CB Antenna location and quantity advice

Okay.

 

The Firestik stainless steel door jamb mount works really well leaving room for a later addition of a bed cover. This location required drilling into the post but it provided a really good ground. I protected against rust by using a black silicone adhesive between the bracket and bed post. I also pulled the tail light to access the cavity behind the bed post and spray painted the area where the sheet metal screws penetrated into the cavity.

 

Looks great. A lot of people are getting good results from the corners like that. Would it be possible for you to tuck the wire under the bed rail plastic cap? Would look a lot cleaner. How did you ground it?

 

His mount is his ground and the cable fits in crack on the side of the tailgate if you wanted a cleaner look

 

I like that a lot! I have mine mounted behind the cab of the truck and want to move it in the future. Might just do this!

 

What materials did you use to make the tire carrier, any advice?

 

1.5" and 1.75" .12" wall tube, 1/4" plate, energy suspension pivot bushings, nuts, bolts an some skill with a welder. I developed full scale drawings for the carrier before I built it. I can send you PDFs of it.

 

I didn't realize until after I ran the cable that it would have fit into space between the tail light and the bed post. This only became evident when I pulled the tail light to paint the back side of the screw penetrations. I may re-route the cable at some point in the future but I don't want to deal with the hassle of uninstalling and re-installing the coax.

During the install, I routed the cable through a hole drilled in the plastic cubby on the side of the bed and zip tied it at strategic locations under the bed and brought it up through a rubber plug behind the passenger seat. At this point it is routed under the carpet to the plastic trim below the door on the passenger side and follows factory installed wiring under the trim up to the front passenger foot well. The cable is a total of 18 feet and it was barely long enough to reach the back of the CB.

For the ground, I made sure that the sheet metal screws holding the bracket had clean metal to metal contact at the drilled penetrations into the bed post after using the adhesive. I double check the ground between the bracket and the bed post using a multimeter before proceeding. The bed post has to have a solid ground if it didn't the tail lights on truck would not be functional.

 

I'm still thinkin about just using the drvr side front corner of the bed in the side bedrail with a ground wire. Also gonna use the 90 degree folding mount and when not in use, the antenna will be down just inside the bed parallel to bed rails out of site. Roof will be ground plane. Got the Cobra 75 handheld unit and will be mounted in the center console. Won't be the best in the world but will be sufficient. Got a black and a white 4" Wilson silver load I guess they are called. Came in 2 pack for few more $ than just one.

 

Does anyone know of a 90* swivel antenna mount that could be used with our bedrrails. I want to mount an anenna and store it horizontal to be able to use my tonneau cover then move it veritical when using the CB. Im only going to use it when I'm wheeling.


Edit; I had read most of the first 2 pages but not all of the posts before putting in mine. ^^^ Looks like Taco Pr3runn3r and I have the exact same idea.

 

Yes, several manufacturers make a 90 degree fold over. In fact Diamond antenna makes an electric one. just google antenna fold over mount.

 

Found one on ebay but during a test fit, not sure I like the play it has in it when upright. Am planning on seeing if it can be shimmed somehow to eliminate the play. Will do writeup and pics whenever I get around to pulling wire and doing install. Need to get a longer piece of coax at the moment..............folding mount link.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Cb-Ham-Radi...686?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19c883362e

This one looks like it could work and not have the freeplay in it............

http://www.ebay.com/itm/WHITE-HYLON..._Accessories_Gear&hash=item43a929e913&vxp=mtr

Heavy duty ss version..........

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Stainless-S..._Accessories_Gear&hash=item19d0803fd0&vxp=mtr

 

Hey guys, I am thinking about running dual antenna's on my truck. Just got a tool box and wanted to know how to tune duals and also if the tool box will be a good ground plane? anybody??

 

Running duals really won't help your performance. I have no idea how to tune a dual set-up, but I hear it's a pain. If you want the look, you could just have the second antenna as a dummy. I can guarantee most duals you see are like this. Anyway, center of the roof as high as possible is always your best bet.

