Expedition One CB Mount Issues
08-25-2009, 07:43 AM
#1
JK Super Freak
Thread Starter
Expedition One CB Mount Issues
I recently purchased a CoolTech GateMount kit to get a CB antenna mounted. Unfortunatly that did not work with my Expedition One rear bumper. This was through no fault of CoolTech and they were great in trying to work with me. It's just a matter of the bracket being in the wrong place.
Expedition One was kind enough to ship me a free braket due to some issues with my original order from thier company. I have the bracket mounted and installed at this time. I decided there was no reason I couldn't use the wiring kit that came with the CoolTech mount so I have the antenna feed, antenna mount, and antenna itself all wired up. Here's a quick list of the parts I'm using.
Cobra 75 CB
FireStick 2 Piece "FireRing" install kit - MU-8R18
FireStick FireFly FL3-B Antenna
Expedition One CB Bracket
I have the antenna wire ran per the CoolTech mounting instructions through the rear rubber grommit on the tail gate, through the wiring sleve between the tail gate and the body, along the tub wall, under the door sills, up to the area under the dash behind the glove box. I have the Cobra 75 installed there per the write up on Project JK. I'm able to pick up Weather Band signals great and some CB chatter. However, when it's connected to an SWR meter it's reading over a 3. We tried tuning the antenna but it made little diffrence and never dipped below a 3.
The antenna might not be getting a good ground and I've never worked with a CB antenna which required a ground. I tried running a strap between the subwoofers mouting lugs and the antenna itself but it didn't make much diffrence and I'm not sure I installed it correctly.
Any tips, suggestions, or repair ideas?
Expedition One was kind enough to ship me a free braket due to some issues with my original order from thier company. I have the bracket mounted and installed at this time. I decided there was no reason I couldn't use the wiring kit that came with the CoolTech mount so I have the antenna feed, antenna mount, and antenna itself all wired up. Here's a quick list of the parts I'm using.
Cobra 75 CB
FireStick 2 Piece "FireRing" install kit - MU-8R18
FireStick FireFly FL3-B Antenna
Expedition One CB Bracket
I have the antenna wire ran per the CoolTech mounting instructions through the rear rubber grommit on the tail gate, through the wiring sleve between the tail gate and the body, along the tub wall, under the door sills, up to the area under the dash behind the glove box. I have the Cobra 75 installed there per the write up on Project JK. I'm able to pick up Weather Band signals great and some CB chatter. However, when it's connected to an SWR meter it's reading over a 3. We tried tuning the antenna but it made little diffrence and never dipped below a 3.
The antenna might not be getting a good ground and I've never worked with a CB antenna which required a ground. I tried running a strap between the subwoofers mouting lugs and the antenna itself but it didn't make much diffrence and I'm not sure I installed it correctly.
Any tips, suggestions, or repair ideas?
08-31-2009, 05:10 AM
#2
JK Super Freak
Thread Starter
Figured this out thanks to Wire_Dawg and JKRockStomper. Turns out the anteanna bracket had no ground on it what so ever. By the time the metal from the bracket touches the frame it goes through 4 places where the metal is powder coated. I ended up running a grounding strap from the mounting plate to a bolt in the tail gate which I replaced with one of the ones that came in the Cool Tech kit. works fantastic now. Getting SWR of 1.2 on 19 and 1.5 on 4 and 30.