SiriusXM AMPS XDPIV2 or SXVD1 Adapter Plate for Bully Dog 50mm Gauge Pod A Pillar Housing - 2010-2016 RAM 1500 by BustedChain

Last crawled date: 3 years, 3 months ago

This is a mount plate adapter for my aftermarket Bully Dog A-Pillar Gauge Pod housing that goes over the lower portion of my existing A-Pillar "ohshit handle". I am not affiliated with Bully Dog brand in any way, that's just the housing I ended up buying some years back.
Update:
I overtightened the screws going into my SiriusXM Onyx mount. The backing crumbled to pieces, literally pulverized. The plastic back there is INCREDIBLY thin. (Way too thin.) Do not overtighten. I bought a replacement dock, but it appears to be the next model up: SXVD1(A) that comes with the Vehicle Kit DV3. Of course this dock is shorter and thus has to be installed even further down in order to have clearance, so my original adapter plate will not work for this without a ton of modification. Yay me. I have added 2 holes in the middle. The idea is that these two will align with the top two holes of the dock. You would need a thin piece of plastic or metal to catch the bottom two holes and bolt it on.
This adapter plate provides me either 2 or 4 mount holes in the AMPS ~38mm x 30mm spacing. (Actual measurements on my SiriusXM XDPIV2 AMPS mount is 37.5mm wide x 30mm vertically, center-to-center.) I will be mounting my SiriusXM Onyx Radio the A-Pillar and this plate. The 4 outer holes can be used or the two inner holes can be used where the bottom of the mount would be free floating / needing to be reinforced by a back-plate and longer screws. I leave some of the figuring out how you want to install yours up to you.
It only took me 4 or 5 years to get around to making this for my 2010 Dodge RAM 1500 truck. Years ago, there were no other options for A-Pillar mounts, so bear with me here as there may be better options available now, I still wanted to share what I made in case anyone else goes this route, or maybe there are other 50mm Pod openings this may be useful for. Heck, even a 50mm circular saw, am-i-right? :)
I don't see any reason this adapter plate couldn't be used with any other truck pod gage mount as long as the gauge pod had a 50mm opening and the adapter plate gave you enough clearance to mount your AMPS style bracket there.
This is how I am installing this adapter / SiriusXM Onyx Radio in my truck:
First you will need a 50mm Gauge Pod A-Pillar Mount, such as the Bully Dog A-Pillar GT Mount w/ Adapter for 2010-2016 Dodge RAM 1500/2500/3500. For my truck, the adapter part number / model is DER-32304 / UPC: 681018323048. If you have a different truck, then you'll need to figure that out, too.
This A-Pillar comes with a ~50mm opening (mine was 51.2mm) on it. This adapter has a 50mm / 2.6mm thick spacer that goes in the gauge pod opening, so there should be some wiggle room / clearance anyway.
Next you will need this printed mount plate thing. This file is provided as-is, not fully tested, and very likely flawed. It would be a good idea to print a cheap material / light infill version to do a test fit before you bother to print. PLA will NOT hold up to car dash temperatures. You have been warned. PETG might be okay, but even then you might want to consider a larger nozzle (0.6mm or larger) and PETG Carbon Fiber, or PolyCarbonate Carbon Fiber, not so much for the strength of carbon fiber itself, but heat properties.
Third, you will need some sort of AMPS 37.5mm wide by 30mm wide (center to center) mountable object. In my case, I designed this mount specifically for a SiriusXM Onyx Receiver that I will be installing there.
Fourth, you will need 4 or maybe 6 each M4 x 12mm or M4 x 16mm Bolts with washers. You also might need some blue loctite since this is going to be bouncing around down the road and it would suck if it came loose while you were driving. I included a couple extra holes near the top of the outside ring if you want to bolt it up there.
Fifth, place the mount plate inside the A-Pillar Housing as low as possible and do a test fit without drilling anything to make sure that your radio will fit. Mine was a little too tight, so I reamed out the bottom two holes so the whole thing could be lower. You made that cheap test-fit version, right? If you are happy with the test fit of 2 out of the 4 bolts, then you can go ahead and mark / drill the 2 bottom holes through the A-Pillar Gauge Pod Adapter. I had to put them low enough to allow room for my radio there. If you are using a different radio, you might not be able to use this file directly.
Alternatively, It might work to make a thicker bracket that sticks out more and use longer bolts so that there is more clearance from the mount.
I have included the Fusion 360 F3D file though so you can remix it into something even more useful / correct for you.
Anyway, with the 2 bottom holes drilled, you should be able to add a single drop of locktite to each nut on the receiver mount you are attaching, bolt it all together, Test Fit the A-Pillar in place to make sure it is going to bolt up, and before you tighten it down, go ahead and pull it back out so you can run your stereo auxiliary audio and satellite antenna cables. I'm using a Chrysler Satellite adapter to whatever the SiriusXM satellite adapter is called so that I can tap into the factory SiriusXM Antenna. I have to check and make sure that the Onyx Antenna doesn't pickup different frequencies though, as I might end up just using that on my dash board near the window instead.
NOTE: The existing Factory A-Pillar bolts are behind a couple of caps. The caps that cover these bolts are "hinged" in that they are attached at one end. The end of the cap nearest the handle itself is the side that opens up and the side of the cap furthest away from the A-Pillar handle is the part that is hinged. It'll be easier to pry these caps up with something thin / gentle nearest the handle. Don't be like me and start prying at the other end.