In-cab hard mounting locations for electronics?
In the 2017+ SuperCrew XL trucks, is there a place (or places) that are either intended for mounting small electronics, or that anyone has had good luck with?
Specifically, I have a PEPWAVE MAX BR1 MINI LTE mobile router in my truck (takes cellular networks and turns it into WiFi hotspot) that I've been trying to find a good mounting place for. Originally, I had intended to run aux power to behind the rear passenger seat where the factory spare tire jack is mounted—take a piece of aluminum plate maybe 7"x15" by 3/16" and put a 90 degree bend at the bottom and then drill holes where the spare tire mount can sit on top of the aluminum and the aluminum can share the factory bolt holes that hold in the jack bracket.
I've procrastinated on mounting the router and I've identified a flaw in my plan: the router takes a couple minutes to boot up and make connections with the cellular networks, so if it gets power cycled by the vehicle's power turning off it's a few minutes before it's usable again. So I've added a 12v uninterruptible power supply POWERSTREAM PST-Backup-Jr-5A, which is a little chunky (roughly 5"x6"x5") and doesn't easily fit in the same place I originally planned to mount the router.
So now here I am, where I probably should have started: do any of you have tips or secrets to share about mounting this kind of stuff? I'd rather not just go nuts with self-tapping screws, and it seems like Ford would have considered this for the benefit of fleets and upfitters?
Last edited by Super19SuperDuty; Dec 10, 2019 at 11:05 AM. Reason: adding annotated photo of my original idea for mounting location



