antennae interference

[Stick1]

I have a new Ram 2500. The antennae for the apps and Sirius is on the roof. Apparently my camper blocks the signal and renders many of the truck functions useless. Is there some type of signal booster I can add to my truck to bring these functions back to life?

[JimK-NY]

Forget the idea of a signal booster. You will need to unplug the current antenna and install a new antenna in a better location.

This was easy for my 2010 Ram. I was able to buy a puck shaped antenna and wiring online for a few dollars. The connection to the existing was near the foot kick area on the passenger side. So I removed the panel, plugged the new wiring in place of the old wiring. I threaded the wiring and located the puck on the hood several inches in front of the windshield on the passenger side.

The process was more costly for my 2018 Ram. The shark fin antenna is more complicated also with more specialized wiring. I had to go to the dealer and buy a new shark fin and a new wiring harness. I think the cost was about $100. This time the wiring connection was under the grab bar on the passenger side window pillar. It was easy to access and the wiring was just long enough to reach the back of the hood on the passenger side. There is another issue. The shark fin is open on the bottom and there is no magnet for attachment. I had to seal the bottom and add a homemade plate containing rare earth magnets I bought on the internet.

The new antenna works great 90 plus percent of the time. I have had times driving due north when the truck body and camper blocked the antenna so the sirius radio and nav system would not work. Ideally I would have mounted the antenna on the roof of the camper but that is just not feasible. For one reason the wiring harness is way, way too short. It is a specialized shielded cable so just splicing in additional wires is unlikely to work.

BTW, this thread probably should have been started in the truck camper forum.

[cross21114]

This is what I had to do when I had a truck camper.



Got a antenna with a magnetic mount and installed on the edge of the hood (you can see it on the hood in this picture0. This was so long ago that the XM unit was a add on that played through a cassette device. It worked very well even in Canada in 2005. I do think, however, you can unplug the roof mounted antenna and plug in this type of antenna on vehicles which have satelite built in to the radio.

On my newer Class C, Nexus installed the antenna in the grab depression to open the hood. This works really well.

[wanderingbob]

Go to any truck camper forum and they will have lots and lots of information . You will buy an extra antenna and mount it in front of camper body on hood or fender and sometimes on mirror mount !Kind of easy

[YC_1]

Sounds 100% plausible. If the camper is made of metal it will block signals from above.

See if there is some sort of option for a different antenna or if needed go to a good stereo installation store and see if they can come up with an aftermarket plug in.

[Alfred622]

Could you possibly take a photo of the roof of your truck showing the relationship between the roof antenna and your camper?

I can see how the radio signals could be attenuated if they had to pass through your camper to get to the antenna, but I'd think that signals coming over the hood of the truck would be fine. Can you try an experiment of trying the radio/app with the truck pointing in different directions?

I "think" that it may not be the antenna that is the issue - but the above tests will prove that hypothesis.