2023 Sarge Rubicon 392XR AEV JL370

[muzicman]

I also ordered a Midland 575 (the VP4-WHIP variant which comes with the MXTA24 Low Profile Cable, and MXTA26 6dB Gain Whip Antenna). It also comes with a mount I won't use, and a mic extension cable which is nice to have, in case it's needed. The VP4-WHIP variant is $60 more than the standard version, but the MXTA26 antenna alone is $59.99, and the MXTA24 cable is $29.99, so I felt it was a decent value. I also ordered their MXTA25 Ghost antenna for times that I don't need the additional range and want something lower profile).


I'm still not 100% sure where I'm going to mount the antenna (or the radio, for that matter). I'm leaning toward the American Adventure Labs Cowl Antenna Bracket for the GMRS radio, but the tire carrier mast is still an option (just a pain in the ass to do the run through the tailgate and up to the front of the Jeep).

I mounted my Midland antenna on the Mast and had the cable under the front seats. Tucked/Hidden everywhere except a little bit shows on the passenger side back seat. I am planning on powering it up this weekend and mounting it under the driver's seat as the Epic Kraken is going in the passenger side. On the mast, I may keep the driver's side light only, and move the antenna to the passenger-side position instead of the middle, may look better, and I am not sure I need two of the S1 lights for Chase/Dust.

Sponsored

 

[392OVRLND]

I mounted my Midland antenna on the Mast and have the cable up under the front seats. Tucketd/Hidden everywhere except a little bit shows on passenger side back seat. I am planning on powering it up this weekend and mounting it under the drivers seat as the Epic Kraken is going in the passenger side.

I've run HAM antennas on top of the mast on the last 2 Jeeps, and the runs through the Jeep were fully hidden... But, it's still a pain in the ass compared to the cowl mount, which makes a clean installation really easy. We'll see.

I have run wayyyy too much wire in my day. I used to be an MECP certified installer at Best Buy and before that, my friends and I ran our own car audio installation business out of one of their garages in high school... plus all the Jeep wiring I've done.

I hate wiring at this point.

I'm going to be going with the driver's side ARB Twin compressor mount from American Adventure Labs, so the area under the passenger seat will be open.

 

[bobholthaus]

I mounted my Midland antenna on the Mast and have the cable up under the front seats. Tucketd/Hidden everywhere except a little bit shows on passenger side back seat. I am planning on powering it up this weekend and mounting it under the drivers seat as the Epic Kraken is going in the passenger side.

Would like to see pics of the Ghost on the mast; that's where mine is going. In my JK, I tucked the radio behind the glove box and use THIS from Amazon to be able to quick disconnect my mic (mounted it down low below the glovebox where you couldn't see it when it was not in use). I decided last night that I will use a Bulletpoint bolt mount and a small arm with a Bulletpoint mic holder, which will get the handle closer to my righth hand, but still totally out of the way. Used this similar setup in my JK and I loved it.

I can't wait to see what you decide to do!! I love this stuff... and just saw your post about wiring. I'm getting tired of it as well; so much so that I've asked AEV if they'll pull my antenna wiring through the tailgate while they have it apart!!

 

[392OVRLND]

Would like to see pics of the Ghost on the mast; that's where mine is going. In my JK, I tucked the radio behind the glove box and use THIS from Amazon to be able to quick disconnect my mic (mounted it down low below the glovebox where you couldn't see it when it was not in use). I decided last night that I will use a Bulletpoint bolt mount and a small arm with a Bulletpoint mic holder, which will get the handle closer to my righth hand, but still totally out of the way. Used this similar setup in my JK and I loved it.

I can't wait to see what you decide to do!! I love this stuff... and just saw your post about wiring. I'm getting tired of it as well; so much so that I've asked AEV if they'll pull my antenna wiring through the tailgate while they have it apart!!

