so ive been running a mag mount on my truck for about two years now, diamond SG7900 dual band, and honestly its been fine but i keep reading that a proper NMO through-the-roof mount is way better for ground plane and radiation angle and all that. the mag mount does slide around a little when i go through a car wash and i did scratch the roof once which was annoying.

the thing is im not sure i want to drill a 3/4 inch hole in a truck i still owe payments on, plus i dont totally understand what the real world difference would be on 2m and 70cm. like would i actually notice it on the repeater or is this one of those marginal gains things that only matters on paper. my commute is about 40 miles each way and i hit a few spots where the signal gets iffy through some hills.

anyone actually switched from mag to NMO and noticed a real difference, or am i overthinking this

did the same swap on my F150 about three years ago, went with a Larsen NMO mount through the roof center. honestly yes, there is a noticeable difference but maybe not as dramatic as some people make it out to be. the feedline routing is cleaner, no more worrying about the coax getting pinched in the door, and the antenna stays put no matter what. on 2m i did seem to pick up a couple of the farther out repeaters a bit more reliably, hard to say exactly how much of that was the mount vs just having better coax routing with less loss.

the hole thing sounds scary but if you use a proper NMO mount with the rubber gasket and seal it right it wont leak. ive had mine for years and zero issues. i actually went through three mag mounts before i just committed to doing it right. the paint touch up on the underside of the roof skin is the most annoying part tbh

mag mounts work fine for most people, dont let anyone talk you into drilling your truck if youre not comfortable with it. that said if youre hitting marginal spots on your commute the coax on a lot of mag mounts is pretty lossy especially the ones that come bundled with the antenna. id check what youre running first before assuming its the mount causing issues.