I'm trying to mount a external speaker somewhere in the front of the truck, so when I'm out of the truck I can hear our company's two way communication. Question is, could I use a upfitter switch to control the speaker being on and off? That speaker just has a positive and negative wire. Thanks.

Reason for the off switch being I'd hate to pull up to Church and hear "hell fire, Jim Smith ran out of concrete again!" coming front the front of the truck.

 

Yes, you can run it through an upfitter switch. Should be able to use one of the low-amp ones, too. Be sure that the negative is connected straight through to the speaker. switch the positive and you should be good to go. Cool idea!

 

AUX1 25A
AUX2 25A
AUX3 10A
AUX4 15A

 

I just got back from our Motorola dealer and he gave me a relay that when I'm inside the truck, the relay is relaxed, thus powering my speaker inside the truck, but then when I want to be outside, all I do is power up my upfitter switch, and volia the inside speaker shuts off and the outside one cranks up! Way more simple than I expected. Thanks for the replies though.

On another note, does anybody know how long I could run a radio for and not drain the battery? Or does this truck have a battery protection? If not, has anybody tried that battery saver out of the northern tools catalog that will kill the power and save the battery if it gets too low? The radio is a motorola CDM750. Thanks! I'll take pictures of my setup when I get the external installed.

 

Sounds cool lexus - looking forward to seeing the install pics!

 

I haven't run a radio of that type on a f350, but I have done both the Regular radio on a Tahoe as well as a similar type radio on a 08 250, you should be fine for a normal work day. those radios take very little. And if you are worried about it, use it half the day, start the truck for a spell, turn the truck off finish the day out.

 

PriorityStart - Stop Dead Batteries on Cars & Boats [Priority Start! Battery Protector]

this is the product i was talking about by the way....

 

it would be really cool if a device like that could tap into the trucks remote start capability and automatically start the engine is the batteries got too low.

 

This is a fantastic idea!!! the only problem I see is that what is "Low" for one truck is dead for another, but that should be something that can be accounted for by some switches or something ide think.

 

ImageShack® - Online Photo and Video Hosting
ImageShack® - Online Photo and Video Hosting
ImageShack® - Online Photo and Video Hosting
ImageShack® - Online Photo and Video Hosting
ImageShack® - Online Photo and Video Hosting

Here are some pics of my radio set-up. I have the Cobra 75WRXST for my CB. The mic includes everything you need to operate it. I have a external speaker mounted under the steering wheel to hear the CB transmissions. The antenna for the CB is mounted on my tool box on the passenger side. Range of this unit is 2 miles or so..... I just use it for communication between our earthmoving machines.

Now on to the the two-way radio. Its a Motorola CDM750 that we run a low band with no repeaters. Range for this truck to our base is 45 miles with a 164ft. base tower. Between other trucks is about 15-20 miles. Today I wired up a relay that will switch between an external speaker and a speaker in the cab under the steering wheel next to the CB speaker. All I have to do is flip my upfitter switch and it will toggle between the outside and inside speaker. Both of these radios turn on and off with the key. The external speaker is mounted right beside the fog light on the drivers side. Its away from road spray, but can still provide good sound.

I love this set-up because besides the two antennas, nobody knows I have any radios in the truck until they open the center console. I love a "stock" look inside the truck. I hate switches and things hanging from my beautiful dash panels

If anybody wants to do something like this I can provide more details. I don't want to toot my own horn, but this set-up is "dope" haha

Current Drain: Standby .4A
Rx @ rated, external 8 ohm speaker 1.5A

Can somebody tell me with the .4A standby drain on the battery, how long would it take to drain a battery? I know there are variables but I just want a round number....


EDIT: I tried to embed the phots, but just red boxes?? Can you fix it Crazy001?