Pete 387 and Satellite Radio Install

[rkeck]

Re: '07 387 company spec'd with factory am/fm/cd radio and no MP3 plug ... Anyone have any suggestions for antenna placement? I'm moving out of a Volvo where I had used a mirror-mount antenna. However there is no such place to mount this on a 387. I've seen the small magnet based antennas but where I'm I going to find any metal near the roor frame to set the antenna, then to route in the wire? I'm going to look into some sort of visor clip-on adaptor and a small magent base antenna.

And regarding the input or modulation into the radio ... I'll maybe ask about that later but hope to eventually pull the radio and replace with one with MP3 input or put in a modulator kit in behind radio somewhere.

I really don't understand why all truck mfgr's the last 2 years or so have not made ALL trucks standard with satellite radio activation option (factory installed antenna and system integrated into radio, with option to pay for service or not) ... this would probably add less than $100 to cost of truck but would save many hundreds in headaches and torn up equipment trying to adapt them to satellite radio.

Thanks in advance

[mike3fan]

I mount my magnetic antenna on the little convex mirror above the passenger window, not sure if the 387 has a metal mirror there or is it plastic?

I agree, Sirius/XM should have deals with all the OEM truck manufactures for factory installs just like they do for cars. Or atleast factory antenna/modualtion pre wired.

[chris1]

It is availible on all trucks. The company has to order it. There are deals for reduced price on sirius/xm for multiple units. Unlike auto's, trucks are order specific from ground up. The change from an am/fm/cd to satelite is about 70.00 list on a new truck.

[barf]

Must be a mirror with really fat bars that you can't put a mirror mount ant on it! If there's an accessible bolt you could always buy one of those metal plates meant for a magnetic antenna to go on.

As for factory satellite, my International came with Sirius. Small one line display on the radio sucks, and no extra features. I still use my XM Xpress RC. I doubt any factory radio, and haven't found any after market one, that has all the special features like pause, rewind, song storage, etc.

[flatbedder]

I had to buy one of the mushroom type antennas that comes with the air dam bracket and I mounted it on the visor. Its a little tough to get it on there but it works just fine. If you look close at my avatar pic you can see it on the passenger side. Hope this helps

[rkeck]

I think I'm going to get a small peice of steel (stainless?) , drill a hole, and bend it at a 45 and try to attatch it to the screw/well-nut on the passenger side just above the door (on the side of the visor). Then use one of the small magnetic base antennas. I'll stick it there with 2-sided tape if wind flow is too turbulent there for the magnet to hold in high wind situations.

Do you not worry about that configuration breaking the visor fiberglass at some point? I don't guess I've seen the "air dam" bracket you speak of.

[flatbedder]

No i really dont worry about it breaking the fiberglass. It has two bolts with pad type things that tighten it to the surface, kinda like what a C-clamp looks like, so theres no holes and it kinda spreads out the pressure instead of just a bolt being tightened against it. I got mine at TSSRadio.com, the antenna comes with a mirror mount and the air dam mount. Just thought id give you an idea

[rkeck]

Well, I ended up and did what I mentioned. I bought one of those plates that's designed to be mounted at the base of a CB antenna to support a magnetic Sat. antenna. I bent the plate at a 90 and bolted it to the side of the visor where there is one large phillips head bolt that bolts the visor to the side of the cab above the door. So far so so good. And it was a very simple adaptation and made for easy wire routing.

I also bought a $199 Delphi radio w/ integrated xm (pana pacific) at Petro Jopin that had the same plug module as the factory radio. It was a simple unpug/replug and done, and clean, with no wires. Only thing I don't like about the radio is it has no signal buffer and I suffer 1 second program loss under many bridges.