Guys,

Not satisfied w/ the hood channel mount for my 4' Firestik, I decided to mount mine on the rear of my 4runner. I was inspired by JSB's pic in a thread many moons ago.

Here are some pics. The first pic is of the original mount. I put the mount in a vice (Vices are the BEST) and bent back a section to make it straight. The red line represents the angle that piece used to be:



Here's a close of pic of the drill holes. Notice I didn't drill two of the holes. The three are plenty strong:


Another view:


Here's the hole and grommet I installed to thread the coax into the 4runner:


Rear shot:


Of course, the reception is not as good as the hood mount, but as long as it works on on the trail, I'll be happy.

Write up soon to follow though this will become part of the original write up at http://www.4runners.org/articles/cobra

Bob

 

Hey Bob..... lookin' good. You do good work my friend. I'm getting the itch BAD. My mods/ projects on the rig have been on hold. Hopefully soon..........

 

Hey Bob, looks great!! Is that a 3' or 4' antenna? I ordered a 3' Fire Fly (light weight) and was going to mount it in the same area, except above my taillight guard. Think that will work?

 

i'm gonna mount mine in the rear too on the side of my step bumper. now all i need is the cb. the fire stik does me no good with out that. Where did you get your mount from?

 

Hey bob why did you move it? Because I really like the look of it setup up front and was planning on doing the same thing. However I can't seem to find a mount for the front hood. Where can I get one of those? Did you just use your front mount and placed it in the back? That's what it looks like. Thanks.

 

I bought my stuff from here. They have the hood channel mount as well as one for the area Bob mounted his.

 

hey cebby are they pretty trustworthy? Because they have the cobra 18 for a pretty good price there. So I might actually buy from them.

Also what's so special about the antenna mount "kit"

Can't I just get a mount?

 

Cool Bob, I'm anxious to get a first-hand look at that in Pismo!

 

I'll let you know when my stuff arrives. They are out of Chicago.

The kits include the wire I think.

 

that is a nice install!!

 

Guys,

Thanks for the compliments and to answer everyone's questions:

Cebby, I have a 4' FS. And as for mounting about the taillight guard, I couldnt say for sure b/c it'll also depend on the mount too. But the reason why I mounted it where i did is b/c its relatively flat and took into account the length of the FS

88: I bought it from Alf Enterprises. In my write up, the part number for the *kit* is MK-274-R. Call them (super friendly folks there) and ask them for the mount or ask them if they have a mount that looks like my modified mount. They probably do. I was just too lazy to look and cheap too!

Moved it b/c i didn't like the look on the front, didn't like how the antenna flexed when driving any speed above 35mph, and didn't like how it stuck outta the hood when the cb/antenna was not in use. I bought my antenna kit from Alf Enterprises. And yes, I used the original mount from this kit, put it in between a vice, straightened it out (pounded it w/ a hand sledgehammer too), and then mounted it. Btw, the kit is a good one b/c it comes w/ everything you need and is easily attached.

Bob

 

Lemme give secondary Kudos to Alf Enterprises.

I bought my FireStik AM/FM, CB and antenna from them. AWESOME people - "ALF" is Alvin Foster, the owner.

They're actually less 30 minutes from me so I drove up and hung out after chatting them up a bit online. They know (and sell) 2 meter rigs as well.

http://www.alfenterprises.com/

 

I got my antenna stuff from ALF but they misplaced my order and it didn't ship out.
I e-mailed them and they promptly took care of it. No worries

Bob:
Funny, we chose direct opposite sides to mount
I put mine on last Thursday when I got all the stuff. Surprisingly I didn't have to drill. I just wired it through the kickboard panel into the door jamb, through the fender and out to the front

Here are my pics






Nice install by the way. How're your SWR readings?

 

Probably not as good as it used to be! Haven't measured it since the install which is why I want you to bring your SWR meter to Pismo.

When I had it on the hood channel mount, I believe it was around 1.6:1 or something like that.

Bob

 

After you guys install the cb and antenna and tune everything, do you or can you just take it off when normal driving, and just put it back on? And will that mess up your tuned antenna?

 

As long as you don't move the bracket, and just unscrew the antenna base from it, then you're good.

SWR will change based on antenna position, grounding, cable length and a couple of other things. So the best thing to do is to lock down the mount and then just remove the base from the mount when you want to hide the antenna.

 

Pretty damn remarkable. I ordered my "stuff" from 1stopelectronics at 11:30PM on July 4th. Shipped on Monday from Chicago. I got it today. I haven't opened the box yet, but I'm pretty stoked.

 

I got the quick release for the antenna and in just less than a week I can tell you right now that it was DEFINITELY worth it!

Bob:
1.6???? REALLY????
I'm getting a max of 1.3, 1.4 and my antenna is positioned lower. Maybe my meter's off...

 

Ok I'm about to order my CB setup.

One question, which do you guys reccomend? 4 foot or 3 foot antenna? It's gonna be a firestik II

 

I just got a Fire Fly 3'. Supposed to be lighter than the FS II. To me, lighter=less stress on the mount. Might not work worth a crap though. I'll let you know after the install and tuning how it works. I got the Cobra 18WXSTII with a little juice added...