Danny G Posted December 13, 2019 Share Posted December 13, 2019 I am on the fence with that as well - the wifi antenna. The wifi antenna is for it to connect to either my phone while driving (phone as a hotspot) or my house wifi when at home. When connecting to the phone since it will be just a few feet away, anywhere in the cab should be able to pick up the signal. I've started leaning towards placing it under my carpet dash cover towards the front of the windshield. I have a dime size chunk out of the speaker grill in the dash so I could route the cable through there. Open to ideas. I just won't want it visible. A backup camera is a big reason I went with the double din unit also. I am going to use the Atoto A6Y Pro. I don't feel like Android units have really come as far as they should have by now but once the double din cage is in there, swapping in the future will be easy enough. The camera I am using has the ability to snap into a hole. Since the bumper has a hole in the center behind the license plate I purchased a dark license plate (black and dark grey American flag) that I am going to drill a hole in matching the bumper hole and place the camera there. I have some better pictures somewhere of when I was actually modifying the dash support but as many others before me have found out, these trucks aren't setup for the double din height. Especially when A/C is involved. The route I decided to go since I wasn't going to cut the hvac duct was down instead of up. This isn't all finalized so it may not work out as well as it does in my head. The dash support has a hump in it above the hvac controls that the radio support clips into. I removed that, flattened it, and reinstalled. This makes the support in line (hard to tell in the photo) with the shelf in the plastic beneath the opening for the radio. By removing the two bottom holes for the factory radio and shaving a little off the lip, the double din cage will slide in and rest on/attach to the flattened support. I haven't gotten up the nerve to cut the plastic dash yet . My concern at this point is if it will be too low in the factory bezel and look weird. I believe I will have to cut slightly below the inward curve on the bezel and then design a trim bezel to make it look seamless. Not sure I am describing this very well but I'll add photos as I work on it. Just like the wifi antenna, I welcome any ideas/suggestions. Did your truck have the clearance lights factory or did you add them? As far as the antenna goes. Being in the roof is 1 sheet of metal to the outside world. Being on the firewall? still a sheet of metal to the outside world plus a whole bunch of other things. Am I not understanding where your secondary mounting location is? Because to me the only change is to inside the cab obstruction which honestly should not make a difference. You should be able to mount that thing on the outside of your roof and still have solid connection in the vehicle. An alternative option would be in your B Pillar, easy access, can route the wire down the rocker. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArdWrknTrk Posted December 13, 2019 Share Posted December 13, 2019 Did your truck have the clearance lights factory or did you add them? As far as the antenna goes. Being in the roof is 1 sheet of metal to the outside world. Being on the firewall? still a sheet of metal to the outside world plus a whole bunch of other things. Am I not understanding where your secondary mounting location is? Because to me the only change is to inside the cab obstruction which honestly should not make a difference. You should be able to mount that thing on the outside of your roof and still have solid connection in the vehicle. An alternative option would be in your B Pillar, easy access, can route the wire down the rocker. Under his dash rug is clear through the windshield to the whole world.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danny G Posted December 13, 2019 Share Posted December 13, 2019 Under his dash rug is clear through the windshield to the whole world.... LOL I saw rug and was thinking footbox/firewall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kramttocs Posted December 13, 2019 Author Share Posted December 13, 2019 That'll sure make it easy to be 'on the ball', when hitching a light trailer. But be careful you don't overshoot. Haha for sure. I might need to stock up on them. My inlaws had a shop, had a deep single bay, then a large 3 story bay (for boats) then next to that was a massive work area half covered with a loft. The uncovered half.... wood stove. used to get up early in the AM and get a fire cranking in that bad boy. Right now I have a dinky 1 car and am looking for ways to heat it up, need to pull the drywall down and put some R-13 in then blow in some insulation in the roof. I have a window ac unit for the summer, and a 4 inch vent through the wall I was thinking of using for a vent or maybe a vent-less wall mounted propane unit. If we ended up staying long term or I was at my "forever" home I would probably put in a mini split with heat and air. Those mini splits would be nice. I would really like the wood stove approach - the downside is that it doesn't work well for squeezing in a couple hours at night without having to have it run for hours before that. They definitely put out some good heat though and cheap to fuel around here at least. The vent-less units are convenient but I just kept reading about the moisture they introduce. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kramttocs Posted December 13, 2019 Author Share Posted December 13, 2019 Under his dash rug is clear through the windshield to the whole world.... LOL I saw rug and was thinking footbox/firewall. I guess on the dash isn't the first thing one thinks of when they see 'carpet' In the end I don't think the wifi one matters a ton. The gps was the more important one in getting it outside the vehicle. I may just leave the wifi one zip tied up behind the dash next to the unit. The truck didn't originally have cab lights but I've always been a fan of them. I would definitely recommend the rivet nuts if adding them new. Makes them nice to install. The wiring was really easy with the super cab as there is access to the wiring for each light. So I could put each light in and then connect them all together inside the cab, tucking the harness up in the 'shelf' when done. I used a factory harness and spliced the new light socket pigtails in. In addition to the rivet nuts I'd set them back a little ways further than factory. Not much but enough to help them lay