Cable/Wire Routing from Bed to Cab Using Air Pressure Vents for Weboost Antenna Install.

Don't seem to do as many mods to the Tundra as my FJ and not much that hasn't already been described here. I haven't seen any posts using the path that I took for routing wires from the bed to the cab so I am sharing here. This worked on a 2019 Tundra CrewMax. Appreciate all of the information that this community provides!

I've been looking for alternate paths for cable routing from the bed to the cab for 12v bed power and for mounting an antenna. In this instance I mounted a Weboost antenna on a Retrax rail using a Rhino Rack mount. The antenna can be folded down behind the cab when not in use.

For 12v power the traditional route made sense (grommet under truck following OEM wiring); however, based on the placement of my antenna a more direct route seemed interesting--I was also concerned about limited cable length and placement of the booster unit.

There are 2 pressure relief vents between the cab and bed on the driver and passenger sides of the vehicle along with 2 grommets.

The grommets look like they are accessible if both seats were removed and if the black panel behind the seats(where the sub would be installed) was removed. There is a matching grommet inside the truck. This is another potential path.

The air vents are not easily accessible and are in the void towards the lower portion of the C & D rear pillars. There is constrained and limited access to these vents from inside the vehicle through a hole in the pillars that is covered by trim. I originally tried pushing a wire in from the outside portion of the vent but wasn't successful.

I was able to fish a wire through the pressure relief vents between the cab and the bed. This is a route available on Tacomas, it's just more difficult to access on a Tundra. My only concern is that I did not make a drip loop and there is potential for water to run down the cable and into the cab. I also don't know if there is a flap of some kind that I am leaving open by having a cable in it's path.

It took messing around with a bore scope, feeling around and to find the right path to make it work. Now that I've done it I'd do it again. It's also easy to undo and no holes need to be made or drilled. Most of the time was spent figuring it out.

For my install the passenger seat seemed more convenient to remove and move out of the way so I used this route. Either the passenger or driver's side would work...

Tools/Items needed:

Socket Set
Star Bit (for Door Striker)
Solid Core Wire (needs to be very flexible, fiberglass glow rod type fish set will not work)
Zip Ties
Electrical tape (to secure/taper wire for pulling)

Steps:

1) Disconnect battery--extra precaution to avoid setting off airbags and I had to do some wiring anyway.

2) Remove rear seat (passenger in this instance)

3) Remove lower bolt securing seat belt

4) Remove door sill trim

5) Remove lower section of pillar trim

6) Loosen lower screw and remove upper screw of door striker plate to let it pivot out of the way without scratching paint. There is a hole behind it.


7) This is where you become a contortionist. There is a void on the black plastic outer shell of the vent (inside the truck) and you can guide a wire into this gap with one hand (Right hand on passenger side) while feeding wire though the hole that was behind the striker plate with your other hand (left on passenger side). It will take a few attempts; however, it's a straight path once you have the wire positioned correctly (that's the difficult part). Use solid 12 or 14 gauge wire with insulation (I used some left over 12 gauge black left over romex conductor) and push it through the hole at the striker plate while reaching into the cavity (circled in red) that is to the right (on passenger side) of the seat belt strap/assembly while reaching towards the bottom of the body of the vent which faces the outside of the vehicle. If you are facing the seat belt your right hand will be in the hole pointing to your left hand which is feeding wire towards it from the outside. Feel around first and find the void/gap at the lower portion of shell of the black plastic housing of the vent in order to guide the wire into it.






8) If you do it correctly the wire will end up hitting the bed of your truck (on the outside of the truck) and you can use needle nose pliers to nab the wire. You can then pull the wire while feeding it through the hole.


9) Fishing is easy and there are no snags. Just pull the wire that went into the striker plate while feeding the cable going into the vent from the outside. The diameter of the cable that I pulled was larger than the hole at the striker plate so it stopped there. At this point you just need to reach in re-route it in the right direction out the hole that you were reaching into with your right hand. You can then secure it to OEM wire harness that is there, route the wire/cable you pulled and reinstall seats and trim.


Complete:

 

Great writeup! I plan on adding a weboost later on down the road so thanks for the info

 

Hope it helps!

Since you plan on installing a booster here are some pics of where I ended up installing the Booster and internal antenna.

Picture of cable entering vent:




Booster is currently under the passenger seat. The outside antenna cable runs under the door sill. I pushed under the pillar trim then zip tied it on the other side where there is a spot in the carpet to tuck it under to run it under the seat. The booster fits perfectly, the cables don't have enough room unless you angle it slightly which I did after taking this picture. It was easy to run the power cable (plenty of length) to the dash fuse box area where I already had a circuit for my phone charger to tap into:


I took a drive and experimented with placement of the inside antenna and this seemed to work well. Easy run under the center console to this spot:

 

That does help! And that's for sharing how you routed the rest of the wiring

 

Did I miss somehow whether the thing works for you or not?

