Fitting CB Radio

Installing CB radios and other equipment inside the cabin of modern vehicles is becoming a challenge. The 90 Series Prado however is blessed with several areas where radios can be fitted. There are a number of aspects such as radio access, permanent or temporary installation, shared access with a passenger etc. that need to be considered - and of course, with these things it often comes down to personal preferences and the desire to do things a little bit differently to everyone else.

Below are a number of emails from 90 Series Prado LCOOL members who have provided sound advise to the LCOOL group.

If you want it to be easily removable, then fit it to the passengers side of the transmission tunnel. Two self tapper screws into the plastic holds it fine - that's where mine lives.  When selecting a position, move the passenger seat forward, then mount it as far rearward as possible.  Wiring and aerial tuck up easily under the plastic.

UHF radio mounted on the side of the transmission tunnel - Leaving room to mount the HF control head.

When comes time to sell, put two grey plugs into the holes. Aerial bracket sits nicely below the aerial up/down button. Won't notice the holes here as they are tapered away from the line of sight. 

If you have a DIN sized unit with front mount speaker (eg GME 4200), then you have the option of replacing the double DIN sized radio/cassette/CD with a single DIN unit and adding the UHF underneath.  Its the best installation in my opinion, but won't be removable.  Microphone sits in the same place.

Standard double DIN audio system replaced with single DIN aftermarket unit UHF radio mounted below.

If you have a small one such as Darren's UHF (pictured below) the they fit nicely in the storage cove between the dash and tunnel.  You have to consider that the speakers in these units are bottom mounted and an ext speaker may be needed.

Darren placed his in the little pocket between the gear lever and the bottom of the dash, this part is easy to remove, and the radio was a tight fit, and easy to get to the back of to hook up. [metal fixing not required]

I drew aux current to the radio from the second cig socket and supplied the socket with power from the second battery for other uses.  The aerial is always best roof mounted on the Prado and easily done as they have gutters - the higher the better.  I used a ground independent base on a swing down mount above the drivers window.  99% of the time I run with a $12 rubber stubbie aerial  which is indestructible and performs as well as any bullbar mounted aerial.  If I fit the 6dB on the roof, its brilliant.  Coax from the aerial runs forward from the mount, down the gutter (just remove the black trim and replace again, and feed in thru the rubber grommet going to the door,  Solder up the PL259 - most radio problems are caused by people botching up this plug.

If you are using the radio in multiple vehicles, just install the antenna cable in each - they are cheap.

Cheers

Phil

mounted a uniden uh013 uhf in the plastic tray under dash, it just pulls out (-after you remove the centre bit around gear stick -auto) then just cut the rear end off, then cut upwards along sides so top and bottom would flex, slid radio in til i could line up where to drill holes in the side bits and pulled unit out ,put holes in and used the radio screws to hold unit in .i also cut out under the speaker ,so i could hear it better ,but ended up putting in a extension speaker. only takes 2 minutes to pull in and out .just have to buy a new plastic tray when selling vehicle. hardest part was soldering the coax plug on ....

mick byrne
98gxl prado 3.4v6 auto

I have a uhf & am mounted in a console on the dash this is mounted with velcro and can be removed without leaving holes. I purchased the unit from the Dept of Interiors (http://www.consoles.com) in Sydney they ship to you if you are not local and you can have it colour matched the draw back to this very neat option is $300.

The two radios are a Uniden am & a GME TX3200 with remote speakers mounted in the top of the console - works well. The wiring runs down between the demister outlet and dash. This is fairly simple to do by levering the demister outlet with a thin screwdriver then pull the wiring through. The wiring can be hard wired or what ever.

Cheers
Barry