CB Antenna Mount with Tonneau Cover

For anybody looking to mount their CB antenna behind the cab but have a tonneau cover, here's what I fabbed up.





Basically took a sheet of 16 GA steel from Home Depot and cut and bent it to shape with an angle grinder and jigsaw. Works pretty well so far. It twists (front to back) a little out near where the antenna is mounted, but considering that nothing is welded together it's not bad. If i weld the edges together it might minimize that a little more.

Likely going to just attach either a long threaded rod or metal strap to the front end ahead of the antenna and drop it down between the cab and bed. Then I'll attach it to the frame. Should kill the flex and as a bonus double as a ground.

Not super pretty, but a little bedliner paint and it should clean up nicely.

It's attached using some 1/2" coarse thread bolts with lock washers into some square nuts.

Antenna is a 4' Firestik Firefly... though likely going to drop down to 3'... four-footer keeps whackin' the garage door when I pull in or out.

Still gotta actually get the CB... this all could change to using a 3-footer with the Relentless hood mount if I can't get decent SWR.

Hope this helps someone.

 

Well, once it got painted and the tonneau cover put back on it looks great. Problem is SWR stinks.

I used a 2' starter cable... big thick thing that went from the underside of the mount (no paint - clean steel) to the lowest bolt on the bracket on the fender well (between the cab and the bed). Couldn't get better than about 3:1 on Ch 1 and Ch 40 and about 2.7:1 on 19. Tried both a 3' and a 4' Firefly.

Also tried using a 12GA wire with a ring terminal attached directly the ground side of the fire ring (sandwiched to the mount) and attached that to the frame... even worse SWR.

Not a whole lot of places to attach to the frame around there... especially within a foot or so.

Going to get the multimeter out again this weekend to double check the connections, but I might just scrap the whole thing and go with something off the tailgate/light or the Relentless Fab hood mount.

I know some other members have had luck with behind the cab, but I think being that close to the corner metal of the cab is probably more interference than the back window.

 

Awesome mod, interested to see if you get better VSWR results. How are you routing the cable?

 

Thanks... be great if I can get it to work. Cable is dropped down between the cab and bed and run along the frame to the rubber grommet under the driver door. Up through and under the carpet to a Cobra 75 WX ST under the driver seat.

 

Looks good!

I just got my CB hooked up last week. Wanted to be able to run a tonneau with it. I got the CB/antenna/mount as a set from a member on here. It is the bamf tail light mount. I didn't want to mount it on the tail light since it would get in the way and I use my bed more than I am really going to use the CB so i took a grinder to the mount to make it work where I wanted it. I felt a little bad about chopping up that nicely crafted mount into a simple L bracket, but.....

I will need to reinforce it since the sheet metal is a little weak. I ended up getting really good SWR though. (well below 1!) The connections are all well grounded though. I have the antenna attached directly the a RG58 cable that goes into the cab. The hook ups are about as simple as it can get antenna-spring-cable adapter-cable-CB.







grounded directly to the bed:


Good luck! hope you can get your SWR down

 

one other option OP is if you dont mind routing the cable is the BAMF Tailgate mount, i want one but i have to get a CB first