My less than instant portable HF station:

Link to photo page:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/civex/2066842210/
That's me in Death Valley one Thanksgiving weekend. Although I have it set up to operate outside the van here, I can put the radio in the cab and mount the faceplate on the dash for mobile operation. I'm on a separate battery here so I don't run my van battery down. When the radio is set up in the cab, it runs off the van battery.

Louise and I logged into the Reno Noontime net, and we talked to a couple of guys up in the San Francisco Bay area - one of them on his FT-817 at 5 watts. We operated at 100W with a Tarheel Model 100 on the van. More pictures here:
http://civex.smugmug.com/gallery/4328538_qivLk#253863395_CVbTA