so ive been running a mag mount Diamond on the roof of my F-150 for about two years now and honestly its been fine but i keep reading that a proper NMO mount is way better and i should just bite the bullet and drill. the antenna is a whip for 2m/70cm dual band, nothing fancy, mainly for hitting local repeaters and some simplex when im out in the hills.

thing is im a little nervous about drilling into the roof, i know its not a hard job but this truck is only 3 years old and the idea of putting a hole in it makes me hesitant. ive seen the lip mounts that go under the door frame or trunk lip and wondered if those are a decent middle ground or if theyre just kind of a compromise that nobody actually likes.

if anyone has done the NMO install on a modern pickup id be curious how it went and whether you really notice a difference on receive. the mag mount does occasionally shift when i go through a car wash which is mildly annoying but not a dealbreaker

drilled my 4Runner about 8 years ago and never looked back. the NMO connection is just cleaner all around, no lossy coax adapter situation and the ground plane is solid sheet metal instead of whatever the magnet can grab. yes you can feel the difference on weak signals coming off a distant repeater, not dramatic but its there.

for the drilling part, if you take your time and use a proper NMO hole saw bit, 3/4 inch, and put some self etching primer on the bare metal before the mount goes in, you wont have any rust issues. i used a little silicone under the mount flange too. been fine through winters with road salt and everything. the lip mounts are okay but youre adding a bunch of cable routing weirdness and the ground isnt as good, most guys i know who tried them ended up drilling anyway eventually

i put a lip mount on my jeep because i also didnt want to drill and honestly after about a year the cable got pinched at the door seal and i started getting noise into the receive. had to reroute the whole thing. so yeah, firsthand experience, they work but they're more hassle than they look in the youtube videos