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My thought as well, it's overpriced for what's there. The one point in their favor appears to be the installation instructions. IMO you can probably do with a 20 to 25W radio on the trails and for most travel needs. the extra power from a 45W UHF radio buys you maybe an additional mile of coverage.

Maybe some are, but my good (sheriff) friend isn't one of them.

LOVE that radio. Small and compact, great for go box builds!

Check out the Radioddity DB20-G mobile ($109, 20 watts, cigarette lighter plug, optional cup mount) and GM-30 HT ($39):

Not sure about that 45 watt mobile radio offhand...with the lack of feedback and delays, I wonder if it's fairly new hardware. The one in the 25 watt kit looks very similar to the retevis rb86 (which is also water resistant and on sale for $111). The handheld looks like a radioddity gm30 (which run around $40). The cable with nmo is usually $30ish for name brand, and rugged actually has a laird 1/2 wave on sale for $24, which is a good price. On the mount, it looks nicely made...the mounting location in some of the pics (and proximity to adjacent metal parts gives me pause, but I'll let those with experience speak to if that's actually an issue (as I don't have a jeep and haven't used their mount). Overall, probably not bad gear, but they're charging a premium for name and the convenience of a kit. Whether it's justified is up to the buyer.

Comet GP6NC is listed for GMRS & MURS, but out of curiosity I swept it last night and it is pretty decent on the 2m ham band. On 70cm ham, its over 2.1 across the board. 3 of 4 isn't too bad. Below is the 2m sweep from 120MHz to 160MHz.

I've used their V3 HT's for awhile and really like them. however, they are costly and are just rebadged Baofeng UV-5Rs. Rugged is big in the offroad racing world and they work well, especially in dusty, water resistant needs. The install kits are good for specific applications like a Jeep. That said, I think there are a lot of other good options out there. I ordered the GMR45 kit from Rugged the other day only to get an email the next day that they don't have them for a few weeks. On back order. I cancelled the order, did some more research and went another direction.

In order to program a memory, (if that's what you're trying to do), the A/B selection needs to be set on A. Also, since the UV-82HP has a goofy dual PTT, you need to be sure you're on the right one when you transmit. Menu items 29, 30 and 31 are used to set the display color for standby, receive and transmit. If they are all the same, the display will not change color on transmit or receive. Make sure you have menu item 25 (SFT D) set to OFF when using simplex. Make sure it is set to + or - when using a repeater. Most (if not all) GMRS repeaters have a + offset. Make sure menu item 26 is set for the correct offset. Most (if not all) GMRS repeaters have a 500 khz offset. Make sure menu item 13 (T-CTCS) is set to the CTCSS tone for the repeater you are accessing. For simplex, select OFF. For menu item 11 (R-CTCS), select OFF for simplex and repeaters unless you have some need for it. Most people don't. The chances of you receiving multiple defective radios is low. It is also possible that newer UV82HP radios are restricted to amateur radio bands. I can't say for sure, because mine are older and unrestricted. Good luck.

I think first you need to register. When I did I just used my call sign as my username.

I doubt it’s that bleak. Just have someone familiar with that model play with it.

In the middle of unpacking and found my old GMRS base from my motorhome. We had it mounted in our 5th wheel with a 1/4 wave UHF whip on the roof. When we got the Motorhome I had it on a try band larsen that I would use for the scanner when needed also. Cool part was it would run off the DC power pack if we had power, a 12V cord or batteries. I ran rechargeable in it and when at NASCAR races it would charge all day on solar or generator then run all night on battery. It went off multiple times while in Charlotte one year when the track got warned for a tornado. Had it go off for other severe weather events at other tracks and campgrounds over the years. The antenna was a BNC so you could use the one on it or the mounted antenna. Definitely a cool box for the day. Maybe some day I'll use it again.

That's super common actually. Motorola repeaters are just a pair of their mobile radio boards in the same chassis, same for Yaesu being a pair of mobile boards, Wouxun's dedicated repeater, and so on. It saves a ton on development and manufacturing costs. The real enemy is heat, as you've noted. What dedicated repeaters do differently is cool the boards better - larger heatsinks, ducted fans, and forced ventilation are common in a front to back 2U 2-post chassis normally used for repeaters, while the mobile radio usually must passively sink the heat, or, at best, has a low noise 40mm fan. A 2U chassis can easily vent over 2kW of heat if designed properly (just look at servers), a couple of hundred watts for radios and control boards is basically nothing a single 60mm fan can't handle. At least, once you stop caring about the audible noise of the cooling system! If I were building a repeater on the cheap, personally I'd pick up something like this and take my tin snips to the interior: https://www.newegg.com/black-athena-power-rm-2u200h/p/N82E16811192310 It comes with two 12V fans, plenty of room for the power supply and the RX unit, in a couple of hours it could easily turn two independent mobile radios into a repeater. I'd probably throw in a temperature sensor and fan failure alarm too for my own peace of mind.

Thank you.

For most normal people, GMRS is not a hobby.

I've been using LMR400 on my repeater for over a year-and-a-half and it has been plenty "good enough" for me and everyone in the several hundred square miles that the repeater covers. Is it as good as a multi-thousand dollar commercial-grade repeater installation? NO Will the coax last forever? NO Does it work? YES Be wary of "some people" that love spending other people's money.

That cant work, for the reasons you stated, and to back that up, I tried it. You either need two antennas or the amp has to be before the duplexer, which in this particular case would kill the duplexer.