Mounting brake controllers in LC100

Matt & Lana,

We have a lexus, but it's basically the same layout as the LC100.

We have a Tekonsha Prodiga Brake Controller (and wouldn't have anything else!). When it was first mounted, it was located on the lower part of the cowling which extends under the steering wheel towards the pedals. I moved it up to the left of the steering wheel column so that I can comfortably reach the manual override without taking my eyes of the road. I use the override occasionally to straighten up the rig if a B Double has tried to blow me off the road! It nneds to be easy to loacte without your eyes leaving the road, but it doesn't have to be in your face.

As for the UHF radio, consider a GME TX3400. It has a remote head which is I have fitted to the front of the ash tray and the main body of the radio is fitted in behind the dash. Not much is visible and it's a bloody good radio!

I will load a couple of photos later today

Motley

Our Prodigy controller is mounted to the left of the steering column on the lower dash and is out of the way and was no problem on a recent 7000 km trip.

As far as the UHF, we removed the ashtray and made an angled aluminium bracket that we fitted into the slides of the ashtray and held with a grub screw. We then mounted the radio on the bracket with the wires running out the back of the ashtray. That way when you come to sell the vehicle you remove the bracket and replace the ashtray and move the radio to the new vehicle. It is out of the way of the gear sticks or auto controls.
Regards,

Michael and Margaret

Another alternative is to use a dashpod for the mounting of the CB - this provides a very nice custom finish. See our photo (page 1 under Flipp'n Lorry) .

But the other suggestions about removing ashtray are pretty good too.

You'll probably hate this, but we had the Prodigy mounted relatively low on the dash just touching the outside of my left shin/knee when in a relaxed driving position. This meant the control slide was just touching my leg and I could activate it with knee pressure to the left (toward the passenger) so I didn't need to even take my hand off the wheel to use it. (Remember it was fitted in an auto - probably not so good in a manual). If I did want to use my hand, I didn't need to take the eyes off the road either, as it was right there next to my leg.
The down side would be if you had a major accident - it would be possible to injure the leg if it was violently thrown against the unit. On balance though, I would still put one there again if I had to do it over.

Griff

Matt and Lana,

With respect to the brake controller unit (I assume a Prodigy?) we also fitted our in the ashtray opening. Once ashtray is removed the plastic frame the controller sits in is almost an exact fit in the opening. Just fix the frame first with screw then slide in unit. Not as close to hand as some others described here but on removal leaves no holes and besides how often do you need to dive for the manual control anyway.

In the case of the radio we had a remote head type fitted just forward of the high/low lever on the console with the main power unit located right underneath it below the gear shift console (auto here). The console lifts up quite easily and this is how Olbis at Rocklea in Brisbane do the std install for that type of radio in that model car.

Hope this helps.
Regards, Bill