tacomazach's double cab build

about how far is your CB Radio's range?

 

With the current set up (cobra 18) It's not real far. Due to some wiring issues I didn't think of when I was wiring it up it only reaches about a mile. I hope to get that ironed out soon. With my old set up (cobra 29) I had talked on good clear nights about 25-30 miles. On a average day I could talk 10-15 miles easy. I hope to get my current cb to reach out like that soon.

 

the whips are awesome for range, I got around 25 miles with mine and with my firstick i get around 8-12, I just like the way the firstick looks better! Hope you get yours workin.;

 

Yeah man. Re-wired the power straight to the battery. Checked the ground on the antenna. checked the swr. all seemed great but It still sounded real muffled in rx. and tx sounded over modulated. We started thinking since I bought the cb used that someone tried tweeking with it and did it wrong. But then we hooked up another cb to the same set up and it did the exact same thing. Now we're thinking its the cheap co-ax I have that I bought when I knew nothing about cb's. So now to the cb shop for a new cable and hope and pray it is all gravy after.

 

subbed

 

^Im not going to say you are lying, but trd7 has a wilson magnetic and he can no longer reach my house with his set-up but when he had his whip i could hear him loud n clear, its only about 5-7 miles. In your case it may have worked better but for me i havent had anything work better than the whip, i just get tired of it well "whipping" around alll the time.

Zach- i never grounded mine and my current one isnt grounded and i havent had any problems with it. My toolbox is the same as yours, bolted to the bed rails and when i hooked my lights up on my toolbox thats how i found out it was grounded to it, i know its not the best ground but its there, and my antenna has done good.

 

vacountryboy- Wilsons are some great antennas that sound great. However around here there's not that much difference in the two through the woods and all, except a little bit of clarity (not worth the money to me). also the magnet mounts can't really hold up to the branches of mississippi woods. going on trail rides and having to stop to set the antenna back up gets old quick. But that's why I didn't end up with the wilson set up

01- yeah the ground is fine, and I thought it was, but everyone kept saying that sounded like the problem. So we checked and double checked. We've narrowed down the options so we think it's the skinny co-ax I have. Gonna try some new co-ax and all saturday and hope that's the problem.

 

yea i went and bought a 18ft coax from a truck store cause id been using some that a boy gave me and had it all buggered up, when i took it out to run the new coax i found a spot that had gotten knicked and the pos and negs were touching, i was only reaching out about half a mile but when i put the new on in i jumped on it and was goin bout 20-25 miles out.

 

I hear ya man. one day I may be running more than 4 watts. But right now i'm having enough trouble while keeping it simple

 

Alright so I did a few little things today. I think my cb problems are ironed out as well. I started tinkering and kept on going haha

a few days ago I picked up some better co-ax cable and it started sounding ten times better.

Today I decided to move my antenna to the rear to one day be able have a camper topper. I then took my tool box off for the bed space and moved it to my lawncare trailer. Now I'm going to have to figure some how to get all my tools behind my seat, but it got dark. I'll also have to get a firestik antenna because the tip of the whip will most likely be hitting the cab a good bit. Sorry for the dark cell phone pics.

 

Nice, but beware of the firsticks range compared to the whips, it is a whole new world, i lost about 10 miles with the firestick but it looks a shit ton better than a floppy antenna all the time and on trails its anazing not having it hittin every single tree branch

 

Oh I know, I just don't want to put a ton of dings in my roof because of the whip. I'll see how it does for a little while and if it gets annoying or anything I'll be getting a firestik.

 

you lost recption with your fire stick by 10 miles...great day dude do you have it tuned right because i can pick people up sometimes 20 miles away.
swear on it . if there are buildings and trees it wont but if it clear that thing goes far

 

I'm not sure if his whip was like mine, but with mine I can reach 35 on an average day. lots more on a clear night. losing ten miles seems about right on average...

 

I was getting around 25 miles on my whip and never tuned it, never tuned the firstick but im not exactly sure how far it goes i just know on the interstate one day i heard some guy say what exit he was at and it was about 10 miles away, so it may reach farther but thats as far as i know of

I dont really know how to tune it and it was free so i just stuck on the spring and left it. works fine so i havent bothered it.

 

well then...but i had the same problem i would always go to a buddied land and the road to get there had low lying trees and it would wack the mofo off the top swing down and hit the side of my truck...k40 magnet=pos

 

My whip may have also reached farther than around 25 miles, i just know when i first put my small cb in the dash i cut it on and teh only person i found was about 25 miles away, so it may go further but im not exactly sure.

I guess one day ill find someon with a SWR meter and get it all straight but i hardly ever use it for the most part, just long trips down the interstate to listen to trucker talk and on trail rides.

It gets used more for my PA than anything.

 

Yeah man, I'm staying far away from magnet mounts. especially with all the trees around here.

Yeah. I live close to the interstate and me and a buddy left the same place one day in opposite directions and we decided to see how far we could talk and could till about 30 and the last 5 was hard to hear. but could still hear each other. But that was also with my coba 29 tuned. this cobra 18 may not do as good.

 

Found my old 2 ft firestick. Decided to try it out and see how I like it. I think I'll eventually move to a 3 or 4 ft firestick. But once I put the firestick on I realized it was not mounted level. It was leaning toward the cab. The steel whip was hiding this fact. So I went out and found these rubber doo-dads and the problem is fixed

 

Nice thinkin on the rubbers Id probably put them under each bolt to keep the mount from rubbing your paint. .02