so i picked up a used Yaesu FTM-400 a few months back and it sat on my desk forever while i figured out where to put it in my F-150. finally bit the bullet last weekend and did the install and overall im pretty happy with how it came out but i have a couple things bugging me.

first the antenna. i went with a Tram 1185 on a NMO mount drilled through the roof, ran the coax down the A pillar and under the carpet. signal seems good but i honestly have no baseline to compare to since this is my first mobile setup. is that antenna decent for general use or should i be looking at something else eventually? i mostly work the local repeaters but want to eventually do some simplex too.

second thing is the fan noise. when the radio is transmitting it kicks on the cooling fan pretty quick and its kinda loud. is that normal for the 400? the head unit is mounted on the dash and the main body is under the seat which i thought would help with the noise but you can still hear it pretty clearly. doesnt seem to be causing any issues just wondering if thats how they all are.

oh and i ran the power directly to the battery with a fused run, 12 gauge wire about 6 feet total. hope that was the right call

congrats on getting it mounted, doing the coax run down the A pillar is always the part that makes people give up halfway through lol. the Tram 1185 is honestly a solid antenna for what you're doing, nothing fancy but its efficient and the NMO mount with a roof drill is the right way to do it so you're ahead of a lot of people already. for local repeaters and regional simplex it'll do just fine. if you ever get deep into weak signal work you might want to look at something with a bit more gain but dont worry about that for now.

the fan on the FTM-400 yeah thats just how it is, mine kicks on pretty fast too especially in the summer. its not a problem its just the radio doing its thing. some guys put a little foam or velcro pad around the body unit to dampen it slightly but i wouldnt stress over it.

and yes running direct to battery with an inline fuse is exactly right, good job there. a lot of people tap into the fuse box and wonder why they have noise issues or voltage drop

im in almost the same situation, just did a mobile install in my Tacoma about a month ago with an IC-2730 so slightly different radio but similar deal. the battery direct run thing was the first thing my elmer told me to do and it made a noticeable difference compared to when i tried the fuse box first. you'll be glad you did it that way.

one thing i'll mention just because nobody told me until i had already been on the repeaters a while — check if your local repeaters have a PL tone you need to set, took me embarrassingly long to figure out why nobody could hear me on one of them even though i could hear everyone fine