I like to keep my GPS in the tray on top of the dash, mounted on a sandbag-type mount. I want to hardwire the power (I already know how to do this at the fuse panel) but need to find a way to have the power cable through the tray. Any cool ideas other than drilling a hole and using a rubber grommet to clean up the pass through?

 

The 2007 (and probably newer) F150 has the aux jack in the tray like you are talking about. The only thing I would do is install a power jack in that tray so you can plug your gps into it, rather than hardwiring it. Of course, when you upgrade your gps next year, the power connection will probably be incompatible.

 

To expand on this idea a little bit: Maybe install a 12v powered USB plug into the tray. Then if you upgrade or go with a different GPS, most units come with a cord that's USB on one end and whatever the unit itself need on the other end.
Or install another Power Point type plug (cigarette lighter style) in the tray. Then you can use the USB adapters that go into these.
After a little research, the first option I showed might not be possible because it seems that USB is stepped down to 5v. But the second one might still be doable.

 

and IF you GPS has traffic receiver.. you could loose that feature going hard wire.

I know Megallen and Garmin does loose it.

 

I thought about USB but also realized the voltage limitation. Great idea though.

No traffic receiver on my Garmin but that is a good point.

 

Can you post a photo of your dash? Some of use have a compartment in the middle of the dash.

 

 

What I would suggest to you is this. Pull the radio and see if you can drill a hole in the defrost duct. This will allow you bring a cable or two out the duct and no visible drill holes. You can take RTV or some other material to enclose the open area between the hole and the cable(s).

to remove radio....



Hope this solves your problem

 

You can do as Larry says without drilling any holes. When I removed the factory stereo and put in a new double DIN unit, I clipped the microphone for bluetooth telephone to the dash vent from the inside.
It just depends on if you mind seeing a plug dangling from the vent or not. You could always push it partially back into the vent and close the louver on it to make it less conspicuous. I'll try to get a pic posted of my microphone setup.

 

Very helpful!