67Designs for the win. I have their Series 55 Rail mount with 3 ball mounts sitting on my workbench waiting for a warm enough day to install the 3M VHB tape. It has been in the negatives here (an honest -8F the last two mornings... it's finally up to 37F today, but I need 65-68F for the tape to adhere properly)... It also reuses the two OEM fasteners along with two additional fasteners, but I would rather the VHB tape be sharing the load.

It's the same thing I used in my last JL, and I love it.

I'm not a fan of Bulletpoint, as they are a 67D copycat and I also can't stand their cringey gun culture inspired logos (and I say that as a... former... gun owner that, um, lost all of his guns in a horrifically tragic boating accident).

 

[jhackathorne]

Last night I pulled the trigger on some RedLine Tuning hood struts as I have always hated the hood prop on wranglers and the 392 hood has some pretty decent weight to it with the Hydro-Guide system attached.

I also ordered a Midland 575 (the VP4-WHIP variant which comes with the MXTA24 Low Profile Cable, and MXTA26 6dB Gain Whip Antenna). It also comes with a mount I won't use, and a mic extension cable which is nice to have, in case it's needed. The VP4-WHIP variant is $60 more than the standard version, but the MXTA26 antenna alone is $59.99, and the MXTA24 cable is $29.99, so I felt it was a decent value. I also ordered their MXTA25 Ghost antenna for times that I don't need the additional range and want something lower profile).

I'm still not 100% sure where I'm going to mount the antenna (or the radio, for that matter). I'm leaning toward the American Adventure Labs Cowl Antenna Bracket for the GMRS radio, but the tire carrier mast is still an option (just a pain in the ass to do the run through the tailgate and up to the front of the Jeep).

I also have a spare 50-watt BTECH UV-50X3 Tri Band (HAM) radio laying around that I was going to put in my old JLU (the same radio I used in my old JKU) but never got around to it... I may eventually install that, but not really sure. If I do, I'd probably put the antenna for it on the tire carrier mast, which is another reason to go with the cowl mount for the GMRS antenna.

Several other items are sitting in my shopping carts on various websites, so stay tuned.

It's hard to justify running the wiring to the back when it is so easy to mount on the cowl. The AAL mount is nice and if I had seen that, I may have gone that route. I am running the Topsy fender mount and Cooltech mic mount.

 

[392OVRLND]

It's hard to justify running the wiring to the back when it is so easy to mount on the cowl. The AAL mount is nice and if I had seen that, I may have gone that route. I am running the Topsy fender mount and Cooltech mic mount.

Exactly! It's a much easier location and just as functional. In reality, IF there is any actual performance gain from mounting the antenna on the tire carrier mast, it is so little as to be imperceivable. And, if you're so far away from other people and / or repeaters such as to be hoping an imperceivable performance difference is going to save your bacon in an emergency, you'd better be carrying an InReach or SPOT device.

 

[jhackathorne]

Exactly! It's a much easier location and just as functional. In reality, IF there is any actual performance gain from mounting the antenna on the tire carrier mast, it is so little as to be imperceivable. And, if you're so far away from other people and / or repeaters such as to be hoping an imperceivable performance difference is going to save your bacon in an emergency, you'd better be carrying an InReach or SPOT device.

Exactly. We have tested range while heading back from the gulches this past year and had about 1 mile range on the highway. I am running the ghost antenna and not sure what the others had off the top of my head. But we are always close on a trail so what we need and use it for, works just fine. I carry a ACR ResQLink PLB. Not ability to text, but it serves the purpose in case of recovery in an emergency.

 

[muzicman]

Would like to see pics of the Ghost on the mast; that's where mine is going. In my JK, I tucked the radio behind the glove box and use THIS from Amazon to be able to quick disconnect my mic (mounted it down low below the glovebox where you couldn't see it when it was not in use). I decided last night that I will use a Bulletpoint bolt mount and a small arm with a Bulletpoint mic holder, which will get the handle closer to my righth hand, but still totally out of the way. Used this similar setup in my JK and I loved it.

