Bed Rail CB Antenna Mount with Tonnau Cover

Starting this thread becuase I've had people contact me about the bed-rail antenna mount I made for use with my Extang Solid Fold Tonnau cover.

I started out buying a 3" wide x 1/8" thick steel blank from Ace Hardware and then did some bending...Dimensions are shown in the pic below...


On a couple of the bends (I was using a sledge and a workbench vice) I cut 1/2" grooves just to make bending the metal a little easier...If you can get away with out doing this it will only make your mount stronger...not that I've had any problems with it bending...

I ran the antenna ground wire through the back bed rail to the first bolt on the side rail (as shown in the picture below)...I got a good ground there...



I will be making a second one and shortening the antenna platform from three to two inches...when I fold my cover back all the way it hits the front of the antenna mount (you can see the rust spots in the picture below)...Something I didn't factor into my original cuts...



So then I simply rounded the edges on the antenna platform for asthetics (sp?) and spray-painted it with rustoleum.

I used two 1" x 3" x 1/8" rectangles slid into the rail to bolt the bracket down...used two for added strength...

Have made a coupla road trips with it and it has not come loose or bent...

Hope someone finds this helpfull...

Here's a pick of how it looks with the bed cover on...

 

that looks awesome! very crafty

 

Thanks Nick...

 

Sullyman,
Thanks so much for taking the time to do this. You Rock man. A few questions do you get much mositure in the bed due to the mount? How hard was it to get the antenna cable back into the truck.

Ric

 

Ric...the moisture is minimal...on the Extang Solid Fold, the foam around the base of the cover smushes nicely over the bracket and the ground wire to seal things up pretty well...

On the Antenna Cable, I put my CB in the center console's hot-dog holder (see the pic below)...ran an 18' radio shack cable forward and then left behind the driver's side dash and then down through the driver's side door sill's cable tray to the hole under the driver's seat...then underneath the cab to split between the cab-n-bed and up to the antenna...

 

I also just made a bracket to work with my tonaue cover. Used a peice of steel and a 90 degreen antenna bend/fold bracket to locate it under the toneau cover. pics in my build thread

 

Just came across this old thread while searching for ideas on an antenna mount to fit onto the Tacoma tie down rails. While I appreciate the mechanical idea of this install, the electrical side is VERY wrong! It looks to me like the green "ground wire" that is run over to the left side bed rail is attached to the antenna feed point ABOVE the feed through insulator on the bracket! This arrangement shorts the center conductor of the feed line (and the bottom of the antenna itself) directly to ground! What needs to be grounded on this installation is the L bracket itself. At 27 Mhz, you want to make that ground lead as short as possible, only a few inches, otherwise you will throw the tuning of the antenna way off. If this installation worked at all, it was only because the length of the "ground wire" might have a high enough impedance (resistance) to not completely shunt out all of the RF to the antenna!

Also, putting an antenna close in to the back if the cab, even if the feed point was properly connected, still will dump most of the energy radiated by the antenna into the metal of the cab. Same problem with using bumper mounts that keep most of the the antenna very close to the truck body. Antennas need to be mounted out in the clear, best spot would be back on the left rear corner of the bed rail by the tailgate, or attach the bracket to the two bolts on the top of pedestal just inside the tailgate.

 

Just came across this old thread while searching for ideas on an antenna mount to fit onto the Tacoma tie down rails. While I appreciate the mechanical idea of this install, the electrical side is VERY wrong! It looks to me like the green "ground wire" that is run over to the left side bedrail tailgate is attached to the antenna feed point ABOVE the feed through insulator on the bracket! This arrangement shorts the center conductor of the feed line (and the bottom of the antenna itself) directly to ground! What needs to be grounded on this installation is the L bracket itself. At 27 Mhz, you want to make that ground lead as short as possible, only a few inches, otherwise you will throw the tuning of the antenna way off. If this installation worked at all, it was only because the length of the "ground wire" might have a high enough impedance (resistance) to not completely shunt out all of the RF to the antenna!

Also, putting an antenna close in to the back if the cab, even if the feed point was properly connected, still will dump most of the energy radiated by the antenna into the metal of the cab. Same problem with using bumper mounts that keep most of the the antenna very close to the truck body. Antennas need to be mounted out in the clear, best spot would be back on the left rear corner by the tailgate.