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G'Day Yuzall
Having perused PP to get ideas for my UHF installation I thought I'd share how I did it.
I have a Uniden UH-013 which is the model with the remote head. I've had it for a few years & was rescued from my Surf to go into my Prado.
My major criteria was hiding the cables as I really don't like visible wires, leads etc & as I don't have a bullbar my main issue was mounting the antenna (a small groundplane independent rubber jobby). I didn't want to use one of those dog-leg bonnet mounts & having seen various mounting points around I decided on fitting it to the front RH side plastic roof bar cover. This just clips off - use a paint scraper or similar to get under it, between the rubber seal & cover, & lever it off taking care not to break the small plastic lugs that clip it on.
I bought an antenna mount that allows me to use different antennas as I've got a 6db gain base load whip as well as the little rubber one. The mount came with the whip & includes coax. I used a 90 degree bracket & drilled an extra hole in it to allow for 3 bolts to hold it in place & one more hole so that I could run the coax lead straight into the roof bar cover thereby hiding the cable.
I put a small hole in the rubber seal at the base of the roof bar cover to allow me to run the coax through and into the rain channel. There is just enough room under the lip of the plastic channel insert for the coax to sit tightly in without needing glueing.
I then ran the lead down the rubber seal against the side of the windscreen but here the gap is a little larger so I used silicone to hold the coax in place.
The coax runs into the engine bay & through a large rubber grommet into the cabin.
The next issue I had was where to mount the main body of the radio. I pulled apart the drivers side to have a look. There are a couple of bolts to undo in order to drop the plastic covers out of the way. One tricky one is behind the RHS kick panel. To get to this one you need to remove the plastic sill panel running beside the drivers seat, then the kick panel which exposes the bolt that needs to be undone. Most of the rest of the plastic covers just clip into place and are easily removed.
In my 08 GXL there's masses of room up behind the dash but very little to fix anything to. After staring at the underside of the dash for about an hour I decided to use an existing bracket I found. No idea what it's for as it doesn't hold anything in place at least in my model. You will need to remove the drivers side heater duct which is easily done.
The under-dash bracket is much narrower than the radio mounting bracket so I used a couple of tek screws to fit the radio bracket in place. I was a bit worried about the radio bracket flexing & bouncing around but once I'd screwed it in position found it was very stable with no sign of it being likely to move.
The radio unit then mounts to it's bracket & is fitted in position. Note that the radio body is angled.
With the heater duct back in position.
The radio body is set at an angle so it clears the heater duct.
I mounted the remote radio head in the void under the ashtray area. It is screwed in position & sits quite neatly out of the way. I offset the head unit to the left to avoid fouling the power outlet below. The position of it also still allows access to the switch panels next to the power outlet.
I forgot to take photos of the console removal but there are other topics here that cover it. Basically everything just clips out & back in without the need to even reach for a screwdriver. I bought the Toyota moulding removal tool designed for the job of removing the mouldings either side of the radio so as to minimise the possibility of damage.
At this time power for the radio comes from the accessory switched power outlet. I used a cable joiner to tap into the active wire. Eventually when I get dual batteries I'll probably wire it to permanent power but I'm happy with the switched power now. There is a handy little bolt above where I mounted the radio body which I used for the earth.
I haven't bothered fitting a mike mount at this stage as the standard microphone seems to sit nicely around the transfer lever.
Tested & working fine. I expect I'll probably use the rubber antenna mostly as it will be fine for car-to-car comms & I intend getting a shorter rubber antenna to decrease the height. The steel whip will get greater range but isn't carpark friendly.
Cheers
Craig
Having perused PP to get ideas for my UHF installation I thought I'd share how I did it.
I have a Uniden UH-013 which is the model with the remote head. I've had it for a few years & was rescued from my Surf to go into my Prado.
My major criteria was hiding the cables as I really don't like visible wires, leads etc & as I don't have a bullbar my main issue was mounting the antenna (a small groundplane independent rubber jobby). I didn't want to use one of those dog-leg bonnet mounts & having seen various mounting points around I decided on fitting it to the front RH side plastic roof bar cover. This just clips off - use a paint scraper or similar to get under it, between the rubber seal & cover, & lever it off taking care not to break the small plastic lugs that clip it on.
I bought an antenna mount that allows me to use different antennas as I've got a 6db gain base load whip as well as the little rubber one. The mount came with the whip & includes coax. I used a 90 degree bracket & drilled an extra hole in it to allow for 3 bolts to hold it in place & one more hole so that I could run the coax lead straight into the roof bar cover thereby hiding the cable.
I put a small hole in the rubber seal at the base of the roof bar cover to allow me to run the coax through and into the rain channel. There is just enough room under the lip of the plastic channel insert for the coax to sit tightly in without needing glueing.
I then ran the lead down the rubber seal against the side of the windscreen but here the gap is a little larger so I used silicone to hold the coax in place.
The coax runs into the engine bay & through a large rubber grommet into the cabin.
The next issue I had was where to mount the main body of the radio. I pulled apart the drivers side to have a look. There are a couple of bolts to undo in order to drop the plastic covers out of the way. One tricky one is behind the RHS kick panel. To get to this one you need to remove the plastic sill panel running beside the drivers seat, then the kick panel which exposes the bolt that needs to be undone. Most of the rest of the plastic covers just clip into place and are easily removed.
In my 08 GXL there's masses of room up behind the dash but very little to fix anything to. After staring at the underside of the dash for about an hour I decided to use an existing bracket I found. No idea what it's for as it doesn't hold anything in place at least in my model. You will need to remove the drivers side heater duct which is easily done.
The under-dash bracket is much narrower than the radio mounting bracket so I used a couple of tek screws to fit the radio bracket in place. I was a bit worried about the radio bracket flexing & bouncing around but once I'd screwed it in position found it was very stable with no sign of it being likely to move.
The radio unit then mounts to it's bracket & is fitted in position. Note that the radio body is angled.
With the heater duct back in position.
The radio body is set at an angle so it clears the heater duct.
I mounted the remote radio head in the void under the ashtray area. It is screwed in position & sits quite neatly out of the way. I offset the head unit to the left to avoid fouling the power outlet below. The position of it also still allows access to the switch panels next to the power outlet.
I forgot to take photos of the console removal but there are other topics here that cover it. Basically everything just clips out & back in without the need to even reach for a screwdriver. I bought the Toyota moulding removal tool designed for the job of removing the mouldings either side of the radio so as to minimise the possibility of damage.
At this time power for the radio comes from the accessory switched power outlet. I used a cable joiner to tap into the active wire. Eventually when I get dual batteries I'll probably wire it to permanent power but I'm happy with the switched power now. There is a handy little bolt above where I mounted the radio body which I used for the earth.
I haven't bothered fitting a mike mount at this stage as the standard microphone seems to sit nicely around the transfer lever.
Tested & working fine. I expect I'll probably use the rubber antenna mostly as it will be fine for car-to-car comms & I intend getting a shorter rubber antenna to decrease the height. The steel whip will get greater range but isn't carpark friendly.
Cheers
Craig
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