I can't wait to see what you decide to do!! I love this stuff... and just saw your post about wiring. I'm getting tired of it as well; so much so that I've asked AEV if they'll pull my antenna wiring through the tailgate while they have it apart!!

See (post #121) in this thread for the Ghost on the Mast pic. I went Bulletpoint as well. WIll do a build thread soon so as not to keep hijacking this one <3 392OVRLND

 

[392OVRLND]

Exactly. We have tested range while heading back from the gulches this past year and had about 1 mile range on the highway. I am running the ghost antenna and not sure what the others had off the top of my head. But we are always close on a trail so what we need and use it for, works just fine. I carry a ACR ResQLink PLB. Not ability to text, but it serves the purpose in case of recovery in an emergency.

Exactly. We have tested range while heading back from the gulches this past year and had about 1 mile range on the highway. I am running the ghost antenna and not sure what the others had off the top of my head. But we are always close on a trail so what we need and use it for, works just fine. I carry a ACR ResQLink PLB. Not ability to text, but it serves the purpose in case of recovery in an emergency.

I've got the Garmin InReach Explorer+ with unlimited texting. That would be the first thing I reached for in an actual emergency. It's not 1968 anymore, I'm not going to pick up my HAM radio to try and hail a SAR team.

The amount of work that some off-road enthusiasts put into comms makes me chuckle, especially the overland community... "Hey YouTube, today we are going to go through trail comms in our rig... We have a CB, then we have a backup CB in case that fails, and then we have not one, but TWO, 50-watt GMRS radios because redundancy is the code by which we live, and then you'll notice we have 7 HAM radios so that we can talk on individual channels to amateur radio enthusiasts on every continent simultaneously. Of course we can't hold that many radios at once, but we could do it if we had 7 hands. Also, you'll notice our Garmin InReach Explorer+ that we will absolutely use first and foremost in any real emergency."

The only reason the group I travel with was using HAM in the first place was that it provided better range and quality of communication than other radios at the time (mobile GMRS radios hadn't caught up yet, and CB has always sucked for trail comms), however with the advent of mobile 50-watt GMRS radios and satellite-based SAR devices, the advantage of HAM as a solution for trail comms has decreased. Even as a method of getting help in an emergency, satellite-based communicators are superior.

If you're a licensed HAM operator and you know what you're doing, it's still the best form of radio communication, but for the everyday user that needs something for trail comms, GMRS is totally fine. We have tested at 10, 15, and 20 miles of range with our 50-watt HAM radios while out on the trail exploring BLM land, and my friend mentioned with the Midland 575 they were getting 20 miles of range with GMRS in the mountains of Arizona.

HAM is still great for amateur radio hobbyist, but if need help and I need it right now, I'm using my Garmin InReach every single time. I can either hit the SOS button and a SAR team will be inbound to my coordinates or, if I need help and it's not an emergency, I can shoot a text to someone back home letting them know where I am so they can send the appropriate help my way.

 

[392OVRLND]

I went Bulletpoint as well.

Y'all both should be ashamed for defiling your JL370s with those gun culture cringey cringe logos.

Actual conversation at Bulletpoint HQ during founding of the company:
"So, let's just copy 67Designs but make the base look a little different. But let's definitely use the same arms. Oh, and the same mounts. Oh and LET'S MAKE OUR LOGO THE AMERICAN FLAG BUT MADE OUT OF BULLETS IT WILL BE SO COOL BRUUUHHHHH"

Edit: I would laugh react at my own post if I could.

 

[muzicman]

Y'all both should be ashamed for defiling your JL370s with those gun culture cringey cringe logos.

