so ive been running a mag mount dual band on my F-150 for about two years now and its been fine mostly but i keep reading that a proper NMO mount through the roof is the way to go for signal. the mag mount sits on the roof toward the back and i get decent ground plane but i notice on longer drives the thing shifts a little and i have to readjust it when i get home.

anyway im thinking about doing a proper install with an NMO and running the coax through the weatherstripping down to the radio under the seat. the truck is a 2021 so im a little hesitant to drill through the roof obviously. has anyone done this recently on a newer truck and was it worth it versus just living with the mag mount? i mostly do local repeater work and some simplex when im out hiking access roads. not contesting or anything serious just want reliable comms.

also not sure if it matters but im running a Diamond NR770HNMO or whatever the comet equivalent is, cant remember right now.

did the NMO on my Tacoma a few years back and honestly yeah it made a noticeable difference, not night and day but the feedline loss alone from a good low-loss coax run beats whatever youre losing with a mag mount and its sketchy contact patch. the bigger deal for me was just the peace of mind knowing its not going anywhere at highway speeds.

drilling the roof on a newer truck is annoying but its not that scary if you take your time. just make sure you seal it properly with the NMO gasket and a little self-etching primer on the bare metal before you put everything together. ive seen guys skip that step and have rust rings under the mount within a year. run your coax through the door weatherstrip or the rear pillar depending on where your radio sits, most of the time you can tuck it in without any real modification. i used LMR-400 for my run and terminated it myself, overkill for VHF maybe but it was what i had.

mag mounts work fine for most people tbh. if youre just hitting local repeaters the difference is probably smaller than youd expect. i ran one for like 5 years before i finally did a proper mount and my signal reports were basically the same before and after, at least on the repeaters i normally use.

the real annoyance with mag mounts is the coax going through the door jamb or window — that wears the jacket over time and ive had two coax failures that way. if you do the permanent mount just for that reason alone its worth it.