Van 2.0...
A reincarnation of equipment from my previous mobile install along with the addition of some new equipment makes this version 2.0!
Radios:
Yaesu FT-8900R
Motorola GM300 VHF 45w (Replaces Maxtrac Pictured)
Antennas:
Comet SB-15
Comet SBB-25
Mount:
Maldol PRM-T
Comet CP-5 M
GPS:
Horizon Navigation NavMate 2.0
Deluo Serial GPS
TinyTrak 3 Plus
It all started innocently enough, the purchase of a newer minivan to replace the aging family van. The previous 94 Dodge Caravan hit 217,000 miles this spring and we decided to plunge ahead to buy something newer!
The 97 Pontiac Trans Sport takes it's place in the driveway.
The FT-8900R was installed with the remote mount face kit. The radio is rear mounted to place it near the antenna as well as to save space in the front of the vehicle.
The next part of the install was antenna's. On the rear is a Maldol lip mount holding a SB-15 tri band antenna and a Comet lip mount holding a SBB-25 5/8w 2m antenna. The small puck just to the right of the SB-15 is the Deluo GPS receiver which feeds the TinyTrak 3 Plus. And there is a active GPS antenna mounted on a "L" Bracket NMO mount on the front luggage rack crossbar. Not pictured but also installed is a mag mount hockey puck antenna for the XM radio.
Then the chassis of the FT-8900 was installed in the back left corner along with the Maxtrac and TinyTrak 3 combo. This places them near the antenna location and therefore the coax length needed is shorter. This also reduces RF inside the vehicle, and with modern vehicles this can be a problem. On previous installs I experienced everything from cruise control failure at TX to dash instruments going haywire. All wiring to and from the radios go behind the vehicle's interior trim panels.
The control head was mounted up and out of the way. I built a mic extension cable to place that down next to the center console. Again all the wiring is hidden as much as possible. (It was cold at the time this first picture was taken, note the "ICE" warning on the temp display)
With the radio and antenna installs done, its on to the wiring. As I mentioned, all the wiring from the radio in the back is hidden and run up the drivers side, behind the left rear interior panels, and then through the wire troughs provided from the factory along the door openings. All wiring comes into the cassette/cd compartment at the bottom middle of the dash. There is a 4awg supply from the battery, I used a marine terminal on the unused top battery post, with a manual trip and reset circuit breaker mounted under hood, this feeds the auxiliary fuse panel I added to power the additional equipment. There is a Tapa Fuse installed in the vehicle fuse panel, passenger side end of the dash, which takes power from the ignition controlled stereo power supply to energize the relays which in turn make the added equipment follow the ignition switch. On when the switch is on, off when cranking, and back on when running. Keeps me from forgetting to turn the radio and other equipment off as well! The radio is grounded to the body/frame in the rear, everything else is grounded to a body ground in the compartment up front, I installed a solid body/frame ground to a stud installed in that compartment, this allows everything to share a solid ground.
Mounted to the right side of the center console is a Motorola amplified speaker. I also added two power ports for charging cell phones, ht's, powering the kids DVD Player, etc. (the cable laying on the floor is no longer there, this was taken before I finished some other tidying up)
I purchased a NavMate 2.0 from Horizon Navigation. www.horizonnav.com They discontinued the 2.0 version and replaced it with the 2.1, which means a large price cut on the older version! There is nothing wrong with the 2.0 as far as features go compared to the 2.1, and upgrades are still readily available for the 2.0 from their website.
The first part of the install was wiring, which unfortunately I don't have any pictures of but was rather easy to accomplish. It required a battery hot connection, ignition switched, ground, VSS (vehicle speed sensor), and backup light circuit. The B+ and ignition connection was made in the cassette/cd compartment, B+ to the fuse panel and ignition switched to the output of one relay. Ground goes to a grounding stud in the compartment where everything else up front gets grounded. The VSS wire gets connected at the BCM (body control module) on the passenger side under the dash below the fuse panel, this provides a signal to the Navmate to allow it to navigate using it's internal Gyro and the vehicle speed without the aid of a GPS signal, dead reckoning, very handy when you lose a lock among those high rise buildings in a large city. The backup light circuit connection tells the NavMate to switch direction of travel and flip the display when you put it into reverse.
The main unit of the NavMate, the computer, with all the connections and the CD drive which you use with one of nine CD's to cover the entire USA is mounted to underneath the passenger side seat and is rear facing, forward facing was not possible because of the power seat motor and linkages. The wiring from the computer follows the factory seat wiring, this goes through a hole in the carpet under the seat then through a plastic wiring trough to the door jamb and forward to the dash.
The display was quickly and easily mounted with a VSM, vehicle specific mount from Pro Fit International. www.pro-fit-intl.com And makes use of the screws holding in the stereo on the right side. All the was required was to remove the trim bezel, two screws at the bottom corners, pop it off, remove the radio screws and put the bracket in place and screw everything back together. Took mere minutes to install and is a nice secure mount that can be swiveled so either the driver or passenger can see it. The XM was then added to the top of it with an extension plate on the VSM, also from Pro Fit. The XM radio has a rf modulator with an inline cable, you disconnect the vehicles antenna connector under the passenger side of the dash and put the rf modulator box inline and the plug it all in. The nice thing about using this is I can turn on the XM radio and listen to it, or turn it off and go right back to local broadcast radio. Since it interrupts the antenna and provides such a strong signal to the stereo I can even use any channel without interference.
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This site was last updated 06/18/08