Roof Holes

[stewwalker]

I need to mount my 2 meter antenna on my roof using an NMO mount. I'm thinking I can remove the read dome light and mount the antenna directly above the might housing. Has any one ever seen or done this? I'm sure some of you have experience removing the headliner. Any Pointers on how to remove the dome light and/or headliner?

 

[Chris Crampton]

I just did this a little over a month ago. I pulled down the passenger side headliner and installed 2 NMO mounts. My truck does not have a sunroof so install is easier than if you have one.
-I removed A, B, & C pillar plastic
-Remove dome light and overhead console, coat hanger hooks, right sunvisor
-Pulled back door seals all the way to the bottom
-Depending where you mount your ant., I ran the 2 wires above the air side air bag to not impend deployment
-I also used foil tape to secure wires to the roof bracing so it doesn't rattle
-Drilled (2) ⅜" holes between the roof blisters on centerline of the truck
-Snugged them down and finished running wires down B pillar to center console. Then reinstalled in reverse order.
-This was about a 3 hr job but was happy with the result (Tip, if you have the ⅜ NMO mount you can fish it through an opening in the roof brace for the rearward mount)
I'll post up some pics for you.

Front hole location


Rear hole location, fished mount up through hole on bottom side of roof brace


Front pic before hole


Ran wires over air bag, had to loosen bolts to sneak wires through


Finished product.


It was tough to get good pics during the install but hopefully you get the idea.

I also have 2 rain caps that go on the NMO's when not in use or when the car cover is on it.

 

[stewwalker]

Wow removing the headliner is a bigger project than I thought. I'm planning on running the wires down the back side of the cab. Totally forgot about the airbags. Thanks for the pics.

---------- Post added at 12:38 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:34 AM ----------

Did you put any kind of washer on the inside of the cab for the NMO mount? Mine like like it doesn't have much contact surface to prevent bending the roof if I hit low branches.

 

[Chris Crampton]

Used a few shims like shock shims to space down the pin contact of the mount. My ant. didn't like the mount sticking trough too much.

I did check for roof movement once mounts and ant's were installed and it was minimal. Did not feel the need to add any thing to support them.

I don't think you can do much to keep the roof from distorting if you hit a branch way down at the bottom of the ant.

 

[Rookie]

I went out the bottom of the center console under the carpet and pad. Then went up the driver's side c pillar. Then all you have to do is remove the c pillar, rear headliner caps, and coat hanger pieces. My rear facing vertex install has some pics of the headliner removal. Not hard at all

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[stewwalker]

Finished the install last weekend. Popped the rear dome light out, drilled the hole, fished the wire down the rear pillar, into the floorbord electrical race way, then under the passenger seat. The only issue I had was loosing the fishing wire in between the head liner and the roof, 30 min. to find it and get it out.