Anyone have any pictures of their CB antenna mounting on their class c motor home? Any recommendations for CB and antenna?Thanks,Russ

I've used the thru the glass antennas on my RV and other vehicles. yes, it is not as good a setup but I only want to talk 1/4 mile down the road.but I did learn that they don't work on dual pain windows. ;)I see by your sig you don't have those small windows in the overhead however. thru the fiberglass might work??bumpy

I'm not a radio expert, but I used to run with a crowd who were. What I can offer here is that we won't ever come up with a fully-optimized CB setup on a Class C motorhome. Best would be to do something like install a big piece of sheet metal on the roof and put an antenna in the middle of it. Work, holes, expense, and an antenna so high we'd tear it off.Bumpy made the other point that I wanted to make: It's easy to get CB to work at short range. But that's all we really need. Able to listen to what's on the air and to talk to some of the closer vehicles.We have the tripod rental-truck-style mirrors and I have the CB antenna mounted on the driver side mirror bracket with a trucker-type aluminum clamp. That puts the antenna next to but a few inches clear of our overhang. But the mirrors you have are known to be a little fragile. They come apart at the swivel bracket on the door. I wouldn't want to add the stress of an antenna. Since you don't have an overhang, I'd suggest you get one of the mounts that's sheet metal and attaches to the inside edge of the front fender when the hood's open. Install the antenna of your choice there. Yes it'll be in your view forward. Some of the Chevy chassis owners put a magnetic mount antenna on their hood. Ford hoods are space age plastic.

I am thinking of mounting to the ladder. I don't pick up the RV until a week from tomorrow. :(Trying to do a little planning ahead as I will only have two weeks to make any improvements or upgrades before we head out to explore the USA...:)

I'm no expert either. On my last class A I used a dual antenna set up. I tried some different locations with an SWR meter before finalizing the set up.Miles

Best option performance-wise is using a pair of antennas where the top 2/3rd of each antenna can "see" the other above the roof line. This requires specific antennas and coax intended for this purpose. Disadvantage is it is more difficult to set up, and you are going through the house portion of your rig to get above the roof line (antennas won't "see" each other with mirror mounts, and will be too close together to work well with hood-lip/fender mounts.) When correctly installed this setup works very well. Second best choice performance-wise is using a "NGP" (no ground plane) whip antenna. These use a specific matched coax to "work" without a large ground plane. This would work OK high on your ladder using a mirror mount. This is the type of antenna that is factory installed on many newer RVs. Disadvantage is they give up quite a bit of efficiency to the properly-installed pair, or to a properly-installed conventional antenna on a steel vehicle.Third best choice performance-wise would be a conventional antenna and coax installed on your ladder, fender, or mirror mount. Because of the lack of ground plane (if ladder mount) or the large reflective adjacent surface (if mirror mount) performance may be poor, but should work well enough for caravan communication without ruining the radio.The 1000th best choice performance-wise would be a through-the-glass antenna which basically does nothing well other than non-obtrusive install. May work OK a caravan situation if the other radio is close enough. Receive will be especially poor. There are many different brands of each type of antenna on the market to choose from. Firestick is one brand that makes whips in either co-phase pair, NGP, and conventional. But there are many others. With your smaller-than-average cabover I would probably go with the fender mount as J-D suggested.

CB Radio & Antenna Installation Suggestions | Good Sam Community

22 Replies

Bumpyroad
Explorer
Jul 25, 2016
bad language is just an excuse for the cheap or lazy. I can't remember the last time I heard that. and when I did hear it, it was short lived.
bumpy
Hank85713
Explorer
Jul 25, 2016
border yes they will but they will not open up to the big rigs or others on the highways. CB use is down due to sunspots, satellite radio, cell phones etc, but they sure would be good for all rv's. How many times have you seen low tires, open compartments, tv antennas up etc? Pull up next to a rv and try to tell them something is wrong and they think you are nuts or worse. 2 summers ago I had my portable handheld cb and there was a flatbed truck going down the road with one set of tires/wheels about to fail. was able to talk to the lady driver and she pulloed off to check. Also traffic tie ups can be understood, but only if a cb is in use.

