I thought I'd share some of the frustrating prep work we do on our Sprinters before we put them into service.
First, we take out the front headliner. Anyone done this? You pretty much have to disassemble the front of the vehicle, starting with the driver and passenger side stepwells. After peeling the a and b posts, you can drop the headliner.
Once we've got that out, we install some antennae: one for gps big white antenna with gps antenna, cellular antenna, and wi-fi antenna [unused] in it, another for gsm cellular for mobile broadband, which we use to provide wi-fi in our vans, and a third antenna mount for the next thing that I need an antenna for which I have not yet anticipated. The broadband on our older vans makes use of an antenna mount which I installed in all of those, not knowing what I'd need it for.
Then, we install mobile broadband in the goofy console thingy in the headliner, or in the passenger seat pedestal of vehicles with no console thingy. And we put GPS in the passenger seat pedestal. The seat pedestal has a separate fuse block in it, and a time-delay relay that keeps all the gadgets powered up for 10 minutes after ignition is turned off - mostly to bridge the gap at stops, so we can have wi-fi active without running the engine and wasting fuel.
Anyhow, here are some pictures.
Dennis
First, we take out the front headliner. Anyone done this? You pretty much have to disassemble the front of the vehicle, starting with the driver and passenger side stepwells. After peeling the a and b posts, you can drop the headliner.
Once we've got that out, we install some antennae: one for gps big white antenna with gps antenna, cellular antenna, and wi-fi antenna [unused] in it, another for gsm cellular for mobile broadband, which we use to provide wi-fi in our vans, and a third antenna mount for the next thing that I need an antenna for which I have not yet anticipated. The broadband on our older vans makes use of an antenna mount which I installed in all of those, not knowing what I'd need it for.
Then, we install mobile broadband in the goofy console thingy in the headliner, or in the passenger seat pedestal of vehicles with no console thingy. And we put GPS in the passenger seat pedestal. The seat pedestal has a separate fuse block in it, and a time-delay relay that keeps all the gadgets powered up for 10 minutes after ignition is turned off - mostly to bridge the gap at stops, so we can have wi-fi active without running the engine and wasting fuel.
Anyhow, here are some pictures.
Dennis