I received my Lowrance BAJA 540c GPS today. I am very impressed with the quality of the unit. I am going to now make a custom steel bracket that will attach under the head liner above the rearview mirror. I am mounting the unit so that I will have access to the GPS controls. I don’t want it mounted over on the passenger side of the vehicle. I design and plan everything out in it’s location for driver access. I want to be able to scan the GPS while driving on the trail, etc. Once I design the mount, I will post some pics of the progress and dimensions for anyone else that would like to mount theirs in the same way.
I just finished making a prototype mount for the location. Here are some pics. The finshed mount will be made out of thicker steel, I used some thinner steel I had laying around in my shop to make the temp one out of.
This is the location I chose to mount mine, it's in easy reach and you can see the display.
A blury picture while I hold it up to the mounting lcation to see how the fit will be.
Mounted up in the desired location.
Well there you go, It's very bulky in the rear of the unit where all the cables go, these will be ran under the headliner out of view. In the pictures no cabling is hooked up to the unit.
I decided to make this my Install thread. I designed and built a mount for the GPS for the vehicle. The Lowrance unit comes with a "White" colored puck antenna. This will work great on all the other FJ's except the TRD SE's; because of the Black roof.
I was talking on the phone with Larry (uphill) about our Lowarance units. I told him I had made and mailed out a GPS bracket for him along with new hardware for mounting the unit. He wants to mount his in the same location as myself. I explained to him that I used a new product made by "Tool Dip" they make a rubber coating that you dip your tool handles in. I have used this product for years for all kinds of projects. I explained to Larry that they had a new product out instead of dipping, it's in a spray can. I decided to use a rubber coating instead of spray for more durability and since it's inside up next to the head liner the metal won't tear it up.
Well during our conversation I explained that I was going to have to paint my GPS Antenna Black to blend into the roof, that I didn't want it sticking out on top because it's white. Larry said you should use the same Black rubber coating that it would provide even better outside wear then black paint would, I agreed, that it would stand up alot better then the paint.
This morning I decided to go ahead a coat the GPS Antenna with the Tool Dip Spray. here is a pic of the unit.
I am waiting to install the Antenna unitl my ARB Half Roof rack comes in this Tuseday and my Custom One-Off BAJA Light bar arrives sometime in the next two weeks. Once these come in, I'll have a better idea on where I want the Antenna to be placed on the roof along with how and where I'm going to run all the wiring for the lights and antenna. I'll post up when everything is in.
I also updated the first page of the build site (The
RAPTOR) so that it's easier now to follow the build along with many new pictures.
