Mounting a Kenwood TM-D710 in a 2009 Subaru Legacy
Last year we bought a new car. After careful evaluation we chose
a 2009 Subaru Legacy. Unfortunately, that evaluation didn't
include checking where the ham radio would fit. And it turns out
that there is no "under dash" space where a mobile rig can be mounted!
Some searching with Google led me to this
web page, where other people
have reported their solutions to this problem. From this page I
learned of the ProClip product line. The ProClip system consists
of a "vehicle mount", which is custom-tailored to each model of car,
and the "device holder," which is custom-made for a variety of handheld
devices (cell phones, PDAs, iPods, and so on). For most vehicles
there are several mounting options; I was particularly interested in
mounting on the side of the center console.
Right away I realized that I'd have to use a rig that has a separate
control head. Well, we needed a new mobile rig anyway, so I
started comparing features, and finally chose the Kenwood
TM-D710. But that's another story.
This left the question of a device holder. ProClip supports many
devices, but ham radios are not among them. So I sent an email to
ProClip Canada, asking their advice, and got a very helpful answer from
Mark, who is also a ham. Mark recommended attaching a "move clip"
to the back of the radio's control head. The "move clip" is
ProClip's system for easily switching devices on a single mount (or one
device in multiple vehicles) -- it consists of a clip that attaches to
the vehicle mount, and a mating clip that attaches to the device.
This worked perfectly, as you will see below.
The Subaru console mount
This is how the "console mount" attaches to the passenger side of the
Legacy's center console. No drilling is required. You can
also see the move clip mounted on the console mount (more on this
below), and the cable running from the back, which will plug into the
rig's control head.
This is a view of the console mount from above. The move clip is
mounted sideways, on the lower half of the console mount, using two
screws. The move clip has a slightly angled slot, which is a bit
wider on the right. This lets the control head slide in from the
right, which works a lot better than trying to slide the control head
down from above.
The "Move Clip"
This shows the matching move clip on the back of the control
head. The move clip is fastened on the left side of the control
head as it is shown here. You can see that it has a slight wedge
shape -- this wedge slides into the wedge-shaped slot on the matching
move clip (on the console mount). The clip is fastened to the
control head with double-stick adhesive; I did a few "dry runs" to get
the placement of the control head right before using the
adhesive. I was also careful that this didn't obstruct any
connectors.
The final result
This is the end result. The rig slides onto the console mount,
and friction holds it firmly in place. All of the dashboard
controls are accessible, the storage compartment above the stick shift
is unobstructed, and the gear shift is unobstructed through its full
range.
Here's the side view. The passenger hasn't lost any leg
room. You can just barely see the cable that plugs into the side
of the control head; it's the left side of the control head, but it's
on the top side when the control head is mounted sidewise like
here. The cable runs back between the console and the passenger
seat.
The "remote unit" of the TM-D710
I thought about mounting the remote unit in the trunk, but finally
decided to mount it under the passenger seat. (There's no room
under the driver's seat.)
Four cables go to the left, The grey bundled-up cable goes to the
control head; the excess cable is stored here. From the rig you
can see a red cable going to a white coupler; the microphone plugs into
the top side of the coupler and runs forward between the console and
passenger seat. (The microphone cable by itself is not quite long
enough to reach the rig; this provides a short extension.) You
can just see a skinny grey cable going under the center console; this
is the speaker cable, and runs to the other side of the center console,
and then forward to a small extension speaker next to the driver.
Finally, the red/black pair is 12v power, which runs to an accessory
outlet inside the center console.
At lower right you can see the fifth cable, the coax to the
antenna. This runs back past the fold-down rear seat cushion into
the trunk area, and then up to a dual-band antenna which is mag-mounted
to the front of the trunk lid. Subaru advised that the antenna be
mounted on the back half of the car, because the front of the car has
several air-bag systems which might be susceptible to RFI.
