So i've been running a little handheld clipped to my visor for about a year now and honestly it works okay for local repeaters but the audio is terrible and i keep missing calls when im driving. Finally decided to do a proper mobile install in my F-150 and picked up a Kenwood TM-V71A which i got a decent deal on used from a guy at the club swap meet.

Anyway the radio itself is great but im kind of lost on where to run the coax from the antenna. I mounted a mag mount on the roof for now (i know i know, not permanent) and right now the coax is just kind of going through my rear passenger door jamb which is not ideal at all. The door still closes fine but i dont love it and i figure if i do this right i might as well actually do it right.

Has anybody run coax through the firewall on a newer F-150? Im on a 2018 model and i can see there are some rubber grommets on the firewall but they look pretty stuffed already. Or should i try to find a way to go through the floor? Just looking for ideas before i start drilling anything i cant undo.

On my 2017 F-150 I went through the firewall on the driver's side, there's a factory grommet that already has some wires going through it but there's usually enough room to poke an RG-8X or LMR-240 through if you use a smooth piece of wire to guide it. I used a coat hanger to fish it through and it wasn't too bad, maybe 20 minutes of fiddling around. The tricky part is finding it from the engine bay side — it's kind of up and to the left near where the brake booster is, hard to describe but once you see it it's obvious.

Also if you're going permanent eventually I'd ditch the mag mount and look at a lip mount for the roof or drilling for a NMO. The mag mount will slide around on the highway and scratch up your paint over time. But you probably already know that, just saying for when you're ready.

yeah the door jamb thing drives me crazy when i see it, you're right to want to fix that. i did the same thing temporarily and ended up leaving it for like 8 months lol. what eventually got me moving was the coax jacket started cracking from the door pinching it.

the TM-V71A is a solid radio by the way, been running mine for a few years. the cross-band repeat feature is actually really handy if you ever need it. good luck with the install

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