Problem solved! I tried another SWR meter today, and it too gave me the same high readings as I was having before. At work last night, I talked to a friend of mine who has been a HAM operator for many years and I explained my problem to him. He asked me where I had the radio bracket mounted at in the vehicle and asked if it was mounted in a location to where it was grounded. Long story short, after I got home today I ran a piece of wire from a bolt on the firewall and connected it to the radio bracket, connected the SWR meter and waalaa!, SWR readings of 1.3:1. After doing some fine tuning of the antenna, I was able to bring them below 1.2:1. Running the ground wire to the radio mounting bracket made all the difference in the world. I just wanted to share this with everyone in case someone runs into the same situation I did. Thanks everyone for helping me troubleshoot this issue!

 

Really......well learn somethin new everyday. The reason I said I doubt it would make any difference is because I've used radios without any mounting bracket and just left sitting on the passenger seat....no problems. I've just never heard of the radio mount needing to be grounded. But like I've said before, when it comes to radio, usually the more grounds.....the better.
Glad you got it fixed up....

 

What are the chances that the DC ground was somewhere other than the battery, and this was leading to a ground loop?

Excuse me if I don't answer this post for a while, I'm going to be putting a ground strap on the junction box for my Cobra 75