 

Yeah I hear you. Already had a single and never liked the idea of mounting on the roof. any idea if the tool box will be a good ground? its aluminum..

 

I have no first hand experience with mounting an antenna on a tool box. Plenty of people are set up this way and it seems to work though. As long as the box is mounted on metal and you ground the antenna it should work.

 

I saw some picture on here where the guys just mount it on a custom made mount that bolts onto the bed-rails kind of like the stock tie-downs and just run a ground cable from the base of the antenna

 

Take this advice from an electrical engineer with over 45 years of ham radio experience:

1. Dual antennas will only give you marginal improvement. What you want in a mobile antenna is the ability to transmit a decent signal in any direction. A set of co phased antennas are just twice as many antennas to snag and break on stuff in the woods if that's a concern.

2. Keep antenna as far away from other metal structure on the truck as possible. the best place would be on the roof, but not always practical, a decent long antenna will be whacking overhead wires and tree branches. Usually power lines have a minimum height over ground of about 13 feet but there are a lot of branches and low underpasses less then that. Don't put an antenna close up to the cab or down low on a bumper near the body of the truck, the truck structure in close proximity to the antenna will detune the antenna, making it impossible to get a good SWR match, and will absorb a lot of the RF energy you are trying to radiate.

Any whip antenna is only one half of the antenna, the rest is the "ground plane" formed by the structure of the vehicle. You want to have the antenna over as much metal as possible, a with as short a ground lead as possible from the coax shield side of the feed line to the vehicle. That means don't mount the antenna on the middle of a set of cross braces across the back of the bed, or in the middle of a non metallic bed cover, with a long ground lead over to the fender. For CBs at 27 MHz, a couple of feet is a significant percentage of an electrical wavelength. A long ground lead adds to the length of the antenna and you will have trouble getting it to tune to resonance/low SWR.

Best place to mount an antenna on a Tacoma would be at the top of the left rear corner of the bed using the two bolts on the top of the pedestal just inside the tailgate to support an L bracket with an insulated feed through for the antenna mount. If you use a mount like that that includes a coax connector, the grounding is provided by the bolts that hold the L bracket to the pedestal. I would ensure that there is good electrical contact by scraping away some of the paint around the bolt holes in the pedestal and using star washers that will take a bite into the pedestal and the bracket mounted on it. If the mount does not have a coax connector, just a single conductor insulated feed through for the antenna that bolts into it above the mount, connect the feed line center conductor to the antenna via the insulated feed through and connect the shield of the coax directly to one of the bolts that hold the L bracket onto the truck body at the pedestal. And don't, for heavens sake, run a ground wire to the antenna ABOVE the insulator at the feed point like someone did on a post I came across about making a CB antenna mount for use with a bed cover!

 

This is even better than the L bracket arrangement that I was talking about in my post above, in that it will allow you to put a bed cover on without interference. Only difference I would make is to put it on the left side of the truck to allow more overhead clearance if you are using a tall antenna, like my Hamsticks for the HF ham bands, some of them approach 8 feet in length. Many overpasses and overhanging trees are higher towards the middle of the road vs. the shoulder. If you are going to put on a shorter antenna, such as for Firestick for CB or an antenna for VHF ham bands, put that one on the right side and the HF one on the left.

 

after much thought, ive decided to go with co phase. the only reason is; i run a linear that burnt up a 4' wilson 1k in my jeep, so im going to try splitting it up between 2 4's. i prefer the 102" whip, but it hitting everything gets old quick. so i am going to weld brackets on my headache rack, run dual shield 75ohm co phase harness from the linear. i know tuning the antennas will be cumbersome, but i am familiar with this process, and have my own meter...also have done lots of research to find optimum spread for co-phase is 4'3", or double that. what i havent looked at yet is how hard is it to get the cables out? are there floor plugs in a 12 access cab? this is going to be my nicest install yet...im excited ill post some pics. same linear and a 102" whip on my soft top jeep (swinging almost a 2 swr warm) i could talk to detroit from the oregon coast range