I thought I'd share after a challenging day of getting my ham radio mounted.
Regarding the ham radio, I used a stake pocket mount from Breed Love mounts in the far rear passenger side stake pocket, and ran the coax under the lip of the bed, through the knockout in the bed toward the cab, and passed it through an existing grommet that is behind the rear passenger seat, pull the carpet wall back, poke through. (And deal with black goop). That gets cable into truck for antenna.
Next.. the simple part, power. I decided to tie my ham radio to up fitter 1.. it's fused, I can flip it off when needed, I don't want it on an 'always on' (and my last 2 switches are already configured for always on, for my e-ink license plate that hooks into them. I put it on an up fitter so I can kill the LTE radio when I feel like).
Now, re-posting some facts about upfitter wiring, since there are a million posts about it and most tell you to read a bunch of other places:
On a 2021 F250, the upfitter wires come straight from the upfitter fuse box, in the engine compartment, passenger side. It's easy to push the two clips and pull the small fuse box up, and you can remove the black tape, and all of the upfitter switches are there and labeled. By default, none of them are 'always on', you have to move a fuse in that small box to change that, read your manual. Switches 5/6 can be made always on, but they are also your fatter 2 cables and higher amp. For some electronic noobs, there is no 'negative wire'. Your device will take power from one of those upfitter wires, and your return wires goes to ground (ie, your frame, not back to the upfitter wires.
Now, where are the 'upfitter wires' in the cab? Technically there aren't any. There are pass-thru wires, which are literally a couple feet of wires, cut off on both ends, that run through the firewall. On the inside of the cab, you move the small panel by the passengers right foot.. you'll see a bundle of PTO wires, those are *not* your pass thru wires. Your passthru wires are *not* bundles with those wires. Every wire in that bundle goes back to a connector, which isn't pass-thru. If you find the most uncomfortable position you can get your body in (head to the floor, flash light up) and peer up into the darkness behind all the bundles of wires.. you should see a 4 wires going into a single taped/cap. Those are your pass thru wires. No, they don't get any longer. To actually attach to them, will be a pain in your butt.
Now, where are they on the other side of the truck, in the engine bay? In my 2021 F250 Tremor, you can not see them at all from above the engine bay. You can't see them at all laying on a creeper under the truck either. My average male hands/arms also can't reach around the batteries and fuse boxes and touch them.
I had to break out a scope camera to actually find them, the 4 wires are annoyingly tapes to another loom, under the main fuse box relay. These are also, generally not long enough to actually wire anything to without disassembling the truck. (You then have to run a wire from the pass-thru, to the wire you want to use from your upfitter bundle. These actually DO reach each other, if you take apart your truck).
With that said, here are six simple ways to access the blunt cut pass-thrus:
1. Don't order a truck with wheel well liners. Turn your wheels to the left, pop a Motrin, get on your creeper, and wheel under the truck.. Reach up with a knife, cut the wires loose. You can now touch the wires. You won't really be able to actually wire to them. (You may also be able to just reach over your tire. I don't know, removing my existing wheel well liners looked like a 'it'll never be the same' situation)
2. Blow up your engine. When Ford has your engine out of the bay to replace it, they will likely have also removed your battery, battery tray, and fuse boxes. At this point, you can reach the blunt cuts and wire what you want.
3. Go to MIT and get a double degree in robotics and nano technology, invent little nano robots that can carry wires and solder for you.
4. There is no simple way.
5. There is no simple way.
6. There is no simple way.
In the end, I ended up running a wire from the up fitters, over the wheel well, along the body and came in behind the cab where I had the antenna enter. It's not ideal to have power parallel to antenna cable, but I didn't really want to cut the existing grommet in the truck bay, even though that seems to be what just about everyone else ends up doing.
Hope this helps!
Happy weekend folks
Regarding the ham radio, I used a stake pocket mount from Breed Love mounts in the far rear passenger side stake pocket, and ran the coax under the lip of the bed, through the knockout in the bed toward the cab, and passed it through an existing grommet that is behind the rear passenger seat, pull the carpet wall back, poke through. (And deal with black goop). That gets cable into truck for antenna.
Next.. the simple part, power. I decided to tie my ham radio to up fitter 1.. it's fused, I can flip it off when needed, I don't want it on an 'always on' (and my last 2 switches are already configured for always on, for my e-ink license plate that hooks into them. I put it on an up fitter so I can kill the LTE radio when I feel like).
Now, re-posting some facts about upfitter wiring, since there are a million posts about it and most tell you to read a bunch of other places:
On a 2021 F250, the upfitter wires come straight from the upfitter fuse box, in the engine compartment, passenger side. It's easy to push the two clips and pull the small fuse box up, and you can remove the black tape, and all of the upfitter switches are there and labeled. By default, none of them are 'always on', you have to move a fuse in that small box to change that, read your manual. Switches 5/6 can be made always on, but they are also your fatter 2 cables and higher amp. For some electronic noobs, there is no 'negative wire'. Your device will take power from one of those upfitter wires, and your return wires goes to ground (ie, your frame, not back to the upfitter wires.
Now, where are the 'upfitter wires' in the cab? Technically there aren't any. There are pass-thru wires, which are literally a couple feet of wires, cut off on both ends, that run through the firewall. On the inside of the cab, you move the small panel by the passengers right foot.. you'll see a bundle of PTO wires, those are *not* your pass thru wires. Your passthru wires are *not* bundles with those wires. Every wire in that bundle goes back to a connector, which isn't pass-thru. If you find the most uncomfortable position you can get your body in (head to the floor, flash light up) and peer up into the darkness behind all the bundles of wires.. you should see a 4 wires going into a single taped/cap. Those are your pass thru wires. No, they don't get any longer. To actually attach to them, will be a pain in your butt.
Now, where are they on the other side of the truck, in the engine bay? In my 2021 F250 Tremor, you can not see them at all from above the engine bay. You can't see them at all laying on a creeper under the truck either. My average male hands/arms also can't reach around the batteries and fuse boxes and touch them.
I had to break out a scope camera to actually find them, the 4 wires are annoyingly tapes to another loom, under the main fuse box relay. These are also, generally not long enough to actually wire anything to without disassembling the truck. (You then have to run a wire from the pass-thru, to the wire you want to use from your upfitter bundle. These actually DO reach each other, if you take apart your truck).
With that said, here are six simple ways to access the blunt cut pass-thrus:
1. Don't order a truck with wheel well liners. Turn your wheels to the left, pop a Motrin, get on your creeper, and wheel under the truck.. Reach up with a knife, cut the wires loose. You can now touch the wires. You won't really be able to actually wire to them. (You may also be able to just reach over your tire. I don't know, removing my existing wheel well liners looked like a 'it'll never be the same' situation)
2. Blow up your engine. When Ford has your engine out of the bay to replace it, they will likely have also removed your battery, battery tray, and fuse boxes. At this point, you can reach the blunt cuts and wire what you want.
3. Go to MIT and get a double degree in robotics and nano technology, invent little nano robots that can carry wires and solder for you.
4. There is no simple way.
5. There is no simple way.
6. There is no simple way.
In the end, I ended up running a wire from the up fitters, over the wheel well, along the body and came in behind the cab where I had the antenna enter. It's not ideal to have power parallel to antenna cable, but I didn't really want to cut the existing grommet in the truck bay, even though that seems to be what just about everyone else ends up doing.
Hope this helps!
Happy weekend folks
