Hey guys,

I finally pulled the trigger on a new (2007) 5.4L XLT 4x4 Screw in Dark Shadow Grey yesterday. I traded in a 2007 Toyota 4runner because my wife and I want to purchase a travel trailer next year, and so far I'm loving my new rig. Here are some early thoughts and questions.

Is there any way I can either shorten or purchase an aftermarket antenna? The stock antenna is just a bit (3") too long for my garage.

I'm actually pretty impressed with the premium 6-cd w/mp3 & sat radio. I've recently owned an Infiniti G35, Honda Odyssey (wife's), and my Toyota 4runner, and Ford's stereo is better than all of them by a long shot. I miss having steering wheel controls, especially for the Satellite radio, and I was wondering if there's anyway I can get a small aftermarket remote control for the factory radio?

The 2008 F150's come with a rear view camera option that displays on the rear view mirror. Is this something that we'll be able to add into our older model 150's?

I opted for the 40-20-40 bench seat, but I'd also like to find some additional storage options for the front of the ****pit. I tried running a search, but nothing of consequence came up. Any other outside salesmen using their 150's for work?

Thanks in advance guys. Love this site.

 

Hey Bobby,
Much Congrats on the new vehicle! First off, let me say that you're lucky that it is only your antenna that is stopping you from fitting in your garage. My garage is just simply too small all around! But as for your antenna I looked ALL around and didn't see anything that was shorter than 3.5 in. I did find a site that has power retractable antennas (but not sure how low they'll retract). The site for the antennas I found was www.gcustoms.com. Just enter in your vehicle info, go to "Exterior Accessories" and then choose "Antennas" and there is an option for a couple of "Power Antenna's" that are priced below $80.

Website mitocorp.com sells backup cams that can be installed from your license plate to your tailgate or your overhead brake light. None of these sites I found though carry the LCD screen that you'll need to actually see what the camera is picking up. I'm sure some sort of audio/video store can help you w/that though. These were priced at about $250ish.

And lastly, for storage space, one of my fave sites you should look into is www.trucktoys4less.com. Once again put in your vehicle info and it'll bring up all the aftermarket accessories for it. Scroll down to "Storage Boxes, Tool Boxes,Cargo Management" or scroll to "Center Consoles and Cup Holders - for Floor, Seats and More!" and hopefully you should find something that fits your needs.

Well, hopefully this helps some, and also check out www.autoanything.com before bying aftermarket stuff for your vehicle b/c they will often have prices that are very low, and if you're shopping at a place that price matches and don't want to wait for snail mail, just print off the item from that website and take it in to your local dealer. Happy Hunting!

 

Hey,
Also found another website, www.oem-auto-accessory.com that carries OEM replacement antennas and I'm not exactly sure how it works, but it says that these replacement antennas plug directly into the radio. So I guess with this, you may be able to have the dealership remove the stock antenna and then install this replacment. These only run $15 bucks.

And now while there are plenty of aftermarket products available to those who already have steering wheel controls and want to change the factory radio to an aftermarket one and still have those two items sync up, the selection that I found for taking a vehicle w/no steering wheel remote control at all was quite thin. There are two producs that I found that are made for a Pioneer audio system as well as one for a Kenwood car audio system. The Pioneer product can be found at www.crutchfield.com and is called the "Pioneer CD-SR100". Just type that into the search bar on this site. The other steering wheel remote by Kenwood can be found at www.caraudiosecurity.com and you can search for it by typing in the item code "KCA-RC700".

These are the only sytems that I could find that would fit your dilemma, but the only (major) problem w/this is that I have no idea what system Ford uses for their stock radio/CD players, and the chances of them being either a Pioneer or a Kenwood are probably very slim. My only suggestion to that would be that you would have to then buy an aftermarket Pioneer/Kenwood audio system for your truck in order to have it work with either one of these products. This of course would probably defeat the quality sound that you mentioned you enjoyed from this stock product, as well as make you end up spending more $$ than you wish to. By the way, both of these products run about $40, and even cheaper on amazon.com. Well, hope this helps buddy. Sorry for the long post.

 

I wasn't very clear in my initial message. I don't need an antenna that's shorter than 3.5", I need an antenna that's 3-4" shorter than the stock antenna. The good news is that I ordered a 5.5" billet antenna last night off of one of the links you sent me. Hopefully it doesn't look too cheesy and it actually picks up a signal.

Thanks!

 

If you decide you don't like it, it's really easy to shorten the factory one. The ball on the end pulls off (with a bit of persuading) and you can lop off what you need to. The ball will go back on with a pretty tight press-fit, but I added a drop of epoxy just to be sure. I took about 4" off mine and can't tell any difference in reception.

 

A 5.5" antenna will look sort of funny, IMO. Heres a link to an antenna thread.....

 

I too bought the 15" antenna in black chrome. I rattle-canned it matte black as the black chrome was a bit too shiny for my taste. Reception is just as good as the stock antenna and it doesn't slap my house when I pull in the garage.