3rd gen 4runner/1st gen Taco auxiliary radio mounts: Ideas/Photos?

Martinjmpr

Wiffleball Batter
Last month I picked up (Dirt cheap!) a nice Kenwood 2m mobile unit (TM-261A.) Hooked it up to 12v power last night to confirm that it works, and it does. :wings: It does have a minor "issue", the DTMF keypad on the mike doesn't work, although all other mike features do. Still, for $50 it was a steal and it came in the original box with the manual.

So now my quandary is: Where do I mount it? If it was a detachable-face unit, that would be easy. But it's not. It's a little smaller than a DIN size, so I guess I could try to mount it underneath my single-DIN aftermarket head unit. However, there are two things that make that unattractive:

1. I have zero experience pulling a dash apart to mount a radio like this, and

2. I am concerned about heat from a unit that can put out 40w - 50w of power. The radio actually has a huge heat sink on the back of it and my concern is that if that thing heats up and it's right underneath my head unit, it could damage the head unit.

So now the question is "where?" I looked at it last night and the only possible ways I could figure out would be:

1. On the right side of the transmission hump, facing upwards

2. On the dashboard.

Transmission - hump mounted (just to the right of the console) would be easier but would intrude into the passenger's space. I'd also be a little concerned about drinks spilling onto the radio.

Mounting on the dashboard - I'm not sure how you mount something to the soft material on the dash. Presumably, if you drill deep enough you hit some harder plastic, but how deep? And what kind of connectors? I hate the way it would look up on the dash but at least it would be accessible and out of the way. And my 4runner is not so pristine that I'd be opposed to drilling in the dash (although it wouldn't be my first choice.)

For those of you who have mounted auxiliary radios in your 3rd gen 4runners/1st gen Tacos, how have you done it? can you post pictures? Any other ideas of where to mount?

Thanks in advance for any ideas. :ylsmoke:
 

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