Many complain about the language on the radios, but turn the squelch up and it is normally lost. But some folks find any excuse as justification to not have one, even when it would be to their benefit. Oh well, this subject has been beat to death many times and still nothing ever results. Some motorcycle groups use a designated channel like 1 and such a system could work, but.......
Bordercollie
Explorer
Jul 25, 2016
I have some Cobra walkie talkies that are on higher frequency band such as people use at swap meets etc. Haven't tried them from one RV to another, wonder if they would work at short distances as in a caravan.
Ballenxj
Explorer II
Jul 23, 2016
Rolin wrote:
My simple and easy installation included a Midland 75-822.

http://www.rightchannelradios.com/products/midland-75-822-mobile-cb-radio-w-car-kit

That's pretty neat! :C
Rolin
Explorer
Jul 23, 2016
My simple and easy installation included a Midland 75-822.

http://www.rightchannelradios.com/products/midland-75-822-mobile-cb-radio-w-car-kit

It has a base connector that hooks to the Motorhome external antenna and the 12v chassis power. Small hand held with all the controls. Then if you are hiking you can slip off the base, slip on the battery pack, attach a rubber ducky antenna and you are mobile. Didn't have to drill any holes to mount either the radio or the antenna because the fender mount used an existing bolt on the fender. I don't like drilling holes in my MH ;-)
Bumpyroad
Explorer
Jul 23, 2016
j-d wrote:

It's tempting to install a "One-Hander" like Cobra 75-WXST, since the whole radio's in that (oversized) microphone. Not recommended!!!

have one, don't use it. yes everything is in a microphone which is too large to comfortably hold, including a speaker too small to hear clearly so I needed a larger external speaker which with the size of the hidden guts of the CB made a package about as large as my real CB.

bumpy
SoCalDesertRid1
Explorer II
Jul 23, 2016
The best CB's made are the old Dynascan-era Cobra 148GTL/Uniden GrantXL AM/SSB, and Cobra 29LTD/Uniden PC76XL AM-only radios. I wish I never got rid of my old Cobra 148 and PC76. Those were awesome radios. You can find them for sale on Craigslist or in yard sales on occasion. Many folks don't know what they have and sell them off cheap. Folks who know what they have, won't part with them for less than $100-150.

For the last several years, I have a Galaxy DX99V and a President HR2510. They are both 11-meter converted 10-meter high power radios with AM/FM/SSB. They were about $350 each, back in the mid to late 90's. The Galaxy is an excellent AM radio with all of the modifications I've had done over the years. I have a Palomar 250 amp I've used with it. The President is mostly stock and is a truly excellent SSB radio. I have a Messenger 350 amp I've used with it. I haven't used either radio in a few years though.

My favorite mobile CB antenna is the venerable old 102" steel whip, with 6" heavy duty spring and 1" stud mount under it, which makes it 109", which is the quarter wave length of the 11 meter band. There is no other mobile CB antenna as good as the '102'. Period. I've tried most of them. The 102 is also one of the least expensive CB antennas out there. However, it is about the most difficult antenna to make work on a motorhome or truck camper, due to it's length, 9 feet.

On a motorhome, dual 4' Firestiks on mirror mounts work good.
j-d
Explorer II
Jul 23, 2016
I really hope nobody mounts an antenna bracket through the RV body! It can start out waterproof, but if the antenna hits tree branches, and it will atop a high vehicle like an RV, the impact will try to twist the bracket. That stretches, the holes, loosens the bolts, and separates the sealant. Water gets in and de-laminates the wall.

Do a solid installation but don't overthink it 'cause you just won't optimize it on an RV. Bracket such as this one on Amazon should mount into the steel fender/fender liner and allow the fiberglass hood to close with the antenna out of its way.

I'd want to change the antenna mounting bit to one with an SO-239 connector on the bottom, though. The one I pictured uses lugs.

It's tempting to install a "One-Hander" like Cobra 75-WXST, since the whole radio's in that (oversized) microphone. Not recommended!!! The insulation on the coiled cable falls apart in clumps after just a couple years. This is a Uniden PRO 505XL $30 on Amazon. The 520XL is fully featured at $50. Rock solid and very compact.

The truckers clearly aren't using CB anything like they used to. WORSE: They run 80,000 pounds down the road at 80 MPH staring at cell phones!

CB isn't necessary 70% of the time. It's annoying 25% of the time. But it's priceless 5% of the time!
navegator
Explorer
Jul 23, 2016
I have the antenna mounted on an L bracket from Radio Shack and ran the wire through an antnna fitting for boats,the ones that go through the cabbin roof to the sailboat wood mast,they are really, really water fproof.

Mine is mounted on the Port (left) side in the cabinet with the hole for the antenna as close to the roof as possible, just aft of the overhead window this gives me the perfect height for the 90 degree turn out side to the L braket where the antnna is mounted.

Good reception for my need, I get about two and half miles on flat land reception, less for transsmition.

navegator
KD4UPL
Explorer II
Jul 22, 2016
I would use a bracket that mounts the antenna on the front fender. You should be able to find one that is made for your van. It will bolt on down under the edge of the hood.
Wilson and K40 are probably two of the best brands for antennas. Better than Firestick in my opinion. For radios Uniden and Cobra are usually considered the best. Uniden being more basic without a lot of fancy features that most people don't need. Cobra likes to include all kinds of extra dials and lights.