I bought the rugged ridge tire mount antenna bracket. I had to grind off the paint to get the SWR lowered. Right now I'm running about 1.7/1.8.and I read about braided ground straps helping and was wondering if anyone has added this to that same bracket to help with grounding. If so, which cable did you buy, how long, where did you put it, did it help?

BTW I have a Uniden 520XL and a firestik 3' antenna sitting on a quick release and an HD spring.

 

I doubt that you'll get much better in that location. I grounded mine with a wire from a bracket bolt through the tailgate grommet and inside plastic cover to a body screw on the bottom of the tub located inside on the lower passenger side corner.

 

I tried three antennas and ground straps at the spare tire carrier and never could get a good swr reading, I moved the antenna to the drivers side fender and now have a 1.0.
hope you have better luck in that location than I did, even with a ground strap, there isn't a ground plane

 

I had a similar result as above using the spare tire/ tire carrier location. SWR was near 2.5 or so (ham radio). Tried grounding with a wire to inside the tub. Lowered it to 2.0. I got a hood lip mount (I use NMO mount antennas) and the same antenna as before took it down to 1.5-1.7. I got a 1/4 wave antenna and I am at 1-1.2.

I resisted for a long time about putting my antenna up there. I didn’t want to look uncool. But I feel like the balance of aesthetic and performance is worth it.

 

The tire carrier bracket works fine for me. ~1.3 to 1.5 SWR using a short firestick. I ran a ground wire through the loom between the tailgate and body, and made sure there was good metal to metal contact at the bracket, spare tire mount, bolts -- everything.

Install is almost 10 years old, and always works well talking with the group I jeep with.

 

I think you probably got about the best you are going to get from that antenna mount. One thing I notice with the two that I have tried is that the antenna makes contact with the spare tire and that could be what is preventing you from getting a flat match. Granted I also don't think the location is the greatest being wedged between the spare tire and the metal from the wheel and carrier and glass or top.

You didn't mention what antenna you are running, if it's a top loaded whip technically you can try removing the cap on the tip of the antenna and then shortening the wire or if it's top loaded the coil of wire. Granted I personally wouldn't do it with that spare tire mount as I suspect it is the location vs the need to trim the antenna.

 

Same concept, I put a magnetic mount "lil will" antenna on my brides car, I never could get the swr below around 2, then I moved it about 3 or 4 inches forward, which put it about ten inches in front of the roof rack and I got a reading of 1.0, the aluminum bar was to close and interfering with the antenna