Hello Everyone,

I am a ham Radio operator and am in the process of installed my radios into my truck. My two main radios have remote head units that I have placed where I want them and all necessary wiring for speakers, microphones, antenna, etc have been taken care of. The only thing that I have left to do is get power to the storage area under the back seat in my QC. Any suggestions? On my previous truck (A chevy) there were "vents" if you will that I was able to snake the power thru in the back of the cab. I can't find such a opening in the cab of this truck. Is there a wire whole somewhere that would come up near there that I am missing, or amd I going to have to drill a hole, route my cable thru it, and silicone the heck out of it to prevent rubbing and rust?

Any suggestions you guys can come up with would be great. Thanks.

Travis

 

You could run a power wire through a grommet in the fire wall and under the carpet/door sill to the rear. That is how most aftermarket amplifiers are ran and they use some heavy gauge wire at times.

How heavy is the wire you are going to be using? How many amps does it take for these to operate? I have zero knowledge with HAM radios other than people who do it often times have funny license plates

 

I considered that, but I'm not sure where the grommet is, or how to run the wires under the carpet to the rear, not to mention I plan to put a deep cycle battery with an isolator in the bed of the truck this spring when its warmer, so eventually the power will be originating from the rear. The wire that I have access it is 6 gauge outdoor wire designed to be driven over, etc without damaging. I used it on my last install and it still looked new (minus the dirt) after I was done. Each radio draws around 15 amps when key'd up, plus the 20/30 amps that my other support equipment draws, I'm looking at a potential 60 amp draw.

Oh, and I have one of those funny license plates too Hense the KC9JVC in my nick.

 

You don't say what truck you have or the year, but they're probably all the same or similar. Running power into the cab is fairly straight-forward. Up high on the firewall inboard of the brake master cylinder is a plastic plate (this is how the clutch linkage gets inside). It's just thin plastic, shaped like a stretched diamond. You can take all sorts of things through that plate into the cab. Running wiring under the carpet is pretty easy, as well. You can get a fish tape froma hardware store (Harbor Freight sells fifty-footers for about $10)

 

My appologies, I thought that my signature had my truck listed in it. Guess I was wrong. Hmmm

Anyway:

2002 Ram 1500 QC 5.9L

I'll have to investigate that as a possible method of entry. Does anyone know of any cab wholes in the rear of the cab that could be used?

 

In My 05' QC Their Are Vent Holes... Honestly, Like MikeH Said.. Run It Through You Firewall... Have It Travel Down The Drivers Side...

Remove The Kick Pannel, Bottom Step Pannels, And Fish It Past The B Pillar. It Is A Lot More Simple Than You Would Think.

MFS Has A good Picture of His Amps With The Vents On The Backof The Cab, Since You asked.

 

I found that the easiest way to get from the rear of a quad cab to the outside without going through the vents, (afraid of chaffing) was to go through the grommets in the floor under the carpet.

Pop the plastic rivet holding in the cupholder from under the seat, peel back the carpet and there is a "knock out" that can easily be pulled up. I ran a 6" piece of braided hose through this hole and then my CB antenna through the middle of this followed up with RTV.

I thought this was the easiest way to cleanly and securely run the shortest way to the bed or in between the bed/cab to the roof.

I did this for the CB and ran in the same general area for the back up lights I attached to the rack. Three pole switch, off, on and on when in reverse.

Good luck.

 

You are talking about the pop out under the rear left seat, right? That's the way I ran my cb coax. Worked great for me.