CB antenna top of bed Rack

[Simple Man]

Hey Guys,

I was thinking about mounting my CB antenna on top of my bed rack. Obviously the shorter the better.

Basically only using it on trails

What would be the best antenna... Base loaded?

Thanks

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[BigG]

I’m curious about this also. I just installed a 3’ firestik on a rebel off road half rack but it still needs work. SWR is kinda high(between 2&3). It’s an older style antenna, trim to tune, so might get a newer style. Antenna might be too short also.

 

[Radio Guy]

I mounted a ball mount to the lower part of my bed rack just behind the cab and it works well and all antennas I've tried. I have another mount for CB/HF antennas inside the bed just behind the rear wheel and when I got the bed rack it completely interfered with the whips sticking up from that mount. I put on this ball mount for use when the bed rack is on the truck which is not that often. The reason its mounted so low is I have padded kayak holder bars that go on the front and rear top of the bed rack and they overhang about 6 inches and I needed to put the ball mount low to keep the whips spaced out away from the kayak bars.

I thoroughly tested this antenna mount location using a 9ft CB whip, several lengths of Firestick antennas and a couple of multiband and single band HF amateur antennas and the SWR is fine on all. Being a big ham geek I did bond the bed rack to the front bed wall with short lengths of wide braid but that didn't affect the SWR enough to notice.

Funny side story, I took my truck to the dealer for an oil change with this bed rack and antenna mount on. The service guy ran over to the ball mount and started pulling on it and looking it over then said "I gotta get me one of these!" A few minutes later he asked me what the ball was for.

 

[BigG]

I used to have one of those on my YJ years ago, it didn’t make it through the rubicon tho.

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