External Antenna Into Car

[+Fenix6372]

I just did a quick search on this to see what I could come up with, nothing even remotely related to my question came up, figured this was the best forum to post in. I was wondering what the best way to run an external antenna into the car is without compromising the seal that keeps the water out when it rains or go thru a carwash? Is the seal broken if I just close the door on the wire? Is it detrimental to the wire to do so repeatedly? Is there some way to run the wire into the rubber trim and get it into the car through some hole I don't know about? If it helps any the car I am tryin to do this with is a 95 cadillac seville sls, I want to run the wire in on the driver's side, and I have 16 feet of wire to work with. I was planning on putting my gps on the dash in the front left corner by the registration stickers as I already have a radar detector in the middle of my dash. Any thoughts about placement or ideas how to get it into the car?

[daetripper]

I used to run a lot of external antenna's on my vehicles. Not so much with GPS but with two way radios. Basicly the same size coax/wires are involved.

 

You have a couple of choices here.

1. Place the antenna on the roof of your car and just run the antenna in through the door and to the GPS unit. (this is if you plan on taking the antenna in and out and not using it as a perminant install.)

2. If you are installing the antenna perminantly, rather than installing it on the roof, I would suggest drilling a hole in the upper middle of your trunk, running the wire into the trunk and then into the passenger compartment. You should find some "holes" to run the cable in on either side of the trunk, past the back seat and then run the wire under the door jams up to the dashboard area. This makes a neat looking tidy installation and it will not leak providing the antenna you install comes with a rubber gasket and the hardware to tighten it securely.

I was never a fan of drilling holes in my personal vehicles, preferring to use magnetic mount antenna's and just running the cable in through the door.

 

3. You can use the same mounting idea as in suggestion "2" only placing the antenna on the fender of the car near the hood and running the wire into the dash through the firewall. You can usually find some space to fit the wire using existing holes that have electrical wiring already running from the engine to the dash area.

 

About breaking the seals. I never found it to be a problem in my vehicles running the cable in through the door. While it's true the cable will press the rubber gasket in as the closed door puts pressure on it. I've never noticed any problem with water leakage etc.

 

In the end, it depends on the type of antenna you use and how and where you want to install it.

 

Good luck with your choice.

[thcri]

Kind of on the run here but I did purchase an external antenna for my GPSmap60CS and it has suction cups for the inside of the windshield. It works great and I never had a problem losing satellites. This makes an easy installation and you don't have to worry about cutting holes or seals. Later today I can figure out where I got it and post it if your interested? It is the exact same one from Garmin but a lot cheaper in price.

 

murph

[marty621]

I'd worry about the car wash grabbing the wire and ripping the whole antenna off the roof. Repeatedly crushing and bending the coax is not a good thing, make sure the same spot on the coax is not squeezed each time. If I was going to mount the antenna semi-permanently , I would slit the weatherstripping or poke a very small hole thru for the wire. Actually on some cars there is a bit more room in the weatherstrip at the corner of the window.

[Alphawolf]

Forget poking or drilling a hole for the wire...You have a big antenna on one end of the wire and a fitting for the receiver on the other end, both of which are much bigger than the wire itself. What I do is put the antenna (magnetic mount) just near the front edge of the trunk (nearest the back window of the car), run the wire over the edge of the trunk, into the trunk, and fish it up through the back seat into the passenger compartment. This works great for me. The antenna has very little coax exposed, and the car wsh doesn't bother it at all. No leaks, as the coax is very small diameter. If you run it through doors, it's always in the way, and the same for windows (plus windows will damage the wire).

[+Fenix6372]

Those are some good ideas, Alpha I should have mentioned the connector is a MCX so it isn't that much bigger than the cable itself, I was actually surprised at how small it really is. I have come up with a few problems though:

1) Will poking a hole through the weatherstripping cushion the cable enough against closing doors?

2) Going through the trunk poses the same problem as the doors because of the weatherstripping that seals the trunk up

3)I tend to get in to my trunk a lot, so every time it is opened it comes up on the back window about a third of the way, which means somewhere I'd need slack and I don't want a slack wire on my trunk

 

Now for new ideas; While I was looking into these suggestions further I noticed there was sort of a semi-rigid channel that runs the length of the front windshield. Would it be possible to run the cable into the dash through the firewall but also get the cable into that channel to run the antenna to the roof? Or is that a channel that is supposed to take water away from the door and windshield when it rains?

 

One more thing: I only said the thing about carwashes because I was trying to use them for an idea of volume of water I was talking about; I only hand-wash my vehicles so carwash brushes or whatever shouldn't be a problem.

[+Olar]

I've found that putting the external antenna on the dashboard right up by the windshield is by far more than what is needed. Even at that it probably could be considered overkill because my GPSr gets decent enough satellite lock on it's own mounted in front of my car's radio inside.

I have had the external mounted on the roof for extented periods of time with the coax running down along the rubber door sealer strip and have not had any problems with moisture getting in. Back in the haydays of CB radios most antennas were magnetic mounted on the trunk lid and I had no problems with water getting in and the coax was at least 4 times as thick as the GPS antenna cable.

 

Cheers, Olar

[+NightPilot]

I have mine on a pickup truck with rear side windows that open just a crack for ventilation. I run my cable in the window, and just close it on the coax. The weatherstripping just deforms a little, and keeps a good seal. I've run it through the carwash like this with no problems. I haven't used on with brushes, just high-pressure water, and have had no leaks. Rain is no concern at all. I think it would be the same with a car and running it in the door - the weatherstripping will seal it with no problems.

If I had a car, I think I would run the cable into the trunk and in through the back, like Alphawolf described, but it's a problem in our other vehicle, a small SUV, since there is no trunk. I just run it in over the back door if I'm forced to drive that one. We do use it for longer highway trips, and I use the GPS for driving directions. I haven't found a really good way to do it in an SUV.

[+Fenix6372]

Olar: You said you have no problems running it along the rubber strip, how do you get it actually into the car? Do you have a hole in the rubber somewhere or something like that?

[+DomHeknows]

my external magnetic gps just goes through the door frame. I have found that in heavy rain (in the uk thats most days) I find some water can drip down and then drip off where the cable is at its lowest. Not a lot but a couple of drips. The opening and closing of the door doesn't seem to have affected the cable but I guess I should really put it through the back doors which aren't used as much......

[+Olar]

Olar: You said you have no problems running it along the rubber strip, how do you get it actually into the car? Do you have a hole in the rubber somewhere or something like that?

I place the antenna on the roof right above the door post and run the cable down along the weatherstripping for 18" or so then straight across the rubber strip to the inside. The rear door closing holds it in place and, as others have stated, the cable gets compressed into the rubber and doesn't seem to affect the seal too much. No sign of water dripping anyway. Once inside the car I can tuck the cable in behind the weatherstrip which holds it from moving or becoming too slack. I wouldn't really want to cut a hole or slit in the rubber for fear of permanently damaging the seal.

 

Cheers, Olar

[+Team Shibby]

I have had my external antenna on the roof of my vehicle with the wire running through the hatchback for over a year and I never had problems. I can't tell you how many times I have opened and closed the back gate on the wire and it never damaged it. Also, the antenna has a super strong magnet, so I can drive through a tornado and the car would blow apart before the antenna comes loose.

 

Edit: Also, I guess I should have mentioned that I have never had a single leak.

 

Kar of TS!!

Edited August 10, 2004 by Team Shibby