Didn't realize, not a major gun guy (only have 1 9mm pistol), and honestly bought it because it was quick and easy from Amazon. I didn't even notice the graphics as my phone is always covering it up (see below) I like the flexibility of your design better, but at this point I'm $300+ in mount & goodies, so stuck for the time being. I still have the tablet mount to figure out for my OnX Offroad and related goodies. I will move the Midland down to grab bar mount when I put the tablet in.

 

[muzicman]

I'm not a fan of Bulletpoint, as they are a 67D copycat and I also can't stand their cringey gun culture inspired logos (and I say that as a... former... gun owner that, um, lost all of his guns in a horrifically tragic boating accident).

That sounds like a story for over a cold beverage after a great day on the trails

 

[392OVRLND]

Didn't realize, not a major gun guy (only have 1 9mm pistol), and honestly bought it because it was quick and easy from Amazon. I didn't even notice the graphics as my phone is always covering it up (see below) I like the flexibility of your design better, but at this point I'm $300+ in mount & goodies, so stuck for the time being. I still have the tablet mount to figure out for my OnX Offroad and related goodies. I will move the Midland down to grab bar mount when I put the tablet in.

Well, at least you're not putting a SWITCHPRO in your Jeep instead of the vastly superior sPOD!

I will keep teasing y'all occasionally to see if I can make you spend your money to buy the 67D mount (at least the piece that holds the phone). I like to help other people spend their money.

That's why I took my friend with me to AEV HQ... Now he's calling Jackson about ordering a PXL. I hope he pulls the trigger so I can remind him that I helped him spend six figures of his money.

I would suggest keeping the weight of the tablet off the dash mount and buying the ball mount that Carolina Metal Masters makes which replaces the screw in the grab bar close to the center console. CMM also makes a universal mount that goes on either side of the console that can hold holsters, or mic mounts, which is another way you could get the Midland handheld off the dash. I had both of these in my old JL.

Also, looking at your mounts, it's recommended that you rest the arm on the dash to help support the weight of the device (especially off-road). Probably doesn't matter much for the radios over on the right because they're light, but it would help with the phone (and if you put the tablet on the dash, definitely have the arm rest on the dash to support the weight).

 

[muzicman]

Well, at least you're not putting a SWITCHPRO in your Jeep instead of the vastly superior sPOD!

I will keep teasing y'all occasionally to see if I can make you spend your money to buy the 67D mount (at least the piece that holds the phone). I like to help other people spend their money.

That's why I took my friend with me to AEV HQ... Now he's calling Jackson about ordering a PXL. I hope he pulls the trigger so I can remind him that I helped him spend six figures of his money.

I would suggest keeping the weight of the tablet off the dash mount and buying the ball mount that Carolina Metal Masters makes which replaces the screw in the grab bar close to the center console. CMM also makes a universal mount that goes on either side of the console that can hold holsters, or mic mounts, which is another way you could get the Midland handheld off the dash. I had both of these in my old JL.

Also, looking at your mounts, it's recommended that you rest the arm on the dash to help support the weight of the device (especially off-road). Probably doesn't matter much for the radios over on the right because they're light, but it would help with the phone (and if you put the tablet on the dash, definitely have the arm rest on the dash to support the weight).

Thanks for the mounts and the support tips!

 

[392OVRLND]

Thanks for the mounts and the support tips!

I blame you for the fact that I just spent over $500 with CMM after this conversation...

I bought the mounts for the mirrors (which I left in my old Jeep when I traded it in)... Great for when the doors are off, and you hardly notice they are there when not in use.

I also bought the ball mounts for the bottom of the A-pillar grab handles, which is where I will likely mount my Garmin InReach Explorer+ so it is as close to me as possible in the event of an accident on the road, or is the first thing I (or someone else) sees when looking in the Jeep in an emergency.

I also bought the grab bar ball mount and two universal accessory mounts. I will use one on the driver's side of the console for a holster, and I will use the one on the passenger side for either mounting the Midland mic/control unit or a tablet (if I use it for a tablet, I'll use the grab bar ball mount for the Midland mic).

Sponsored