As per usual, I’m always playing catch up…I last posted about the install of my Shrockworks Sliders and RCI Skid to prepare for my trip with Outbound Overland through the George Washington National Forest. I also had a couple other projects that I did to prepare for that:
- CB Radio Install (below)
- Rola Roof Rack and Ditch light bracket and LED Install
- Not documented, but I’ll throw in a pic.
- Rear Drawer System
- I’ll put that in it’s own thread because it’s documented better.
For my CB radio, I ordered a Cobra 75WXST from Amazon. This is the same radio that we have in my wife’s 5th Gen, so I was familiar with it and I like how compact it is. For the mount, I used a Diamond K400 from Ham Radio Outlet. Again, this was the mount that I used on our 5th Gen, and I liked how it mounts on the hatch. My Antenna of choice was a 2 foot Firestik.
Install was a breeze since this was now my second time doing this. In fact, this was even better than my first time, because this time I ran it under my carpet to keep it hidden even better. In short, I took out my center console and mounted the very compact module underneath. I ran the plug into the arm rest console and the antenna down the drivers side into the hatch. I hardwired the power to the battery via my Blue Sea Auxiliary Fuse Panel.
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| You can see my new full size spare in the background too! |
I used an adhesive RAM Mount with a little bit of custom piecing together to make this radio mount.
Unfortunately, tuning was not so easy. I was losing my mind! I couldn’t get a good ground plane for some reason, and I remembered that the Diamond mount had some powder coating near the antenna mount surface, but I had already cleaned that surface. I was checking continuity on everything, and it was all perfect! Finally, I had the idea to go to Home Depot and pick up a stainless washer that would help mount the antenna with more positive contact. Damn, I wish I did that a week earlier, because just like that I was showing around 1.8 SWR on the whole spectrum.
Overall the Cobra 75 isn’t the best or most powerful radio, but it’s really convenient, and for my purposes of using on the trails, it works really well. Sometimes I even like to listen to the chatter in the mornings while I’m sitting in traffic. Makes my mornings a little…different… 🙂
If you have any questions about anything in my install, feel free to leave a comment.
For good measure, here’s a pic of my truck in it’s current state so you can see the lights and rack.
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Nice setup! I'm about to do a similar install. Hopefully I don't run into any issues.
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Good setup! I’ve been looking for a similar way of running mine…