JSB

I put a heavy duty spring on my CB antenna, and while on the high way that thing gets down right scary. I've had a few cars keep as far aways as possible while passing. It seems like once it gets a rocking it won't slow down. I was thinking about tieing to my rack or something. BTW I have a 4 foot mounted on the rear.

Thanks

Roadrunner

Mine is mounted up front on my TJM bumper. The few times I've had mine on while on the highway, the Firestik bent about 20 to 30 degrees. I've been looking for a thinner antenna that will not have as much resistence/bending while driving on the highway to listen to my CB and keep the Firestik for trail use.

Bob_98SR5

JSB,

Yeah, I posted a similar question a few months back about a week after installing my 4' Firestik on a hood channel mount. That thing bends back about 20-30 degrees on the highway. I tried it out twice and after that, no more. So to answer your question, yes, its common.

Do you have a pic of your bumper mount? Maybe after looking at it, a good suggestion might come up from the rest of the guys.

Bob

Shane

I used to run a 5' firestik on the back of my truck with one of the heavy duty springs, it would lean back pretty good at speed. What was scary was offroading with it, I could get that thing swinging pretty good. The paint on the corner of the bed and canopy is all scarred up from it hitting. How about changing over to a FireFly?

GV27

I'm confused....what's wrong with that?

JSB

I'll take some pics, and show you tomorrow. It's actually a door mount. I mounted it on the back, next to my rear tail light, right above the bumper. I think I should have gone with a hood mount, and a three foot antenna. I actually installed two, one on my wifes Suburban too. I'll show you both. They turned out awesome. I just wish I could get rid of the bouncing. I took the srping off my wifes and it does a little better, but it still sways. I'm glad to here it's a common issue. I may need to look at other antenna's too.

JSB

Nothing's wrong with that...it just looks funny. You have this car as far over as possible and this black 4 foot antenna trying to wack at them while passing. It wouldn't be that back if it just leaned back, but mine swings back and forth.

joshik

heres a nice thin antenna... steel :

k40

its a great antenna too. this is the one ill get when i actually bother to install my CB. i just want to install my cb for the PA function! LOL

Shane

Bad car! Bad car! No pass! Bad!

JSB

Here are those pics I promised. I apologize for taking so long. Since my wife is going to stay home with the baby for a year or two, I've started a second job.





Here's my Suburban's install as well.



I hid and mounted the CB in the console, because there wasn't a good place to mount it in the dash.

TDiddy

Looks great! I think Steve rigged up something to keep his antenna from banging in to the rig (he has it mounted in back too). For some reason I think he may have cut a hole in a tennis ball and stuck it over the antenna. I think he keeps it tied down, maybe with a bungee cord occasionally too.

Robinhood150

Same thing happens to me, especially when going over 75mph with a strong crosswind. I was thinking of taking off the spring.

TDiddy

Speak of the devil.....

Steve, don't you have something that keeps the antenna from flexing and banging in to the 4runner?

OneTrickToy

Strange.... I've got a 4' Firestik II mounted betwen the hood and fender. It flexes a little bit on the highway at 70mph..... but I'm more scared when I go offroading. The trails I go on have low hanging branches and it REALLY starts bouncing.

Robinhood150

I just have a variation of the tennis ball...it's just a little black rubber thingy my room mate had. If I didn't have it, my antenna would be toast and I wouldn't have any paint on the back of the truck. There's some weird turbulence in the back of the truck that tends to whip the antenna around ALOT. It's not uncommon to for the antenna to be completely horizontal at the extremes of the swings...and that's sideways, not backward.

alanh

You could try an extra heavy duty spring like advertised here . I don't know anything about this company. I was just looking for an example.

I have a 3' firestick with the hood mount and ended up with a "heavy duty" spring that looks similar to the one advertised on the site above. Even with the shorter antenna, it was bending back more than I liked at highway speeds with the regular spring.

There are also some fold-down brackets that might allow the antenna to bend down if necessary, but they wouldn't necessarily recover which isn't so hot. I have never seen one in person, so I don't know if you have to loosen a bolt or something like that to allow them to pivot.

Seems like you would not want it flopping around a lot on the road even if it makes cars keep their distance. If someone swerves to avoid your antenna flailing around, it could cause an accident.

aviator

What about mounting a factory OEM radio antenna mount on the drivers side of the truck to mirror the am/fm antenna mount on the passenger side. I've seen some antennas at the truckstops that look like they would be able to be mounted to that base. Anybody got any ideas on this? Cheers Aviator
Oops! forgot to mention the antennas I'm talking about are steel whips.

Bob_98SR5

JSB,

That is EXACTLY what I want to do! I have a hood channel mount but I want to switch to what you did. How funny. Maybe we can trade mounts! See what I have at http://www.4runners.org/articles/cobra

Do you have the brand/part # for your door mount? Also, can you take a close up pic of how you mounted it---a pic of it w/ the rear tailgate opened?

Thanks,
Bob

Bob_98SR5

JSB,

I just thought of something: how about removing the rear tail light assembly, possibly screwing something on top of that assembly and tethering an elastic-type band from it to the antenna? The height would be perfect and minimize the amount of band needed. Also, check out Steve's (Robinhood15000) rubber bumpstop thing. That should help as well.

Well at least that's how I'd do it.

Bob

JSB

Bob - I'll take some close up pics tonight when I get home. I'm not sure if I want to switch to a hood mount just yet, but in the event that I do, I'll let you know first. The strap from the top of the tail light sounds like a possibility. I'll have to try that, and try something like Steve runs too. Man we had some major storms last night and this morning. Made for some clear CB chat this morning. Got to get some work done...I'll talk to you guys later.