I am new to this forum and new to the whole f150 world for that matter. I just picked up my 2003 SCab Sunday and picked up a Sportster Sirius PNP for it tonight.

First let me say these tuners have come a LONG way. In my old Nissan truck I had a Sirius add on reciever, it needed a seperate tuner box mounted elsewhere (like the head units need) plus a seperate fm modulator. My bigest gripe though was the dislay, there just wasn't wnough contrast for day time use.

Fast forward to my new Sportser, which has an excellent display, the benefits of PNP, a remote and a built in wireless fm modulator, plus tons of new features and I am a happy camper.

It was allready dark when I got home, so I didn't finalize my install, but I did manage to run the antannae through the third brake light, mount the bracket and set the unit up. I mounted the bracket on the black plastic piece below the drink holders (I think it covers heating stuff, but I am not sure, as I havent explored to thoroughly). The unit rest right below and to the left of the drink holders. I am very happy with this location.

Tomorrow, I am going to neatly run the antannae wire either through the headliner or under the floor mat. I am also going to try to figure out a good wire to tap into to hardwire the unit, but if not the ciggarette lighter will suffice for now.

So far I don't mind the wireless fm modulator at all. So I do not plan to pull the radio, or install a hard wired modulator. Eventually when I replace the factory head unit, I will hard wire through aux inputs most likely.

I will post pics and more details when I finish.

Sean

 

I "finished' the install this morning. Finished is in quotes b/c I plan to hard wire the power into a wire that will shut the unit off with the car and I plan to wire it into the aux inputs when I get a new head unit.

For now though, the unit is mounted neatly and the antannae is mounted with the wiring hidden.

For the antannae, I ran the wire under the trim piece and then through the existing hole under the third brake light. It took a little feeling around to find it in the ehadliner, but all in all it was fairly easy. I then routed the wire around the window trim. In some spots it tucked tightly. However in spots that were loose, I held it in place by putting a little "tack it" (the gum like substance you can use to mount posters w/o making holes or using permanent adhesive). This worked excellently, cost me only 99 cents and made for a nice semi-permanent install, that can be removed easily if ever needed. When it reached the floorboard it was very simple to tuck the wire under the step plates. If you are doing this it is almost self explanatory where you can easily tuck the wire.

The unit itself is mounted below and to the left of the cupholders, under the lighter socket. The included tape, just didn't seem sturdy enough so I used some quick set epoxy to permanently mount my bracket. I know lots of you are thinking that was cray, but the place where it is mounted is a small easy and cheap to replace piece, so if I ever want to be rid of the unit, that's the clean sollution. This location is ideal for me:
-it's visible by all front seat passengers.
-I can reach it safely while driving, allthough I opt for the remote mostly.
-There's no glare on the screen.
-It doesn't interfere with foot room for the center passenger, or any of the trucks functions.
-It's not overly visible from outside the truck.
-Best of all, it's near the damn near empty heater shroud, which is an excellent place for tucking the left over wires, and easy to get the antannae wire to.

Soon I am going to look into wiring it into either the fuse box, or an exisiting wire. The problem is determining what cuts off with the truck, if anyone has any insight, please share.

 

This morning I was driving around and realied I didn't have a good place for the remote.
- I didn't want to sacrifice any cup holders.
-The center console (on my bench seat) isn't always accessable and I didn't want to deal with the latch.

The little pocket under the steering wheel seemed like the best bet, but during heavy braking or spirited driving, I worry the remote would get flung over the lip and then end up on the floor near my feet. To resolve this I bought one of those "sticky pads" meant to hold items on your dash without them sliding around. I cut it to fit the space and voila, a perfect, concealed, yet accessable and secure place to keep my remote.

 

When able please post a pic of the location. I am unsure of what you are describing. I also bought the Sirius Sportster and am looking at installing it in me 01 Expedition this afternoon. Thanks for posting your efforts.

 

Unfortunately, I am away from my digicam until next week. Believe me, it's killing me to not have any pics of my new truck!

I'll try to describe the location of the mounting bracket a little more in detail.

In my truck, with no center console, if you start from the floorboard and go staright up the middle:
-The first piece you encounter is a black plastic piece, this covers (I believe) heating ducts, and has lots of empty space behind it.
- Above that is another cover piece, but this one matches my interior. This is the piece I mounted my bracket to.
-Directly above this is the piece that houses the power supllies and the drink holders.

My bracket is mounted so that the top edge is near flush with the seam between the piece it's mounted on and the piece housing the power and cup holders. The bracket is adjusted to a pretty steep angle so that the sportster unit is damn near perpendicular to the ground.

This location is not good if you plan to move the sportster from the car kit to a home kit often, because you would have to adjust the bracket to remove the unit. I imagine mounting it slightly lower would resolve that.

When figuring a place for the unit, I highly advise you open the cup holders run some wires into the power supplies and take into consideration center passengers (if equipped with a front bench).

Like I mentioned earlier one main benefit of this lcoation is that the bottom black trim piece is an excellent place to hide the extra length of wires as well as a hard wired fm modulator, if you decide to go that route.


I'll post pics next week, allthough I doubt you''l want to wait that long!