Hustler Ball Mount Installation on a 2000 Plymouth Voyager Mini-Van

By KØBX
The Adventurer Begins
For 30 years as a ham I have always wanted to go "HF Mobile" but never had the equipment or vehicle to do it in.  In the 70's 2 meters came along and that was a quick and cheap ham mobile system.
My Story
But still the desire to work 20 meters in the car was strong.  So at the 2002 Dayton Hamvention AES had the Icom IC-706MK2G on sale for $699.  Free shipping and no sales tax.   I couldn't get my credit card out fast enough.  A few days later it arrived.  Now where to put it?  I had an old 1990 conversion van, plenty of room.  I replaced by 2 meter rig with the '706' but still no hf antenna.  I read everything on HF antennas I could find.  But the Hustler seems to be that most of the county hunters were using.  Good antenna with a lot of history behind it.  Still the time past.  Summer, Fall and then Winter.  My XYL Mary had a 2000 Plymouth Voyager Mini-Van.  Lot's of room between the seats for the rig so I made her "such a deal"!  She could have a new car if she didn't mind me drilling some holes in the Mini-Van.  Well, she didn't want to give up the Mini-Van so on January 2, 2003 she got a new Dodge Mini-Van.  Now the Voyager was mine!!
Finally, we start!
Still time moves on, daughters graduation from college (same day at the Hamvention, so I had to miss it this year) and other things got in the way.  I had been using the lighter plug to run the '706' on 2 meters so first order of business was to run the DC line to the battery.  Easier said that done as I could not find a way through the firewall.  Finally a ham on the HF mobile user group on EHAM suggest that if I looked just to the left of the gas petal under the carpet there should be a grommet to the firewall.  Yes, there it was, I opened the hood to let the sun shine in, cut a slit in the grommet down by the gas petal and saw daylight!!  From there it was easy to run the DC line to the battery.  I mounted the remote head of the '706' on the dash using the Icom MB65 and mounted the body between the seat with sheet metal screws.  This way the speaker on the body of the rig was pointing up and easy to hear.
The Big Drill
Now to drill the holes for the antenna.  WØGOM, Gary, lives by me and is the 'toolman' in the club so he offered to help me.  I had to be very careful on the location of the ball mount.   There is a sliding door on the left side that slides almost all the way back, and then there is a pop out window at the back side.  
Now the Pictures!
Here is a view of the mini-van before we started.

Next is a view on how the ball mount looked before the installation.

Here is a look inside the rear left side.  There is a access panel mounted on the left rear tire hump and allows  you to get to the tire jack.  But there is also a  hole in the sub-panel that lets you get to the fender.

Next comes the drilling.  We drilled a 1 3/8 hole with a hole saw on the end of a cordless drill.  We then using the ball mount as a template drilled the remainder 3 holes.

We assembled the ball mount, mast and antenna coil per the instructions that came with them.  It all went pretty easy.  Coax was run the floor mats and to the '706'.

Here I am with my newly installed antenna.  How does it work?  One the way home I had a 10-minute QSO  with a guy in Washington State, I am in St. Louis MO.  No ignition noise, and everyone I call comes right back!!