Shorty antenna? Yea or Nay?

I just replaced my stock antenna whip with a short rubber duckie. Reception in town is pretty much a toss-up but it's not as good on fringes. Having a flexible AM/FM solves a few issues for me so I live with the performance hit. It's not bad, I don't notice normally.

This is the one I used:
http://www.autozone.com/electrical-...ra-electronics-stock-antenna-mast/545537_0_0/

 

Thanks for the info. I'll look into it...

 

Well, my 13" Antenna X was working great until I put on a 50" radius light bar.

Now.... not so much.

Gonna do what this guy did:

 

I cut the OEM antenna on my 2012 PreRunner off even with the top of the windshield
and it worked as good as the original. Being careful not to bend the wire wrapping
around the staff, I wound electrical tape around the antenna where I wanted to make
my cut then took a good pair of wire cutters and cut the antenna staff. Once the staff
was shortened, I cut the wire around the antenna about an eighth of an inch shorter
than the staff and filed the edges of the staff smooth. I then twisted off the tiny ball
on the antenna top and glued it to the shortened antenna top using Gorilla glut. As
you file the antenna top, be sure to taper it so it will receive the ball. Once the glue
has dried, spray the finished product with black Kyrlon paint. WaLa, you have a
shortened antenna with reception on par with the original length.

 

I did what wudbuchr did. I cut my OEM one down, put a little rubber cap on top (with superglue) and the reception is great. My antenna is probably 13-14" tall and works great - didn't cost me anything.

 

I have the Antenna X 5" eurostyle.. It's fine. Like everyone else, hated it catching every tree branch, etc. so opted to get a shorter one. As was mentioned earlier in the thread, make sure you remove it prior to entering an auto car wash. Learned the hard way with my first one.. forgot to remove it, broke off and left behind the threaded piece in the oem base. After unsuccessfully trying to drill it out with an extraction bit and other various attempts, I was in a $350 hole from the dealership to replace the whole base. Ugh. If I would have used the search function here better in the first place, would have cut the oem one, recapped it and called it a day. Good suggestion!

 

just a word of caution for those of you using the antenna x, be careful removing it. I went to remove mine when I sold my truck and the hardware they provided sheared off when I went to unscrew it, leaving half of the screw in the antenna socket. I didn't really care since I was selling the truck anyways, but if you ever plan on removing it, do so with caution! they hardware they provide is cheap and brittle.

 

Anybody tried actually getting a longer antenna and then using a clip to tuck it down when going into garages?

 

Full length CB antenna users and amateur radio operators use clips similar to this to hold down long whips. Maybe this helps with an idea?