I think in the next few days I'm planning on buying a CB. I was wondering if there's any I should stay away from? Any that I should consider over others? This will be my first CB. I have had some of the truck drivers at work recommend a few but their all to big. I want something I can fit under my stereo. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

 

Uniden works for the fire dept. I am on and we like it, never any problems and it is small, would fit/look nice. The Pro 520 is cheep but good, mind you not great, money talks

 

It all depends on the features you want. They all put out 4 watts of power. You really can't beat a cobra as it seems to be the standard for most truck drivers. Uniden uses the same boards in many of their CB's as cobra & may even be the same company, not sure? They are fine radio's too. It's all about the features & size.

 

get a cobra and hook up a linear amp to it... lol. ....put it under your seat so cops dont see it... shhh.
kidding, you have to have a HUGE antenna for those to work properly, when i had one in my truck, it turned my steel antenna bright red and thus fried my CB. i gave it back to the guy who sold it to me, lol.

 

Corba 29 LTD would be one of the first I would look into and yes Uniden and Corba are one in the same. The 29 is bigger then your ashtray but if you want a radio that can grow with your use thats the one. They have it with night vision so at night if you do a lot of night driveing the controls are easyily viewable. The Uniden PC 76 is basicily the same radio and both sound cost around $120 bucks and if you get it tuned and peaked it will do around 15-20 watts output plus you can get them to add upper and lower side band and a 10k slide if you want.

 

and every watt is a mile, roughly... right?

 

Are you dead set on putting it under the radio? Some people put it in their ashtray spot. Just throwing that out there in case you didn't know.

 

Yeah i think I'll stay away from the linear amps i don't need that much power..lol

A little bigger then the ash tray is fine I'm planning on mounting it under my stereo so it can be up to the size of a single din stereo. I just need something so I can communicate with my friends while out wheeling also it would be nice to have in an emergency.

 

If I find one that I like that will fit there I might go that route. I kinda like having my cubby hole under the radio for my ipod. If I mount one under the radio i will have to move the ipod to the center console having the ipod is a must it doesn't skip while wheelin...lol

 

One more question. I know mounting the antenna in the center of the vehicle is the best also the higher it is above the body of the vehicle works the best. but with having a 4runner that's not much of a option. I don't want a magnet antenna and I don't wanna drill into my roof. I have seen door jam mounts on the back but wouldn't it be more affective to do a hood or fender mount to keep the antenna closer to the radio? Do you guys think a duel antenna setup one on each side of the hood would be the best setup?

 

check out the Cobra 19 Ultra III... the same one that i have... get a dremmel and cut away a lil bit of the backing behind the ashtray and it will slide right in...

plus, the best part of the deal is that it was 35 bucks at walmart!!
used it on the trail a couple weeks ago and it works flawlessly...

 

I like that price! do you have any pics of how it look in there?

 

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f116...inside-183480/

Here you go, He did a great job on his whole set up.

 

ja, looks just like the one in the abve link, only i didnt need to cut the whole backing out of the ashtray... i just cut a small rectangle out of the back so i could run the antenna wire and power thru... also, because of the cobra 19's size, you can just unscrew the rails for the ashtray (one screw in the middle of the top after the astray is taken out) and slide it in... its tight enough that you dont need any support because the pressure of the ashtray walls keeps it in check...

thats the whole reason that i bought the small cb... i love the expandability of the full bodied cbs, but with a girlfriend in the truck and mounting locations scarce i didnt wanna take out her knee room...

 

I have

mounted in the ashtry
with one of these on the dash so i can hear

http://www.pacetronics.com/prodpage....t_Selected=856

 

Yeah I saw that thread. it looks great. I might do a little different on the antenna though.

I'm still debating on whether or not I want to do a ashtray mount

 

What model is that and how is the range?

 

depending on how big/tall an antenna you want to run, you could go with a bumper mount (either through the bumper itself, or on a simple mount attached to the frame or bumper). as long as the loading coil on a loaded ant. is above your roofline, you should be okay. that would be a pretty strong mounting point as well, so you shouldn't have to worry about breaking the mount.

you can do just fine with a single ant. mounted to the rear bumper, unless you absolutely have to have a hood or fender mount.

the extra wiring and tuning involved with running duals, as well as spacing issues (they will probably be too close together) and unequal radiation patterns due to the dual antennas in close proximity will probably cause you more headaches than they're worth (unless you just want that trucker look).

generally, the only time you'd really run duals is if you're trying to run a backdoor array for maximum transmission in a single direction (and even then, some only run one hot and one reflector). you'd generally do this for shooting skip or at keydowns, this would be totally impractical for a trail rig or daily driver (you would hit everything with them and be replacing two antennas instead of only one).

 

Cool, thanks merlin. I think I'll just go with the door jam mount for now on the rear door till I get my new bumper. Like the one lovetharunner used in this tread.
https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f116...inside-183480/
after i get that i'll move it to the bumper. So should I run a ground wire from the frame to the mount or do you think it will ground ok on the body?

 

its a Cobra 20XTR. it has been discontinued but you may still be able to find it. non tuned with a just a 10 dollar antenna i am able to get about 3 miles clearly. works for me... plus its blue