Grounding Firestik CD Antenna

Any suggestions to the best way to ground my Firestik antenna mounted on my tailgate? Will I have to run a wire to the frame?

 

My CB mount is mounted on the bed right behind my cab, but touching the rhino liner an is not getting a proper ground. I just ran another ground wire down to a bolt below that was grounded. Hopefully it solves my reception/transmitting issue. Don't know until I'm back on the trail because don't have someone else to test the CB with :/

 

Hard to tell in your photos, but if that antenna mount is steel (or aluminum), and is bolted to the cab, then you may not need an additional ground. If the mount and/or cab is painted where the bolt is, then that would be an issue.

 

From the pics it looks like paint is between the mount an cab preventing there to be a ground.

Grind the paint away so bare metal is touching bare metal, or wire up a little ground wire to the mount (must be bare metal to the wire) and run it to another ground on your vehicle. Should help

 

If the OP's 2015 has a plastic bed like the older second gens he will need to tie his ground to the frame. FWIW, I had a Nissan pickup with steel bed that was not grounded to the frame. Not sure why that was. Maybe some issue that affects other brands, too.

 

I ran a wire from the antenna mount to a ground bolt on the top of the frame right behind the driver side rear shock.

 

Like many above have said: I have my CB in almost the exact same position. All you need to do is scrape some paint off both the mount and truck bed/metal. I used dielectric grease to "seal" it against corrosion.

 

Why not just use serrated lock washers to get through the paint?

 

There is no reason, I didn't have one on hand at the time. This would be a great way to move just enough paint. Although you'd have a hard time getting something like dielectric grease onto the metal to protect it, some people don't worry about that I suppose.

 

I did all the grinding as mentioned above, but I had some extra 8 gauge wire after my sub install. Probably not necessary, but it definitely helps lower the SWR.

 

That mount is already grounded. I have the same so your g2g after you tune the swr