So I've been running a Yaesu FTM-300DR in my truck for about three months now and honestly the install has gone through like four different versions before I was happy with it. First I had it just sitting on the seat which was obviously dumb, then I tried one of those cheap console mounts from amazon which rattled like crazy every time I hit a bump on the highway.

What finally worked for me was going under the seat with the main body and running the control head up to a RAM mount on the dash. Took a whole afternoon to route the cables neatly but its so much cleaner now and I dont have stuff sliding around. The separation cable that comes with the 300DR is long enough to go under the seat and back up without any issues.

Audio was also a problem for a while — picked up a ton of ignition noise until I put a ferrite on the power leads close to the battery. Should have done that from the start but live and learn I guess. Anyone else do a separated head unit install in a truck, curious how others have handled the power routing. I went direct to battery with a 20A fuse close to the terminal and it seems solid.

yeah the ignition noise thing gets everyone at least once, I think its basically a rite of passage at this point. I had the same issue with my ID-5100 and it drove me nuts for weeks before someone at the club told me about the ferrite trick. Also worth checking your antenna feedline if the noise changes pitch with rpm rather than just being a constant hiss — that was a separate ground loop issue I had that turned out to be the antenna mount on my hatch not making good metal-to-metal contact. Once I scraped down to bare metal under the mount it cleared right up.

RAM mounts are the way to go for the head unit, mine has survived two years of rough dirt roads without budging. The adhesive ones make me nervous though so I always try to find a screw mount option if possible.

I just finished almost the exact same install in my Tacoma last week, weird timing. I went with the FTM-500DR instead because I wanted the APRS without needing an external TNC and the color screen is really nice in daylight. My only complaint so far is routing the power cable was a total pain on the Tacoma because of how tight everything is around the firewall grommet. Ended up using the existing grommet on the driver side and just barely squeezed the cable through. Direct to battery is definitely the right call, I tried running off the fuse box first and had all kinds of weirdness with the voltage dropping on transmit.