so ive been running a mag mount dual band for about two years on my truck and honestly its been fine but ive noticed the signal isnt as clean as id like especially when im doing linked repeater stuff where the other end is pretty far out. a buddy of mine keeps telling me to just drill through and do a proper NMO mount and yeah i know hes probably right but i keep putting it off because its a leased vehicle and also im just not confident about doing the drilling without screwing up the roof panel or the headliner.

anyway i finally started actually looking into it more seriously. the mag mount i have now is one of the comet ones, can't remember the exact model, sits on the roof centered pretty well. the antenna itself is a diamond NR770RNMO so technically its already NMO terminated but im just running it through one of those mag mount adapters. im losing some efficiency there i know.

has anyone done a through-hole NMO on a leased truck and lived to tell about it? or is there a lip mount or gutter clip option that actually performs close to a true roof mount without the drill? i dont really want to hear about the hatch mount solutions because the truck is a crew cab and it just doesnt work geometrically for me

yeah the mag mount adapter situation is definitely costing you something, probably not catastrophic but its not ideal. ive done NMO through-hole installs on a couple vehicles and honestly if you take your time its not that bad. the roof is the best spot electrically but theres a reason a lot of guys go with the lip mount on the rain gutter edge — its a solid ground plane connection and you dont have to touch the roof sheet metal at all.

the Proxel lip mounts and the Larsen ones are both decent, ive used the Larsen NMO-K lip mount on a silverado and it held fine even at highway speeds for over a year. you do lose a little compared to center-of-roof but for everyday repeater and linked stuff you wont notice. the real enemy is the coax run — if youre routing through a door seal or window gap and its getting pinched thats gonna hurt you more than the mount location.

if the lease is the concern i'd go lip mount, no question. put it back when you turn the truck in, nobody knows it was there.

i drilled my last lease, just patched it with a rubber grommet and a dab of sealant when i turned it in. dealership never said a word. but i realize thats not for everyone lol

the lip mount suggestion above is probably the smarter play. only thing id add is that the coax on those lip mounts tends to get pinched or chafed right at the crimp point over time, especially if the lip flexes at all. just something to keep an eye on if you go that route