Slip seat radio project (Pics)

Our family has plans to move from Colorado to Washington this December. The move will involve a caravan of vehicles--either a moving truck and our Jeep, or we'll do the PODS route and drive the Jeep and car up. In any case, we thought it'd be nice to be able to talk between vehicles while on the road, so I wanted a non-permanent two-way radio setup I could put in the moving truck if needed. Of course, there is already a CB in the Jeep. CB's sound a lot nicer than those small, hand-held radios you can buy.

Over-the-road truckers will build what they call a 'slip seat radio box' if they do not own their own rig and instead drive a company truck. They can put it in whichever truck they are assigned. Often these get pretty fancy and include an AM/FM stereo or other goodies as well as a CB. They get a bit bigger too--the size of an Igloo cooler or so and usually a standalone speaker or two get mounted in the sides. The one I built here is a little simpler:

First, I cut pine boards to size and routed out a notch in the side panels to fit the radio. Then butted the joints and just screwed 'em together:
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Next task was to create a longer power wire for the box, with a cigarette lighter end:
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I drilled holes in the back for the power wire and antenna cable. I made sure to check that they were big enough to fit the connector:
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Checking connections. I grabbed some plastic loom to encase the wires for neatness:

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Coming together nicely:
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I had some spare motorcycle LED marker lamps, so I installed one to light the inside. It's amber, though, so I might change it out for a red one:

Power test:
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I have dubbed it 'The Punkin'. Ha!

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Time for paint. I hit it with gray primer, then Rustoleum's camouflage green:

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Once the Rustoleum green was on there, I really ended up not liking the color. I was going for a nice antique-looking WW2-era olive drab. I drove down to the local hobby shop and got some olive drab spray paint there. This was a much more accurate color:

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As a final touch, I had some surplus military webbing straps I bought in a govt. auction once. Two of those were fastened to the sides with big lag screws. I might paint the screw heads but haven't gotten around to it.

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I picked up a cheap magnet-mount antenna last night, and I'll be tuning it in this morning. If I get it dialed in close enough so it performs decently for one long road trip, I'll be happy. Anyway, thought this might be worth sharing with other wheelers. The radio was a spare I had lurking around after I upgraded to a Uniden Bearcat 980. The wood, of course, was scrap and most of the wiring and bits was from my spares box. Only real cost to the project was the antenna, at $30 or so. Fun little project.

you better add all the "bells and whistles" to your device if you are renting a truck for the trip. You will be lucky to get a working cassette deck and lighter.