Need to put a magnetic VHF antenna mount on the Ex. Any suggestions on a good place to route the cables? Trying to avoid a through hole style mount and drilling a hole in the roof.

 

Thats what i use the roof rack for, sure it can hold cargo, but on all my road tripping or off roading vehicles, i install a roof rack, not to hold cargo primarily, but i use the roof rack as a platform to mount lights, antennas, backup and front cameras, etc, and the lighting controller, and even a solar panel down in the roof rack.

Worked great on an Expedition, and also on my Excursion. I have yet to use the rack on the Excursion for Cargo even once, but i have 3 antennas, a lighting controller, front and rear 40 inch lightbars, etc mounted on it. And i got the 84 inch long extended roof rack so it reaches forward and all the way back easily.

This is the rack i used on the Excursion, it worked out great! I used the factory Excursion rails and cross bars.

 

I've just used the less than elegant method of routing the cable out around a door seal gasket. If you can route it out lower on the door opening and then up outside of the sealing surface you should avoid rain water leakage around the cable. At different times for various radios I've gone out the driver's door, second row doors and the rear hatch. On my old pickup, I back when I was a Fire Dept Chief officer I had a slick through glass antenna system on the cab rear window. It had a pad glued to the inside of the glass fed with the cable from the transceiver and the pad glued to the outside had the 8" or so T Band (500 MHz) antenna mounted on it. That radio performed as well as the through hole antennas on the apparatus fleet.

 

Unfortunately, I'm running a ground plane VHF antenna, so needs to be directly on the roof, so either a magnetic mount or a drill a hole in the roof.
I'm Ok with a mag mount, just5 trying to figure out the best route for cable.

 

Unfortunately, on the mag mount I've only got 17ft of cable else I'd go through the rear side window. I noticed there is a grommet on the pillar in between the doors. Anyone know if it goes all the way through?

 

Im not an expert on ground plane antenna's at all but if you were to weld or bolt a metal plate to the roof rack to mount the antenna in, and also potentially ground the roof rack to the vehicle, is that not large enough of a ground?

I have had bad experiences previously with magnetic antenna's tipping over and then floping around beating on things until you get pulled over to stand it back up, so i only hard mount them anymore, tired or hoping the magnet is strong enough, i know the wind won't tip over an antenna that i bolted down.

 

I drilled a hole using a Uni bit, sounds scare but really not that big a deal.
unibit makes a perfectly round hole.

the headliner pulls down without completely removing it.

 

there is a rubber grommet in the pillar up by the weatherstripping between the two doors. You can route your wires through there

 

it does. Thays what I ised to route the solar panel into the X. Take the grommet out and this will go through to your headliner. I then used carmex black silicone adhesive sealant to seal it.