External GPS antenna Mounting?
Submitted: Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 09:58
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25128
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Replies:
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Truckster (Vic)
Got the external for my Magellan Colour.. May as
well mount it somewhere.
Where have people mounted theirs, and how did you mount it? Double sided tape?
or...?
I've seen em on the
snorkel, but wondering if they get wiped out there while in the bush, not so much open road or desert landscape....
I've actually seen one between the wipers on that grilled bit bottom of windscreen, but dont think that would be much use!
Thoughts?
Reply By: Well 55 - Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 10:03
Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 10:03
The best spot I found Truckster was inside the
snorkel behind the grill.
AnswerID:
122496
Follow Up By: Truckster (Vic) - Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 10:07
Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 10:07
Hadn't thought of that!
Run the wire down the
snorkel with cable ties?
or
As I saw with one car which defeats the purpose a bit, he drilled a hole in the back of
snorkel at the base and put in a rubber grommet and about 12 tubes of silastic to stop water gettin in ran the cable down the inside of it...!
FollowupID:
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Reply By: Member - Roachie (SA) - Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 10:13
Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 10:13
Mine is on the roof rack. It is magnetic so it just sits on a small steel pad I made up and bolted to the front of the ARB rack.
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Follow Up By: Truckster (Vic) - Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 12:04
Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 12:04
yea pass on the roofrack! ;)
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Reply By: Shawn - Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 10:43
Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 10:43
G'Day Truckster,
Got
mine mounted on the bullbar between the spotties, was a bit worried initially about the satelite pickup due to the metal around but hasn't caused any problems. It always picks up 8-10 satelites. Cable is just long enough to feed throught the engine bay through the left side grommet on the firewall, with the ant. wire routed up behind the dash and under GPS (I have
mine mounted central on the dash)
Cheers
Shawn
AnswerID:
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Follow Up By: Truckster (Vic) - Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 10:58
Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 10:58
Cable length is also a worry...
FollowupID:
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Reply By: Mad Dog (Australia) - Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 10:49
Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 10:49
Bruce, because you spend a lot of time in the bush under a canopy the antenna will serve you best if it's up high with the best view of the sky you can afford so on the roof or top of the
snorkel is the go, any other position is a compromise.
AnswerID:
122504
Follow Up By: Truckster (Vic) - Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 10:57
Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 10:57
This is what I was thinking, but I was thinking higher would be better anyway... Will sus it out.
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Follow Up By: Mad Dog (Australia) - Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 11:04
Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 11:04
It's not critical in open desert type areas in fact you can get away without an external antenna in those areas but under a thick canopy is a different story. You've seen
mine in the middle of the roof...stunning performance in the bush.
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Follow Up By: Mad Dog (Australia) - Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 12:15
Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 12:15
Just drill little hole in the roof.
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Follow Up By: Truckster (Vic) - Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 12:16
Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 12:16
thought you were going to say that :P
NO!
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Follow Up By: Mad Dog (Australia) - Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 12:21
Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 12:21
lol...go on, it's a lot smaller than the hole for a sunroof.
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Follow Up By: Truckster (Vic) - Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 14:54
Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 14:54
I aint going to have one of them either!
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Reply By: Grinner - Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 11:01
Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 11:01
I've got one of those areial mounts that clamps onto the roof gutter. I made up a simple plate to adapt the GPS antenna to the mount. The cable just runs behind the door trim to the GPS unit.
Grinner :)
AnswerID:
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Reply By: KiwiAngler - Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 12:10
Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 12:10
Mounted INSIDE front window down low using small bracket and rubber suction.
AnswerID:
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Follow Up By: Truckster (Vic) - Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 14:53
Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 14:53
My GPS mounts on the dashpod, which is really on the windscreen, wondering if it would be any different with external ariel mounted inside..
EG wonder if it is more powerful in picking up V the GPS one...
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Follow Up By: KiwiAngler - Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 16:40
Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 16:40
An external aerial has a bigger 'footprint' than any of the aerials that come with the original unit so ftting one will definitely improve things but the differenc between mounting it 2 mtrs up on a roof rack and on the inside of the windscreen is nothing.
Remember the sattelittes that are providing the signal are 11000 nautical
miles above you so the 1.5 - 2.0mtrs difference between the dash and the roof rack aint gonna mean sqwat :-)
If you want peace of ind that:
it wont get blown off, stolen, broken, knocked off by tree etc etc and you don't want to:
dril holes, ru cable etc etc
Put it on the inside of the windscreen..To me it was a no-brainer:-)
over to you
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Follow Up By: Mad Dog (Australia) - Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 18:04
Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 18:04
Bruce, at the gps sat frequency of nearly 1.6 gigs any metal between the antenna and the sat will seriously degrade the signal from that sat.
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Reply By: MikeyS - Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 12:41
Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 12:41
Truckster- Once you get the antenna mounted, can you report how much of an improvement it makes. I've been thinking about getting an ext. antenna for my Meridian Color, but most of the time I seem to get what I think are reasonable fixes without one.
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Follow Up By: Truckster (Vic) - Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 14:48
Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 14:48
Yea, Im the same, but I have it, so may as
well try it LMAO.
sometimes when Im putting in a waypoint, it only has 2d, so rather get better fix if possible.
