CB Radio

[Scootin 89]

You can kinda see how mine are mounted in this pic. Theyre cheap brackets mounted to the front of the toolbox. The antennas are Francis 5 1/2 ft. whips and only the drivers side one is hooked up. My CB is a Texas Ranger TR-966 and with this setup, not tuned or anything yet, I can reach out 3 miles.

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[805skywalker]

CB Antenna, looks or efficiency?

Reading some of these ideas for CB antenna installs. All the mentioned ideas offer very low performance/power transfer. Cut a hole in the roof, mount a wilson 1000 roof top mount and be done with it the right way. They can be unscrewed and a protective cap screws on water tight when not in use. You will be heard load and clear compared to a guy that has a mount rigged to a roof rack with the antenna on a 45 degree angle... a rack that probably isn't grounded besides. If you happen to see a guy with dual whips mounted a few feet apart on a rollbar, ask him how far his CB talks.... LOL, maybe a half mile.... He thinks it looks cool but to anyone "IN THE KNOW" it looks retarded as heck... Mud Duck as they say! If looks and fitting under a garage are your main concern I suggest forgetting about a CB... stick with your damn cell phone!

 

[805skywalker]

take the other one off and sell it,, I bet you talk 5 miles.. all it's doing is causing your swr to go higher.. better yet mount the remaining center back of tool box, and make sure box is grounded good to truck body,,, maybe you might talk 8 miles now....

 

[Chevyguy78]

I would personaly never mount an antanna to the back bumper or the front. Your antanna needs to have a clear 360 degree "view" in order to get best reception/transmission. You need to run your coax in 3ft increments inorder for best reception/transmission. Make sure you get your antanna's matched at a cb radio shop or if you have a tool to do it your self. The difference it makes is huge. I could get out like 3 miles before they were matched but after that I could get out seriousely 12 miles. It is awsome once they are matched. You can get your cb "pumped up" at the cb shops also that helps get out further and get better signal. If your looking for a small but good cb cobra makes a hand held unit that mounts the head unit under the dash but you control the channels and volume on the hand unit. I beleave it is only a 24 channel but it may be a 40 channel. I have been messing around with cb's for like 20 years or so and they can be fun. Especially if you can shoot skip where you talk with people in other states. That is pretty neat. I hope this helps.

 

[805skywalker]

I just typed about 3 paragraphs on CB installs... the damn website killed it all saying I was logged out or denied ... done here

 

[805skywalker]

if you remove the dome light its easy to access mounting an antenna with a hole cut just front of the dome light mount by slightly slitting the head liner. I mounted a ball mount with spring on mine, with a 5ft Firestick with tunable tip. I have 12 ft of LMR400 coax going to my XForce 2x8, with 6ft of mini8 coax going to the 257 Magnum mounted to the headliner to the roof support member just behind the windshield... I talk 100 miles local and to any Skip I can hear usually.... 4-10??? Skywalker mobile Central Cali Coast, break break

 

[Z Long Bed]

Whats the best way to install one? Also, how about running the antenna, I dont want some huge, hokey looking thing. Would it be possible to get a 3 footer and it install it similar to the way the stock antenna is placed?

I found this mounting bracket on Ebay for ~$20. It was new. Several of them listed.
I put my antenna on the roof. I've heard the shortys behind the cab don't pick up well.

 

[Horns]

I've got a Wilson 1000 mounted on the roof. It honestly looks better then the double fiberglass whips behind the bed, plus the Wilson can be unscrewed and a filler cap can be screwed in for when you have a low roof height.