Anyone mount a radio under the seat?

[MilesTeg]

I've got a 2DR with the manual seats, and a Yaesu FTM-510 (with included bracket) I want to mount. I plan to mount the control head near the AUX switches or above the driver's sunshade. I have an overhead molle panel to take care of that.

As for the actual radio, I don't want to put it under the dash due to interference & fan noise, so I am thinking under a seat. I was hoping someone who has done this can give me some pointers on what they did to actually mount the radio under the seat. I've seen some posts from guys that did it, but no details.

Did you have to take the seat out? Did you have to drill? Did you need a 3rd party bracket? Any other advice?

Thanks

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[Knownman]

I had my Yaesu mounted under my Ram 2500 front seat. It had a bracket that used to hold the fuel funnel and jack which I couldn't use anyway due to the lift. I just popped a few holes in that bracket and mounted up the radio. It was perfect and didn't even require an extra speaker. I think I did need a longer cable extension for the mic too reach me comfortably in the seta but in general under seat is the best mount in my opinion.

You should consider removing the passenger seat and simply adding a flat bracket to fit between the mounting holes. I'm sure that wouldn't be too difficult to fashion. Post some pics as I might be doing the same with mine. I've been a lazy pup and not tackled it yet.

 

[KABQ]

I mounted a low profile 10" subwoofer underneath the front seat by just putting a good amount of Velcro on it and sticking it to the carpet. I've never had any issues with it moving, but if the radio has vents on the underside it could potentially lead to overheating since it's a family tight space. You could always run the AC, I guess.

 

[swamp2]

There are multiple threads/posts here (including mine) on mounting a radio in the transmission tunnel just in front of and below the shifter. It's tight but feasible and you can do a super clean bulkhead CAT5 cable passthrough.

 

[EOD98]

On the pre 25 models you can install there. 2025+ have vents that go to the rear of the console that block that space

 

[KingLeonidas]

So I was lazy and just set the base unit of my 5100 under the drivers seat. I didn’t mount it to anything. Then I ran the mic and head unit cable around the back of the center console and up the passenger side. I haven’t husky floor mats and they do an excellent job of coving the wires. I have 3 kids and so far I’ve had no issues. One of my future upgrades is going to the armorlite flooring, then I need to rethink some things at that point.

As for RF noise, it’s virtually none if all my aftermarket lights are off. I have a few chokes on the coax and that helps. My antenna is hood mounted opposite of the stock radio antenna. So it picks up RFI noise from the aftermarket lights. The worst offender is Rigid, BD lights are better with RFI. I ran with the antenna tire mounted for a while but the signal wasn’t great due to the fact it’s not up high enough over the rear hardtop.

Sorry for the long winded post. Best of luck.

 

[DeathValleyBob]

I had my Yaesu mounted under my Ram 2500 front seat. It had a bracket that used to hold the fuel funnel and jack which I couldn't use anyway due to the lift. I just popped a few holes in that bracket and mounted up the radio. It was perfect and didn't even require an extra speaker. I think I did need a longer cable extension for the mic too reach me comfortably in the seta but in general under seat is the best mount in my opinion.

You should consider removing the passenger seat and simply adding a flat bracket to fit between the mounting holes. I'm sure that wouldn't be too difficult to fashion. Post some pics as I might be doing the same with mine. I've been a lazy pup and not tackled it yet.

 

[DeathValleyBob]

Be very careful with any cable extenders. The provided heat-to-base cable may not be long enough and ‘barrel’ connectors will flip polarity. This is death to a Yaesu control head.

You may not have to extend the mic cord with an underseat base mount? Too bad Yaesu doesn’t put a mic jack on its control head like others do.

 

[DeathValleyBob]

head-to-base

 

[Knownman]

Rj45 extender male to female . No heat issues and it's not reversing polarity.

 

[MilesTeg]

Be very careful with any cable extenders. The provided heat-to-base cable may not be long enough and ‘barrel’ connectors will flip polarity. This is death to a Yaesu control head.

You may not have to extend the mic cord with an underseat base mount? Too bad Yaesu doesn’t put a mic jack on its control head like others do.

The 510 does have a mic jack on the control head.

 

[MilesTeg]

I mounted a low profile 10" subwoofer underneath the front seat by just putting a good amount of Velcro on it and sticking it to the carpet. I've never had any issues with it moving, but if the radio has vents on the underside it could potentially lead to overheating since it's a family tight space. You could always run the AC, I guess.

I have the vinyl floors so I might test out mounting it under the seat with some double sided tape/velco, hah. Then if I like it there do something more permanent.

Another reason I want it under the seat is to be able to easily take it out of the vehicle to use as a home base station when I am not using it in the car much. The Yaesu mount just clips and unclips so that makes it real easy.

 

[MilesTeg]

So I was lazy and just set the base unit of my 5100 under the drivers seat. I didn’t mount it to anything. Then I ran the mic and head unit cable around the back of the center console and up the passenger side. I haven’t husky floor mats and they do an excellent job of coving the wires. I have 3 kids and so far I’ve had no issues. One of my future upgrades is going to the armorlite flooring, then I need to rethink some things at that point.

As for RF noise, it’s virtually none if all my aftermarket lights are off. I have a few chokes on the coax and that helps. My antenna is hood mounted opposite of the stock radio antenna. So it picks up RFI noise from the aftermarket lights. The worst offender is Rigid, BD lights are better with RFI. I ran with the antenna tire mounted for a while but the signal wasn’t great due to the fact it’s not up high enough over the rear hardtop.

Sorry for the long winded post. Best of luck.

This is great info, I didn't think about RFI from lights. just found out I get hella RFI on 2m from all the cheap LEDs in my house. I have BD fogs so hopefully they won't be a problem.

I'm starting with a spare tire mount, and I guess I'll find out if that's good enough for me or not.

 

[MilesTeg]

Be very careful with any cable extenders. The provided heat-to-base cable may not be long enough and ‘barrel’ connectors will flip polarity. This is death to a Yaesu control head.

You may not have to extend the mic cord with an underseat base mount? Too bad Yaesu doesn’t put a mic jack on its control head like others do.

Ah, I just bought some flat cat6 for the extension ($5 instead of $50 from Yaesu, hah). I'll be figuring out my routing then cutting and recrimping. No couplers for any extension, if that's what you mean by barrel connectors.

My mic will be overhead with some way to keep it from flapping around when not in use.

 

[DeathValleyBob]

The 510 does have a mic jack on the control head.

That’s good news for the OP. My Yaesu FTM 400 is missing this important feature.

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