flat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted December 13, 2019 Share Posted December 13, 2019 I am on the fence with that as well - the wifi antenna. The wifi antenna is for it to connect to either my phone while driving (phone as a hotspot) or my house wifi when at home. When connecting to the phone since it will be just a few feet away, anywhere in the cab should be able to pick up the signal. I've started leaning towards placing it under my carpet dash cover towards the front of the windshield. I have a dime size chunk out of the speaker grill in the dash so I could route the cable through there. Open to ideas. I just won't want it visible. A backup camera is a big reason I went with the double din unit also. I am going to use the Atoto A6Y Pro. I don't feel like Android units have really come as far as they should have by now but once the double din cage is in there, swapping in the future will be easy enough. The camera I am using has the ability to snap into a hole. Since the bumper has a hole in the center behind the license plate I purchased a dark license plate (black and dark grey American flag) that I am going to drill a hole in matching the bumper hole and place the camera there. I have some better pictures somewhere of when I was actually modifying the dash support but as many others before me have found out, these trucks aren't setup for the double din height. Especially when A/C is involved. The route I decided to go since I wasn't going to cut the hvac duct was down instead of up. This isn't all finalized so it may not work out as well as it does in my head. The dash support has a hump in it above the hvac controls that the radio support clips into. I removed that, flattened it, and reinstalled. This makes the support in line (hard to tell in the photo) with the shelf in the plastic beneath the opening for the radio. By removing the two bottom holes for the factory radio and shaving a little off the lip, the double din cage will slide in and rest on/attach to the flattened support. I haven't gotten up the nerve to cut the plastic dash yet . My concern at this point is if it will be too low in the factory bezel and look weird. I believe I will have to cut slightly below the inward curve on the bezel and then design a trim bezel to make it look seamless. Not sure I am describing this very well but I'll add photos as I work on it. Just like the wifi antenna, I welcome any ideas/suggestions. I sorta kinda understand how you are planning to do the double-din rack. But you lost me on the bezel. So I'll await the pics and explanations since it'll be some time before I get to a point where I might want to do do this. IOW, that won't be part of "transformation" on BB, and can come in a later "upgrade" phase. On your wifi antenna, you could run it down the top of the transmission tunnel under the carpet. Would work great for in the cab, but maybe not for connecting to your home wifi. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FuzzFace2 Posted December 14, 2019 Share Posted December 14, 2019 Thanks! It's been a bit more time consuming than expected but getting there. Gary- funny you should mention that. Been doing a lot of research and weighing options. Spray foaming and a vented propane tube heater would be ideal but just not practical right now. So as an interim solution that will hopefully work well enough this winter I am going to hang some thick tarps and section off a roughly 20x30 area. My dad has a propane furnace/air handler that I will blow into the area like you did. It may not work extremely well but I figure for a couple hours at night after the kids are in bed it will make it manageable. My inlaws had a shop, had a deep single bay, then a large 3 story bay (for boats) then next to that was a massive work area half covered with a loft. The uncovered half.... wood stove. used to get up early in the AM and get a fire cranking in that bad boy. Right now I have a dinky 1 car and am looking for ways to heat it up, need to pull the drywall down and put some R-13 in then blow in some insulation in the roof. I have a window ac unit for the summer, and a 4 inch vent through the wall I was thinking of using for a vent or maybe a vent-less wall mounted propane unit. If we ended up staying long term or I was at my "forever" home I would probably put in a mini split with heat and air. I use a 75,000 to 125,000 BTU propane heater to heat my un-insolated garage and it is not small. I can fit 1 car & 2 pick up's in the bay area and still have to work on 1 truck. It is this unit I have https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200178724_200178724 The other day it was 30* outside, 32* in the garage, ran the heater for an hour and it was in the 40's and that was go enough to start working in. Dave ---- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kramttocs Posted December 14, 2019 Author Share Posted December 14, 2019 I use a 75,000 to 125,000 BTU propane heater to heat my un-insolated garage and it is not small. I can fit 1 car & 2 pick up's in the bay area and still have to work on 1 truck. It is this unit I have https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200178724_200178724 The other day it was 30* outside, 32* in the garage, ran the heater for an hour and it was in the 40's and that was go enough to start working in. Dave ---- Have you noticed any condensation? That seems to be the only complaint I see with those or else I'd be all for that route. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted December 14, 2019 Share Posted December 14, 2019 Have you noticed any condensation? That seems to be the only complaint I see with those or else I'd be all for that route. Condensation was the problem I had with one. I rusted a lot of things before I figured out what was happening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArdWrknTrk Posted December 14, 2019 Share Posted December 14, 2019 Condensation was the problem I had with one. I rusted a lot of things before I figured out what was happening. One pound of propane burned creates 1.6 pounds of water. It adds up fast, and causes lots of condensation on cold objects. http://www.irv2.com/forums/f93/engineering-help-water-from-propane-104216.html At 8.35 pounds per gallon that means 20# of propane creates 3.832 gallons of water. That's a lot of moisture for the air to support, and of course, as soon as you turn that heater off and the room starts to cool that water IS going to have to go somewhere, because the atmosphere can't hold it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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