My parts from CoolTech finally came in and I was looking forward to installing them last night. After fighting with that rubber grommit on the tail gate for an hour I finally got the antenna wire fed through and was ready to mount up the bracket.

Nope.

Won't fit.

Turns out the bracket hit either that wierd flange inside the tire carrier or the bottom of the tire carriers rack. So now I'm sitting here with a CoolTech bracket and a bunch of parts I can't use. At least I should be able to salvage all the wire when and if Expedition One ever ships out thier CB bracket.

 

Did not want to hear this. I was just about to order that kit.

 

Have you asked the Cool Tech rep about it? He's a sponsor and always postin on here. I'm sure he'd make it right.

 

I did indeed. He asked me to try flipping the bracket around so that the flang faces into the Jeep as opposed to away from it and see if that would work if he sent me longer spacers. I'm going to try that tonight. The downside is it might put the antenna so high that it hits my garage door. But if it works, that will be awesome.

 

Well good. Maybe it'll work out then.

 

CoolTech's been very helpful with this and he did respond the same day to my e-mail, something I appreciate very much. I don't blame CoolTech at all. All the parts were of great construction. I just had one particular issue with an after market part. CoolTech had absolutely no way to know that this problem would arise. This post wasn't a slight against CoolTech but more an FYI to anyone running the Expo One carrier so that they don't experience my problem.

That being said, we are working on a solution. I'm going to mock it up tonight and hopefully that will fix the issue. Big thanks to Kendell at CoolTech for responding so quickly.

 

I know this is a day late and a dollar short but here it goes.
I used a small soldering iron to punch a tiny hole in the middle of the grommet. then push through long needle nose and use them as spreadersand grab the wire and pull it through. It makes a water proof seal with no tears or cracks.

 

Thats a good tip! No pun intended. I should have thought of that.

Well, I tried flipping the bracket around and it still won't fit. On the plus side Expo One finally sent me pictures of the coming antenna mount. Should be here soon. Looks like it will work. It's basically a knock off of the Teraflex design but it's made to work with thier tire carrier. That means I can mount it has high or as low as I want on the tire carriers arm. I'd post pictures but I don't know if I'm allowed since it's not "offically" in production yet.

 

wait a minute.. cool-tech makes a new cb mount??

I have their license plate bracket, but am looking to relocate my plate.. can we get a link to the bracket?