I searched the topic of CB Antenna mounting and came up with one mounted beside the hood, a couple mounted to the spare tire carrier, one mounted to the back bumper, etc. But only one pic. I curious to see how you all have solved the dilemma of where to mount it.

My new friends in the sammys use CBs all the time, so I wanted to get mine up to par. When I went out with them last sunday, found out that my range was only about 75 yards or so with a tiny little rubber duck magnet mount on the targa bar. This just would not do. A couple days ago I made my own heavy duty bracket and bolted it to the tailgate, just to the right side of the spare, and added a slim type spring and a 4 foot fiberglass trucker style that I had gotten at a garage sale. This worked a little better, but still not good enough for me. So tonight I went to a local CB shop and got some helpful info, as well as a new whip and cable. For the antenna to work it's best, the tip's got to be at least 1 1/2' above the roofline. Usually the antenna uses the roof of the vehicle as the ground-plane, but in our little convertables, this doesn't work. In our rigs, the antennas end up using the vehicle's floor as the ground plane. Not ideal, but it works with a tall enough whip.

For my rig, I got a 5 1/2' Francis whip and an 18' hi-performance cable with waterproof plugs. As soon as I installed it in my mount, I was picking up drivers over 5 miles away clearly and they could hear me clearly. Not that big of a deal except there was a couple hills between us, I was down in a valley. The Francis whips aren't tunable, they require the 18 foot cable for proper SWR tuning, and it seems to work great.

Once I get the chance in daylight, probably saturday, I'll snap a pic and post of how I mounted mine. In the meantime, anyone else have any pics of how they mounted their antennas and how well they work for you?

I'm mounting a firestick "venice" (a 3' whip) to my targa this weekend. I'll let you know the SWR I end up with.

I'm a big fan of whips over fiberglass, and mag mounts plain suck.

I've got a 5.5' whip on my truck (1.1 SWR), and was able to talk very reliably to a handheld cb 10 miles across water (the handheld was in a boat running on step at the time).

If you get a good SWR, you can get very good distance with CB's.

I want to have a setup for a CB too,
could you explane the difference between
a whip and a fiberglass antenna ?

Wild

Whips are the ones you may see some people have on their pickups that are like 40 feet high, I have seen a few hit stoplights when they go under, and they are metal and about the same thickness as a regular AM/FM car radio antenna. Firesticks in my opinion are the best, very good reception, and very durable, the best place to pick-up any CB stuff such as mikes, antennas, speakers is truck stops. I said this a few months ago on here, a pawn shop is best place to go for the actual CB deck, I paid I think it was $15 for mine, a Uniden 40 channel that works great.

I want to have a setup for a CB too,
could you explane the difference between
a whip and a fiberglass antenna ?

Wild

Whips are the ones where you are spotting a guy ( or gal , sorry Heather) and they're so damn thin you don't notice it, and then  their rig hits a bump and this thing smacks you on top of your head.  Damn  you Sam.  I hate them.  OK, I'm better now.  Sorry about that.  The steel whips take a beating better, but I've ran 6' francis whips on my sammy and my sidekick, and have had only one go bad.  And that was from putting the samurai ontop of it.  When I took it back to my CB shop he even replaced for free.
Brian

Big_Bad_Brian; where did you have the 6' whip mounted on your kick?

OK, Thanks KC Tracker
I have the 40 ch mini uniden
it has a built in speaker that
you can't hear anything on and
I also have a 2-3 foot mag base
antenna, but I wanted to put a
mount on the drivers side rear
and route the cable thru the body.

The Mag base sticks down OK on
the steel targa bar, but if I have
the top on I don't trust that it will
stay there.

The other thing is where to mount
the deck, under dash seems to be
the only spot left for an easy mount

Wild

if you have the small cb's like the uniden you can fit them into the ashtray area if you dont use yours that is. just pull out your ashtray and take off the metal protector that is on the top of the hole flip it over bend the sides of it so it will hold the cb attach the back of the metal thingy to the inside dash brace and slip you cb in it fits so good you would think its stock equipment.

shane.    

How well do fiberglass antenna's hold up against trees and brush being rubbed against them going through thickly overgrown trails? My snorkel's already taken quite a beating, and I don't want to end up breaking off a fiberglass antenna.

Big_Bad_Brian; where did you have the 6' whip mounted on your kick?

It is on the back passenger side of my tailgate door.  Just to the SW of the door hinge.  Works better than I thought it would.  I harldey ever hear bounce off the the back of the rig.
Brian

How well do fiberglass antenna's hold up against trees and brush being rubbed against them going through thickly overgrown trails? My snorkel's already taken quite a beating, and I don't want to end up breaking off a fiberglass antenna.

Mine gets beat to hell off of trees and whatever else is in it's way.  Like I said, the only one I've ever had fail is the one I landed on.
Brian

I use my ashtray, it holds my change  
and to the sides I have a boost guage
and a mixture meter, so I don't think I
can use that spot.  I'll get it mounted
somewhere

Thanks
Wild

Here's how I mounted my radio (as others have done, I ditched the ashtray)


One problem I have with fiberglass antennas is the force a tree hit can exude onto the mounting area. For a tracker targa mount, the mount area is fairly sturdy, so the forces probably wont deform the sheet metal. On a wide expanse of roof tho ...

Mounting a whip up high on a roof shouldn't smack a spotter, but bumper/Qpanel mounting one, watch out!

hey thats a slick spot! I found that with my f glass ant. after I put one of those coil springs under it I had no problems with busted ones.

where did you move the cig. lighter to? I have two ports in my sidekick I need to look around and find a spot for both of them.

SnoFalls- that looks nice! I mounted mine under steering wheel, a tad off center to the right. But, I like the ashtray idea, my ashtray was stolen a few months back, so I should fill up that open spot. The whole speaker thing, you can get those little auxillary speakers for around $10, and they sound pretty good. I have my CB mounted, but have to get an antenna for it and mount it somewhere.