Want to protect the sharkfin

Got a weird one for everyone. I got a 3" lift and slightly more aggressive tires = good. Now the sharkfin antenna hits on the yellow warning "bar" as I go into my parking garage = bad.

Truck is in getting water leak from either that area or the third brake light repaired as we speak and I don't want to undue any repairs.

First thought was sneaking over and raising the bar slightly as there isn't anywhere in the place where the truck actually hits, just that damn bar. Quickly, okay, not so quickly decided that I'm not 17 and that wouldn't be prudent at a government facility.

Next thought is a piece of something, big enough to sit down over or around the sharkfin and maybe a protected magnet attached to it, could put on as I get there and remove when I leave. (have to admit that didn't sound nearly as stupid in my head as it did once I wrote it out).

Anyway, going to hit Lowe's tonight for something else anyway and I'll take a look unless some other poor slob has run into a similar problem and already devised a fix.

side note: noticed construction workers over there last few days, maybe slip em a couple bucks to raise the bar? That's probably only slightly less ridiculous than sneaking over in black pajamas at 0200 and rigging the bar up a few inches higher. OR secretly replacing the fine, relatively heavy plastic bar they usually serve with a lighter, foam-based version of my own design. Now we're talkin'...

 

Is it a big garage? Hope you don't find the spot they made the warning bar for.

If you put something over the fin it will only make it taller so i don't think that will help.
Anything magnetic will probably interfere with the antenna.

None of these things help your problem. Raise the bar after dark.

 

Drop an inch off your lift. Not trying to sound harsh but is there anything functional about your lift, or did you just want the lifted look? Just being pragmatic.

 

I've been through the entire garage and it's close in spots but hasn't hit anything if I'm careful. What I'm thinking of will be on only to enter the garage, once I'm in I'll remove it and keep inside until next day. Won't have to worry about it interfering with signal to the antenna.

 

Yeah, this is the smart move for sure but what fun is that?

 

When we were in Portland Maine last year in the parking garage the yellow bars were hanging down I made sure my fin went between them. If that’s what your talking about. I had to stop and not go up any further because I don’t think my truck was going to fit thru the next level.

 

What am I looking at? A low profile A/M antenna? Hmmmmm...

 

Low profile replacement for the entire sharkfin. MESO made them for UpTopOverland, but a quick search isn't turning up any for sale now.

There are others like it, or the DIY solution. You can shave the top of the fin and reseal if you're feeling crafty.

 

Ding, ding, ding. Great idea.

 

I was trying to find it on TW.

 

Haven't seen much in the way of low profile antennas BUT I did see a big horseshoe magnet on Lowe's site. I'm just going to buy a big one, put some thin cloth over the ends and pop that sucker on there to enter the garage. Pop it off as soon as I'm through. So inconvenient; perfect...

 

Hits the warning bar but clears the lowest spot actually inside the garage:

 

I’d be shitting my pants driving that close to overhead stuff.

can you not just park outside?

 

Park around the corner and ride a Segway in.

 

Or a one wheel

 

It's in the heart of the city of Philadelphia and parking is at a premium, inside is $$, outside problem is that spaces unavailable. Job does pay for the garage parking.

 

If the bar has a specific height listed on it, measure to make sure that it's set to the proper height. I have heard of this happening & the facility having to pay for repairs.
Or air down tires slightly

 

Not that it would help in the garage but a roof rack should protect the fin.

 

Do you have a link for this?

 

I wondered if it was the correct height but never thought to actually measure. I will do that Monday.

 

I'd reach out to MESO and Uptop to see if either still have them somewhere in stock.

Otherwise, might try these guys...

https://totallyradproducts.com/products/the-bullet-cover

 

It was my understanding that the Tacoma fin has completely different internals than the Tundra, so you can’t do a low profile cover on our trucks.

 

Luckily someone already did the work here...


There's room to mod it.

 

PPF or a quick bit of thin bed liner. PPF if you want to keep it color matched, bed liner if you want the black accent.

 

Magnet seems like a poor solution to an everyday problem.

I'd lower the truck.

 

Doesn’t look like much room to me - the inner fin is most of the antennae components and there’s a PCB inside it standing vertical.

 

A barrier like a short rock wall or similar along the driveway will help with that. Just gotta make em' move on to easier targets.

 

Oh man, you guys are gonna hate this, but in a good way. Especially the "just lower your truck" dudes.

So clearly what was in my mind was fairly simple, although completely inelegant. Scrounging around in the garage where I have all the crap I just don't throw away and I came up with this monstrosity. Keep in mind that it's only a "working prototype." The "production" model will be gloss black; with flames; and skulls; and probably dragons; and at least one LED light as Tundra guys dig LED lights on anything. Plus the light will keep low flying aircraft from possibly catching a wing, or landing gear, which would be bad.










Ingredients: Magnet in front on a piece of gorilla tape, sticky side up, main body of "bar deflector/fin protector" some wood scraps, fastened with screws, wrapped in gorilla tape to be undetectable by radar AND to not scratch paint too much, on the roof, where no one will care. Couple magnets at the back before the third brake light housing that will be there if it happens to move, which it shouldn't as that tiny magnet at the front is good for 45 lbs of resistance. Shazam!

So as I get to the offending garage entrance that is the sole cause of my issue (I accept no responsibility whatsoever for this predicament), I'll hop out and pop it up on the roof. Once I've successfully navigated my giant vehicle, that is so perfectly suited to city driving and parking, through the bar of death's kill zone, I simply repeat in reverse before going down the ramp into the safe, and free space of my friendly neighborhood parking garage. Such a small price to pay for the honor and privilege of piloting my mall crawling, almost high enough with almost large enough tires, Tundra in to work every day.

It's just disturbingly ugly, which is by design (yeah, I'll go with that) which will serve as an anti-theft device should I forget to remove it AND it doesn't get peeled off and thrown into the bed by a low hanging pipe or sign inside the garage. You can PM me with the orders now for your very own nearly useless and mostly unnecessary invention. I better call the Valhalla guy now so I can learn how to handle the super high volume of orders...