alright so i finally pulled the trigger on a Yaesu FTM-300DR after going back and forth on it for probably two months. been doing a lot of reading about mobile installs and i think i have a general idea but wanted to run it by some folks who've actually done this before i start making holes in my truck.

the truck is a 2019 F-150 and im planning to mount the head unit down near the center console area and run the control cable back to the main body which i was going to stick under the rear seat or maybe in that little storage compartment thing. the antenna is where im really not sure - i was looking at a NMO mount on the roof but the idea of drilling through the roof of a truck i just paid off makes me a little nervous. someone suggested a lip mount on the edge of the cab but ive heard those can have grounding issues?

also the power - do i really need to run it all the way back to the battery? i read some posts saying you absolutely have to for a 50W radio and others saying a fused connection to the fuse box is fine. the battery is way up front on this truck so its kind of a long run either way. just want to do this right the first time if possible.

congrats on the 300DR, thats a solid radio for a first mobile setup. okay so a few things from someone who has done way too many of these installs over the years.

on the antenna - your instinct about the lip mount grounding issues is correct, they can be hit or miss and you'll often get a compromised ground plane that hurts your pattern and efficiency. a proper NMO through the roof is really the gold standard for a reason. i know it feels scary but if you use a good quality mount and seal it properly with self-amalgamating tape, it's really not a big deal. ive had the same hole in my jeep for six years, no leaks, no problems. the signal difference between a good roof mount and a so-so lip mount is noticeable especially on receive.

on the power question - run it to the battery, full stop. a 50W FM radio can pull around 10-12 amps on transmit and you really dont want that going through your fuse box wiring. use at least 12 gauge wire, fuse it within about 18 inches of the battery on both positive and negative, and route it away from anything that produces interference. the extra effort is worth it and you only have to do it once.

I just did basically the same thing in my Tacoma last spring with an FTM-500 so the process is pretty similar. The battery run felt intimidating but honestly once I got under the hood and found the grommet to feed the wire through the firewall it was way easier than I expected. YouTube has some good videos specific to F-150s for finding the firewall grommets, worth searching before you start.

One thing nobody told me that I wish I'd known - label both ends of every wire before you button everything up. Sounds obvious but I didn't do it and spent an annoying afternoon trying to figure out what went where when I had to pull the seat out later for something unrelated.