I've been planning my CB install and got to thinking about using two diffrent antennas. One for daily driving (a 2') and one for trail days (a 4'). Has anyone tried this. How much of a range diffrence am I going to get by swapping out antennas (if thier SWR is properlly adjusted). Is it even with the hastle?

 

IMHO, it would be better to put the four foot on and go with it,
Might not be a bad idea to put it on a spring as well.
More flexibility that way.

 

Get a 3 ft firestick

 

My problem is my garage height guys. After the 2.5" lift and 35" tires I'm going to have maybe 2-3" clearance over the top of the Jeep. If I use a 4' antenna it's going to hit and be pinned against my garage door. I don't want to have to deal with that every time I drive the Jeep in. Unless I mount it to the bumper or lower even the 3' will be above the roof line and hit.

 

Why not just use a quick disconnect and the 4'? Takes 2 seconds to connect when you need, and remove when you don't...

 

like he said......"he doesn't want to have to deal with that"....I'm sure he just wants to be able to hit the button and drive on in......right?

 

Yeah, that's it. My local club uses Chanel 4 for in town communications and I'd like to be able to leave the CB on all the time in the off chance I see someone on the road I can talk to 'em.

Now, if there's no diffrence between a 2' and a 4' I might as well just leave the 2' on all the time. If there's a diffrence between the two, I'd like to run both with quick disconnects. On trail day I swap out to the 4'er because I know I'm going to need it for the Jeep-A-Van down and on the trail.

 

I'm going to vote for the 2' alone. I have the same garage challenge. The reason I say go with the 2' alone is because it being shorter will afect the range somewhat. There's no need to switch to the 4' on the trail. Most trail comms are within sight; winching, in line driving, LOOK OUT FOR THAT ROCK!!!, etc. On the road when you see someone going in the oposite direction is when you would want the 4' antenna so you can talk to them farther down the road.

And definitely get a spring.

 

I didn't even know they made a 2'.
I run both a 3' all the time, and sometimes swap it out for the 4" for highway trips.
The 3' isn't as high as my soft top mounted on the Cooltec license plate mount.

 

As with so many things in life, bigger, or longer in this case, may be better.
When you are working with a whopping 4 watts, you are at the mercy of your antenna, which is best if it is a whole wave length long. Not possible in this case, so we must depend on the antenna we do use looking like a full wave length to the radio. I am not going to go into the technical details, but the best performance for an off the shelf antenna would be an 8' whip. While you get great performance, provided the SWR is properly set, using an 8' whip in the trail is next to impossible. Next on the list would be a 4' antenna. It matters not if it is a steel whip, fiberglass whip or a Firestik top loaded antenna, as long as you have 3' of the antenna above the roof line you are going to get the best combination of on/off road performance. (Again, a properly set SWR is required) That all being said, if you are off road on a hilly trail or running in canyons your range can drop to 100 yards, line of sight communications being what they are. My recommendation in your case would be a 4' antenna and a quick disconnect mount.