And nice job!

 

Thank you!

Yes, it works.

It's kind of like using an in-vehicle HAM Radio as a base station for a handheld to hit the main repeater or for more range.

It is not a replacement for a device like a Ham or a Sat device like an inReach in regards to true safety/communication for areas without coverage. It does not create a signal from nothing. It will boost a signal that your phone would be incapable of utilizing on its own and it will significantly boost a usable signal. I debated adding more height to the antenna, but I was worried about hitting things, the spot I chose puts it up and out from the cab and the rear window. I am happy with the way it is set up now. I did try folding the antenna down and that created an issue- it did not increase signal and the booster light turned red.

If you are in one of those spotty locations with 1 bar that goes in and out (on your phone) it will not give you 5 bars--that's where it's touch and go. If you have 1 solid bar you will have a very usable connection (3 bar?), especially for communication. If you have 2 bars you will have 5 bars. There are a few spots that I drive through where calls drop, conversations are unintelligible/annoying, or music stops streaming--this will help. Also if my kids are happy on road trips, I am happy...

I drove through a dead zone by my house yesterday--I had signal deeper into the dead zone than I would normally have and there is a spot on the way where it normally drops. I drove until I found a location right on the edge, where my phone had no connection, and experimented, then I parked right where I had 1-2 bars to test it.

There were times where it was necessary to put phone into airplane mode to force it to acquire the booster as a middleman instead of searching for the tower that it had been using.

 

I just got my WeBoost 4g-xOTR and was thinking of this exact same placement but I hadn't thought over route for the wiring. I ned to replace my Bakflip so I was looking into a roll cover with deck rails. What version of the WeBoost do you have?

You mentioned with the antenna down there is no signal. I just want to clarify that the signal immediately returns when you right the antenna to straight again?

Also, in terms of antenna length if you added one more 'length' of antenna would that cause any issues with routing the wires? would it extend past the length of the bed when 'laid down'?

 

Drive Reach OTR Fleet 471254

Yes, when I moved it back to vertical using Rhino Antenna mount the unit light turned from red to green and signal was restored.

I have it set up so that it will fold/lay across the back of my truck parallel with the front of the truck bed. If I folded it outwards it would protrude but when folding inwards it wouldn't extend past the opposite side of the truck even with all of the extensions in place. There was plenty of antenna cable length. I think that I only had 1 or two additional extensions in my kit. I am confident that the cable would reach the passenger seat if I'd added an additional extension. The coiled cable with the white zip tie under the passenger seat in the picture above shows how much I had left over. Once you've fished the first wire through the vent it's pretty easy to pull it back if you need to make an adjustment--just tape it properly so nothing gets hung up...

 

one hell of a mailbox checker HAHA

 

HA! That would be entertaining if it was sitting shotgun in someone else's truck!

 

What did you use as a mount here?

 

Rhino Rack Folding Aerial Bracket
Part # 43196

 

@RhinoChaser how many ft did you have left over of antenna wiring at the booster? Wondering if it’s possible to go under the truck and come up the grommet under the rear pass. floor. Either way, there’s not a lot; so might have to go through the vent like you said

 

2019 Tundra SR5 TRD 4WD Double Cab.

Sorry coming into this late. I'm working on setting up my Weboost Reach OTR. I do not have a roof rack or a bed rack. I was planning on putting my external antenna towards the rear of the bed on the driver's side. I read that the external antenna needs to be far away from the internal antena. I'm having issues with the cable for the antenna not being log enough to run under the truck, into the engine bay, and through the firewall into the cab. I moved the antenna close to the front of the bed, but I'm still shows about 6 feet.

I'm thinking of returning it since it seems it may not work with my current set up. until I came across your post. Where is this vent that you're pulling the cable through into the bed? is that the plastic on the rear of the cab in between the cab and bed? If so, did you have to remove the rear seats and pull the plastic off the sides of the cab?

I'm trying not to use any of the rubber grommets under the truck. worried about water getting in.

I spoke to Weboost and they suggest running the cable through a door and follow the weather stripping. Naw. or get a 6' extension cable but that will degrade the signal per Weboost. I'm not even sure it'll fit through the nipple in the firewal. The connectors are kind of big.

https://www.signalboosters.com/weboost-wilson-rg-174-sma-female-sma-male-6ft-cable-951130/



Thanks!