Does anyone know of an antenna mount that can fit to a flush roof rail? My car has two roof rails but the bottom of the rail is flush with the roof. Most of the antenna mounts I have seen wrap completely around the roof rail and so will not work with a flush rail. This will be used when the car is stationary not moving. Any suggestions?
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I spent ages looking for the same solution and came up with nitto, aside from a mag mount.
There is a K550 that I thought would do it but it is a wrap around. I didn’t even find anything on Ali Express.
Ended up getting a K400 and mounting it to the boot lip. If you ever find a flush rail mount please pass on the info! 
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…hi Andy, been thinking of doing this too, decided an using a three -magnetic base to put on my car roof. Thoughts?
Geoff vk3sq
If you decide to do it, Geoff, and it is for HF, it is UNBELIEVABLY important to still run a SHORT, fat, flat braid wire to a door bolt or other fastener in good contact with the frame. I spent HOURS trying to help one of my Foundation students with an install, trying to chase resonance that just wasn’t there on magnets alone.
Cheers
John
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…thanks John, well noted
Geoff vk3sq
Could you post a picture of the rails, so I can better suggest an alternative?
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Something like this?
The Diamond MCR-II
I find it expensive though, and it’s also meant for BNC antennas so an adapter would be needed if your HF antenna uses PL-259 or a screw thread.
My recommendation is a three-magnet base, and different to John VK4TJ, I have used this solution tens of times with different antennas and never needed any braid strap; however, the most I ever use static-mobile is 20 watts, perhaps the problems John has found start at 100 watts?
73 Ed DD5LP.
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If it is similar to my motor it would look along these lines. The roof rails are flush to the roof with no gap underneath, so any roof rail mounts you would buy (e.g to mount a roof box) would look like this:
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The rail is approx 30mm high from roof to tip. 25mm wide and the groove is the top 15mm. Everything is flush and there’s no gutter any more as they cause too much drag. Last car with a gutter (and thus had a gutter mount) was sold in 1998!
The other issue is there is a panoramic sun roof. A sun roof in Scotland? Yes, I know! It takes up about 50% of the roof. I’m not sure there’s enough roof area for a mag mount to work without bonding straps.
You can’t use a tailgate mount as there is a spoiler in the way. The black gap is where the tailgate opens and the spoiler is bottom-left. It’s plastic.
As Ian says, I thought one way would be to use a roof bar on the rails. That maybe the only way. But I’ll look up the Diamond mount Ed suggested.
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Sounds like we have more or less the same issue. I’ve a panoramic sunroof as well (in Ireland, basically Atlantis).
Mag mounts would be alright but not centred on the roof. Another reason I ended up just taking the easier (perhaps less cost-advantageous) route and going for the K400 and ATAS.
Even then the bloomin’ car boot has about minus 0.000000000000000001 micrometers of space to actually mount the thing. It needs ground stripes as well. Which I have, but have no idea where to put them nor what torque wrench settings I need.
Whenever I press PTT it makes the reversing camera under the VW badge flip up. 
P.s forgot to add, you could still use a triple mag mount and place it on the roof along with a Diamond MAT 50 for grounding. Saves going the grounding strips route but you can’t leave it on the roof permanently. You could make your own as well but personally I like Diamond products. Always seem to be of a high quality and always just work.
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Gutters were so sensible though, I had roof bars that mounted to the gutters, an antenna mount etc. I got fed up with mag mounts not holding at motorway speeds. I had a lovely on glass sticky mount that was fine for 70cm antennas. It looked like a cellphone antenna mount of the 90s.
But gutters went away because of drag… not an issue with Landies TBH as you don’t blast along motorways and there are worse sources of drag to be considered first. That roof rack looks well sturdy 
As a man of leisure (not this week, I’m on my own grand daughter watching) I intend to check out a reasonably local Men’s Club that has assorted 3d printers and a lathe. More important there are people to teach how to use the lathe, the last time I touched one I was 14!
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My XYL (the driver in our team) has a heavy foot and a 2m half wave never moved (unlike my 3 band whip!) but it was a pain going in multi-storey car parks! Anyway, just a suggestion, have you considered a window mount? Last time I looked Moonraker sold them, just checked, £13,95.
An afterthought: I seem to remember seeing a mobile antenna mount that fitted to the top of a door, but forget where I saw it. Probably either Moonraker or Lynchy.
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@VK3SQ , I also have experience using a three-magnet mag-mount, specifically this one: LINK
I have used it with the ATAS-120, which is notorious for needing a good ground-plane. It tuned up fine to an SWR of 1.6:1 on most bands. I now use a permanent mount on the bonnet of my pick-up truck now, but the 3 magnet mag-mount was a perfectly usable solution with the one draw back is that it can be difficult to pry it away from the roof as the magnets are so powerful! I used some circles of rubber I cut from a sheet to protect my paint work (about 1mm thick, I think), which didn’t affect the capacitive coupling of the magnets to the to roof.
73s Dave.
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I may or may not have had 300kg of plasterboard on it, when doing my sons bathroom last year. 
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Could you use a roof bar and mount the antenna to the roof bar instead? You;’d be able to to fit multiple antenna across the width of the car
My roof rails look similar to yours Andy. I ended up getting a cheap set of roof cross bars from Ebay and mounting the antennas on one of the bars.
The only problem was getting the coax inside the car, currently it is just passing through the seal of the tailgate.
Glenn VK3YY.
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My old Honda had slotted rails flush with the roof with sliding threaded inserts, so the cross rails were secured with screws that went into them. I used a small right-angle shelf bracket, enlarged the screw hole on one side to fit the screws, and mounted a vertical on the other portion that now pointed up. I suspect a cleaner install would be a plate that secured to two such threaded inserts, then bent up away from the car roof far enough to add an NMO mount.
It all depends on the details of the existing roof rails, and how they attach to the roof. But often there is some sort of bolt that holds it down, even if it is hidden inside the plastic trim.
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I had a Peugeot 308 in Australia - also with a large glass sunroof (another stupid option, but for a different reason - you don’t want the sun and hence heat getting inside the car if you can avoid it). I used a single magnet base on there with a HF whip - it worked fine - the roof is only part of the ground plane, the attached (as long as metal) rest of the body also acts as part for the ground plane. If you have (or can borrow) a mag base that is physically capable of supporting your HF antenna (a 3-mag one would be best) - try it out on the area of the roof you have available - that will most likely be the simplest and cheapest option.
73 Ed.
UPDATE: I assumed you were talking HF Whip antenna while parked up Andy? If this is just for a VHF/UHF antenna - the single magnet mount will work and stick at motorway speeds as long as you have a flat steel roof (not plastic or aluminium of course). I’d still go for the three-magnet base and then you can use it for either VHF/UHF (moving or static) or HF (static).
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