Nissan X trail antenna mount ideas please

Just purchased a 2012 Nissan X Trail and absolutely love the car.   Thought however have now moved to getting my radio set up.   On my Avensis I had a nightmare getting SWR down and RF feedback issues with a mag mount so took the nuclear option and drilled the roof.   Never had any trouble after that.   This option is not available on this car as it has a "panoramic" sunroof.   There is however plenty of metal towards the rear of the vehicle.

I thought about using a boot lip mount, however there isn't actually a lip as such, rather a wide profile which such a mount would not be able to clamp on to.   As I see it I have two options.    Either:

Copy this installation as featured on the X trail forum https://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/rover220coupe/CBMountnocover_zps4cb1caf4.jpg I don't have a spare mount to modify as this guy did but I could probably knock something up using a galvanised steel strap of some kind, or I could try a magmount.  I have looked at the Watson triple mount system that Nevada sell.   Using mag mount would put the antenna in a better position, but the roof bar mount job would give it better grounding potentially.   

Would love to hear from anyone who has installed antennas on an X Trail or similar.

Hi Chris 

I have a Qashqai which also has the large sunroof , I just mounted a Sirio 145 mag mount on the only bit of metal right @ the rear and have had no problems with the SWR on either my 2m twig or my 10m / 11m twig 

Radios used are a Yaesu 891 and a Yaesu ftm400 

Everything works a treat 

Craig

Sydthecat wrote:

Hi Chris 

I have a Qashqai which also has the large sunroof , I just mounted a Sirio 145 mag mount on the only bit of metal right @ the rear and have had no problems with the SWR on either my 2m twig or my 10m / 11m twig 

Radios used are a Yaesu 891 and a Yaesu ftm400 

Everything works a treat 

Craig

Hi Craig

Thanks for this reply.   I too have a Sirio 145 PL mag mount and am getting a decent enough SWR and good radio reports on it.   This is the same mount which I just could not get to work on my old car (Toyota Avensis).   On my previous vehicle I had no end of grounding issues, high SWR and RF feedback squeals etc.   I ended up installing a drill mount on the Avensis and never had any problems since;  however, not an option on this car as mechanism for sunroof is likely to get in the way.   I have experimented with using a mirror mount on the roof bar mount similar to the picture attached but could not get a decent ground.  I have decided to stick with the mag mount which seems to work well and allows me to have the antenna in a close to centre position.  The only trouble I had was that my antennas were all too short due to trimming down for the Avensis, but fortunately I managed to earhole some old mobile antennas off a mate to prove the mag mount is working OK.    It's also quite interesting to glance up through the sun roof and see how much the antenna is bending whilst going along;   the old springer I have been using was bent pretty much 90 degrees at 50mph!     I now have a Sirio 5000PL coming.   At the moment I am temporarily using a nasty coax shut in door install, but I have found a nice ridge along side roof rails to nestle the coax cable in, and I should be able to feed it into a gap on the edge of the boot door and in via a grommet.   I will also be replacing the now squished RG58 from the 145 mount with some RG8X.   I'll try and post a few pics when done.

I'm not sure what the setup is on the Qashqai, but on the dash above the satnav / entertainment screen there is a little storage compartment which my CRT 6900N just about wedges into.   I am going to look towards replacing with a 9900 which will fit more tidily.  

I must say I am really enjoying this car so far.  I know it's not a "proper" offroader and I'm not expecting it to go up Ben Nevis, but I've already enjoyed a bit of mild green-laning and this car will be ideal for hill-tpping.   It absolutely p*sses over tracks which had me worried (and frequently sump scraping) in my old car.   

Take off one of the rear lights. bend up a bracket. drill 2 small holes in body work behind light cluster. Rivet on bracket.  Replace light cluster.  When you sell. NO holes to see! Works great. Done it a a few cars.

Just following on with some install pics of my Yaesu 891 into the Qashqai 

I made a wooden wedge for the head mount which fitted nice n snug into the small recess in front of gear stick, main 891 unit went under the passenger seat , small Yaesu speaker into cup holder, Sirio 145 onto mag mount 

Everything works a treat 

The Sirio 145  what bands will it work.
Take it the 891 has a tuner built in ???.
Only asking as i have been thinking of going mobile and have that same aerial somewhere never used well can't remember if i used it.

Hi Alan 

The sirio 145 covers all of 11m and the lower part of 10m band, up to 28.500 , it’s a cracking antenna and I prefer it’s shorter whip length due to the fact it hits less trees than the hp4000 

The 891 doesn’t have a tuner but to be honest it’s never been a problem as always use resonant antennas for the band I want to use , 891 is a real bang for buck rig and is a absolute bargain 

Craig