Will let u know
FollowupID:
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Follow Up By: 120scruiser - Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 15:14
Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 15:14
The external aerial makes a big difference.
I use an old Magellan Colourtrak and with out the external it takes ages to boot up and only finds a couple of sats. With the external on it boots up real quick and always gets at least 8 sats.
My external is a magnetic base about 5cm square and I just wack it on the roof just near the front door in front of the roof rack and run the cable down inside the door seal and to the unit on the dash. Never had any dramas up in the Watagans, Vic HC and Jenolan
state forest.
Just my 2 bobs worth.
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Follow Up By: MikeyS - Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 17:41
Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 17:41
I think others have now answered my question. Looks like that's going to be my next purchase. Now I'll just keep watching your thread 'cos I don't think there's any consensus on you question!?!
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Reply By: fourplayfull - Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 13:08
Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 13:08
Mine is same as kiwiangler - runs laptop ok - heavy canopy thru' Wadbilliga stopped intermittently , but had more important things to
check anyway .
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Reply By: Member - Luxoluk - Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 16:44
Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 16:44
The cable on the antenna is very thin and does not wear
well.....my experience anyway. Found best solution for me was to run it through the firewall and up from the front of the bonnet to the bullbar or the bonnet itself. When not in use just coil up and attach to firewall. Looked at the
snorkel but seemed too hard to achieve. Good luck which ever way you go. Cheers
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Reply By: Member - Jeff M (WA) - Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 17:14
Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 17:14
Not sure what yours is like, the one for my Garmin was magnetic but also had little rubber suction cups for glass mounting. Now I was always going to mount it outside (probally on the
snorkel) but I stuck it to the windscreen (behind the rear view mirror) as a tempory measure. IT'S STILL BLOODY THERE! ;-)
It's never budged and it works really
well, never drops out and normally have about 3-5m accuracy.
Just food for thought...
AnswerID:
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Reply By: Bob of KAOS - Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 18:18
Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 18:18
On the dash board as far forward as possible. The angle to the roof line is quite low and very little data is missed.
AnswerID:
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Reply By: Member - Phil G (SA) - Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 18:29
Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 18:29
On the Playdo, had it on the top of the
snorkel, held there with a big dob of black silicon.
On the
farm truck, just put a piece of loop velcro on the base and it sits on the dashmat.
Worked fine in both positions, but in SA we don't have to worry about too many trees :-))
Cheers
phil
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Reply By: AdrianLR - Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 22:25
Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 22:25
A mate's mushroom shaped unit is bolted to the bullbar and hasn't suffered any damage. There would be some shielding of satellites near the horizon behind the car but this would probably not be a major issue.
An advantage in having an external antenna is that you can mount the GPS away from the windscreen and avoid it frying.
Adrian
AnswerID:
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Follow Up By: Truckster (Vic) - Friday, Jul 29, 2005 at 15:53
Friday, Jul 29, 2005 at 15:53
I have seen those small white ones, But think they are Garmin only...?
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Follow Up By: AdrianLR - Friday, Jul 29, 2005 at 23:26
Friday, Jul 29, 2005 at 23:26
It was a Magellan unit but a few years old now so it may no longer be available.
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Reply By: Member - Cocka - Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 23:26
Thursday, Jul 28, 2005 at 23:26
Y' bought an EXTERNAL antenna then that's where it goes - outside. Mine sits on magnet on roof just above the windscreen, cable attached to R/rack and comes in through door trim, down & inside pillar, under dash top rug to GPS mounted on velcroe in front of SWMBO.
Power supply comes from continuous supply cigy plug mounted down under dash side wall beside her feet, keep it up high. Continuous power means it's never off from the time we leave & I keep all travelling data accurately. It's a b... when you turn off the ignit & GPS shuts down & you forget to turn it on next time you start off.
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Reply By: Woobla (WA) - Friday, Jul 29, 2005 at 00:41
Friday, Jul 29, 2005 at 00:41
Hi Truckster,
Just pulled a toyota gps system out of my wifes Camry and the aerial was stuck to a flat piece of metal which was fixed with double sided tape, under the dash and above the speedo. It was a little hard to get out and may have been a tad hard to fit in the first place but it was never out of range of a satellite in the 2 years we drove it. Best part was that there were no holes and no chance of it being damaged on the outside.
Hope this helps.
Jeff
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Reply By: Truckster (Vic) - Friday, Jul 29, 2005 at 13:37
Friday, Jul 29, 2005 at 13:37
waddaya know, mines magnetic too :D
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Follow Up By: Mad Dog (Australia) - Friday, Jul 29, 2005 at 14:10
Friday, Jul 29, 2005 at 14:10
Nearly as good as a polarizer then, go for it.
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Follow Up By: Truckster (Vic) - Friday, Jul 29, 2005 at 15:52
Friday, Jul 29, 2005 at 15:52
That I shall.
I'l put a flanno shirt under it to save the duco though...
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Reply By: prado_95 - Saturday, Aug 06, 2005 at 19:00
Saturday, Aug 06, 2005 at 19:00
Truckster
My GPS antenna have been on the top of the
snorkel for both cars.
They get a great view of the sky, and have not moved since being fitted.
Dave
AnswerID:
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