Where di you put the mag mount? I ended up mounting a bracket to the roof rack as I couldn't find enough good metal area for a mag mount.
Apparently it's all passivated glass so a glass mount is a no go.

 

I'm not a fan of magnet mounts but if you use one, make sure it has plenty of "ground plane" aka a lot of metal surface.

My plan is to install a Yaesu FTM-400, suction cup or some sort of mount in the dashboard, mount the mobile unit (the amp) under a seat or somewhere hidden, run a cable to the roof (not sure how yet), use a mount on the roof rack, use a spring, and then mount it to a high gain 2m/70cm dual band antenna. Finally, I'll use both a SWR and Power Meter to make sure the radio > feedline > antenna is "tuned" for maximum performance. I also normally have the radio draw power from a secondary battery source and double check that no RFI is coming from the vehicle to the Radio.

You'll notice when you upgrade to a higher end radio (Icom, Yaesu, Kenwood, etc) -- You can "hear" other/farther stations much better.

I'll do my best to share my findings here...

 

I had a TYT 9800 in my last LR3. I mounted the control head to the ash tray, ran the control wire to the main body of the radio which I installed in the big mostly empty box on the drivers side under the hood, ran the power cables directly to the battery. The coax I ran from the box out of the under hood area through the frame rails and back up to the left tailight, where I brought it in in, snuck it up the tailight and up the inside of the tailgate to the roof where I had a mount attached to the roof rack. Worked really well, and minimally invasive, when I sold the LR3 I took it out and youd have never known it was there.
Next time I might run the control wire under the carpet and mount the main body all the way in the back, where the trailer hitch is stored. Plenty of room and good electrical feed there.

 

Very cool. DId mounting it under the hood expose it to unnecessary heat? I'm going to drive to Ham Radio Outlet soon and buy a really good matching 2m/70cm antenna, mounts, and will be going through the roof rack rails (there is a punch through hole you can drill out in there) along with the lights (which I'm going to make sure the wiring is shielded so I don't pick up power RFI. That's my idea anyways. This is one of my high priority items as we have a lot of fires where I live so I listen to our inter-agency fire channel or APRS on Bank B and then Bank A talk to old farts on ham radio lol (me being one of them soon)....

 

The roof on a D1 is steel so a mag mount works fine up there. the radio I have now is attached to the dash with velcro so I can remove it and move it to another vehicle, or lock it up. I run the antenna cable in through the rear pass door, behind front pass seat and along console, up to the radio. back seat doesn't get many passengers . With the radio on the dash, it is easy to take a quick glance to see what frequency I am on. Current radio is a QYT KT-8900D which is small and can monitor up to 4 different frequencies, and has the controls on the mic, which is easier than squinting at a radio screen in a farther location when am driving.

The mag mount antenna can be easily moved to load stuff on the roof rack (like a kayak or 2x4's) and if it hits a low branch, will pop off and not cause damage like a mounted antenna. Just make sure it is clean underneath so it doesn't scratch the paint.

I can easily hit repeaters 25-35 miles away depending on terrain. sometimes even farther (2m)

 

It didn't seem to, and the radio has a good heat sink and a fan.