I've almost completed the installation of two radios into my Ford F250 pickup. A Kenwood TM-D700A is used for uhf and vhf operation (including APRS) and an Icom IC-7000 is used for HF and six meters. The HF/six meter antenna is a High Sierra Sidekick.

I use the pickup to tow a fifth-wheel travel trailer. One day I was looking at the web site of a place that sells accessories for trucks. I was looking for a way to store some of the stuff my wife and I carry with us on road trips when I found exactly what I needed. A company called DU-HA makes a storage box that fits underneath the rear seat of extended cab pickups.

This was the solution to my problem. I could mount the radio bodies, antenna controller, Rigrunner power strip, and anything else in the storage box and just run the control head, microphone, and external speaker connections to the front of the cab. I placed an order and it arrived a few days later.

It slides right underneath the rear seat and bolts into place using existing bolts. It took all of one or two minutes to install. One of the bolts is a seat bracket bolt that requires a T-55 Torx wrench. The other bolt is the one that holds down the bag containing the tire tool and jack handles. With the storage box in place the tire tool bag will have to be kept somewhere else. I put mine in the Weatherguard tool box that's in the bed of the truck. The color of the storage box matches the interior of the truck. Included with the box are four dividers. There are two thick soft ones and two thin hard plastic ones. The tops of the dividers have cutouts where the stocks and barrels of your long guns will rest. This keeps them from moving around and banging together inside the box. Here in Texas that's very important! The manufacturer claims that in most states the box is a legal gun storage box. One of the accessories available is a lock with a cable that prevents anyone from releasing the seat latches to raise the seats.

Once I made sure the box fit correctly I removed it and installed the radio mounting brackets and Rigrunner. I drilled holes in the floor of the box and used machine screws, nuts, flat washers and lock washers to fasten down the brackets and power strip. I used stick-on cable organizers to route power and other wires around the inside walls of the box to make the wiring look tidy.

I think I've attained my goal. The radios are securely bolted in, there is plenty of air circulation for the fans, and I can get to everything by just raising the rear seats. The wiring isn't quite as tidy as I'd like but when the seats are down I don't have to look at it. There is plenty of room in the box to add any other accessories that might come along. The radios take up about three-fourths of the box. The rest of the space is empty and available for storing other items.

The storage box is made of heavy duty polyethylene. It's actually heavier than I thought and sturdy enough to hold anything I will put in it. Versions of the box are available for several brands of trucks.

As of this writing the antenna controller hasn't arrived yet. When it does it will be mounted behind the Icom, between it and the Kenwood radio.

The manufacturer of the storage box is DU-HA

I bought mine from Pickup Specialties

Below are a few photos showing the various stages of the installation.

TM-D700A mounting bracket and Rigrunner mounted in the storage box

IC-7000 mounting bracket in the storage box. You can see access holes in the front and rear walls of the box for inserting a screwdriver to bolt the radio into the bracket.

Kenwood radio installed in mounting bracket and connected to the Rigrunner.

Icom bolted into mounting bracket.

Kenwood radio all wired up: Mic, GPS, control head, external speaker, power, and coax. It's starting to look a little messy because I didn't shorten some of the cables, I just rolled them up. But once the seat is lowered it's out of sight, out of mind.

Showing both radios. The space between the Icom and the Kenwood will be used for the antenna controller and any other accessories that need to be near the radio.

Hey, there is some empty space left. That round thing with the tabs right in front of the divider is one of the bolts that holds the box to the floor. That bolt was originally used to secure the bag that contains the tire tool and jack handles. The bag was moved to the tool box that sits in the bed of the truck.

Showing the seats lowered, covering the storage box.

View of the control head support from the rear seat. The control heads are mounted on a platform which is in turn mounted on an adjustable Ram-Mount.

View of the control head support from the driver seat. I can lower the center armrest to support my arm while driving. I don't have to stretch to reach the controls. The Ram-Mount can be swiveled to face either the driver or passenger seat.