrilled holes and brackets welded to each end. You can run wires through the tube for a clean install, and I recall drilling some additional holes so I could mount radios top and bottom. I ran the power wire through the tube, but not the coax for my two radios, which I hid behind the plastic windshield trim piece.

Since my photo was taken I've glued a couple of rare earth magnets to the ARR mount and glued steel washers on the back of my microphone hanger buttons so that I don't need microphone brackets - just hold the mic close to the magnet and it sticks/holds to the ARR tube.
 
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I have, and like, the ARR mount - I originally was going to make something similar out of a piece of unistrut, but then found out someone had a pre-made product.

With that said, I'm now thinking that the unistrut idea *MAY* have been better as it would act as a cable tray to route cables. I have my power cable, and two antenna leads inside the ARR mount - and that's about all I can do. Plus the screws that hold the radio brackets protrude into that space. Unistrut would have allowed more room for cables, easier to route, and one could use through bolts for radio brackets thus avoiding sharp screws. I'm now starting to tye-wrap cables to the outside/backside. I have 2 radios and an audio amp up there right now, and am contemplating a 10m rig up there as well.
 
I mounted my KG1000 under the driver's seat and put the remote face plate inside the arm rest storage area. Made a mic extension with standard network cable and have it mounted on the dash. I also have an external speaker mounted on the sport bar above my head.