I just picked up a small ham radio for my 2015 fit, and am looking for a good location to mount it in the car. The best location I have come up with so far is either above the steering wheel (it's small so it doesn't obscure the cluster) or on the dash above the left hand cup holder. My concern is that I don't actually know where the air bags are, and don't want to mount it in such a way that it obscures an airbag, or worse, becomes an explosive powered projectile in the event of a deployment. Does anyone have a good description of where the airbags are, and what they look like deployed?

 

See if this helps:

 

That is perfect. Because of where the label is, I had assumed the side curtain airbags popped out from the A pillar, and possibly came up over the dash. You can see from the aerial view that an item secured to the dash above the steering column or the cup holder would not turn into an airbag-launched projectile.

 

And I doubt the engineers would design a system with an airbag anywhere near a cupholder knowing that cups come in many different heights, not to mention people use those cupholders for a lot more than just cups. Glad it'll work out for you.

 

That's a fair point. Then again, they designed a car that does a ton of really amazing things, but then seem to miss a few basic things, like how to install a drivers seat properly. (Seriously, I know why they mounted it the way they did, but it's not very comfortable.)

 

Holy crap, Gobucky, how do you get 50+ MPG in your fit?

 

 

All jokes aside, GoBucky does put on some impressive results. He needs to run a clinic for the rest of us.

 

I have some experience with hypermiling and watch my speeds on the freeway. It's not really magic, with enough patience anyone could do the same, it's more about the car and its capabilities.

 

I get on the freeway, and set the cruise control to 67. I found that 70 gets me low 30s MPG, 65 gets me high 30s/low 40s. What am I doing wrong?

 

Are you getting that in freeway or in city?

What is your average speed in highway?

Pretty impressive

 

It's not that you're doing anything wrong, it just depends on your priorities when you're driving. When you're driving for fuel efficiency, that's your priority so you adjust your driving habits to suit it. If you're driving only to get places, you don't worry about much except getting from point A to point B. With that said, for the average person, using cruise control is good for efficiency. For someone whose priority is high MPG's, cruise control is not a good thing.

My commute is 25 miles each way, probably 50% freeway/50% streets. The freeway portion of my commute has speed limits of either 50 or 55. Therefore, I keep my speeds between 50-55.

Wow, we're starting to get way off-topic here.

 

I'll pull it back in. Here is what I went with for mounting.



It sits well right on top of the steering column, and don't cover anything I need for driving.

The antenna is mounted to the rear passenger door, and it actually looks pretty good there.



For the lulz, here is a picture from the front. I cannot wait to get this thing dipped.

 

Wow, you're not kidding, that unit is very small. I was thinking of the CB/Ham radios from the past that were the size of a small toaster. Your location on top of the steering column is exactly where I keep my ScanGauge. Fits perfectly and doesn't obstruct anything.

BTW, nice Cayman.

 

The Cayman is my CFO's. She is a funny woman, and I like her. Sharp as hell. I know that the cool thing these days is to get mad at execs for their salaries, but she deserves every penny.

The radio is a cheap Chinese radio, a Juentai JT-6188. It's a 25 watt dual band radio, and it cost about $125. That's less than half of what a decent dual band radio would cost from one of the better known manufacturers, and less than it cost for the antenna system I have it on.

For anyone else interested in mounting a ham radio station on their car, I've got a Comet SBB-1 mounted to a HD-5M on the door. I've got the coax running down the door, across the rear passenger side floor (under the mat), up under the center console, and up through the steering column. There is a gap you can fit your hand through to pass a cable up if you unlock the column. I am using 3M Velcro squares to mount the radio and the mic clip, but I plan on screwing the mic clip down later.

 

Oh, and another thing, the damn clips that hold on the center console? Put a bit of pressure on the outside ring, and unscrew the center screw. The center screw will pop out, and you can remove the clip. The only place on the internet that seems to have this information is a random post here on fitfreak that is so hard to find that I can't seem to find it anymore.