2010 Freightliner Cascadia antenna solutions

XM external antenna mounting problem solved. We just received 2012 Cascadia's and I ran into the same problem you've described, how to mount the antenna, without drilling holes, especially since the Company will not allow it. Solution, 3M double stick tape. ( I have only been able to find this particular tape at Lowes or Home Depot, it's exterior grade, grey with a red backing, used to fasten house numbers to brick)

The solution works like a charm. I have yet to lose my signal, including in the tunnel, on I94, in Minneapolis, which was a first!



I totally agree about the plastic trucks, not having a good ground plane, BUT, when it comes to an XM antenna, the ground plane actually comes from the radio, not the antenna. I have found this to be true in every single application I've used XM on. In fact if you look at the "mouse" antenna, it has velcro on the bottom, which would actually prevent it from being grounded, just to prove my point. The whole secret to XM, is getting the antenna high enough, to where the antenna has a clear view of the southern sky. This use to be in the directions, to mounting XM antenna's, although I'm not sure if it's in the directions anymore.

After I mounted the antenna, a mechanic at work told me that he'd been telling all of our drivers to do the same thing, and had been for years. He told me, "in fact, Qualcomm mounts their antenna, on the back of the cab, the same way."

I've uploaded a picture of the installation, but can't get it to work. Hope this helps.

 

Talk to a guy named Jerry Cash @ (330)896-3485 tell him what truck you have and he will sell you one or 2 brackets depending if you want to co-phase or not, and he will build you an antenna custom for your application. Your price would be the same as a radio shop would pay wholesale. Jerry has a complete machine shop @ 1991 Jacquelyn Dr, North Canton, OH 44720, (330) 896-3485. no website, but he is a cool guy, and his prices are really cheap. He makes a bracket like the one at walcott for $10.00, plus he makes his out of stainless steel instead of the cheap aluminum ones walcott sells.

 

On this same truck, I had a problem with my cb showing an antenna fault, when keying the mic. After making a couple of quick checks, I bought 2 four foot Francis antenna's, and installed them.

The fault light quit lighting up, when keying the mic, and the needle doesn't move at all, when I check the SWR's.

So far, (knock on wood), I'm not having reception problems, or transmit problems at all. The radio I'm using is a Cobra 29, Night Watch, Blue tooth, with Weather band.

 

This thread has been great. Just got into a 2012 Cascadia and my radio does not transmit very well at all. Most base stations at shippers can not hear me while the trucks next to me can. My AM radio also does not pick up at all even when I am in Cincinnati trying to get wkrc a very powerful station.

 

Does anyone have any pictures of these brackets installed on a newer cascadia?

 

http://www.walcottcb.com/images/CAS1.jpg
this is the cheap aluminum one that Walcott sells.

 

http://www.wearecb.com/store/images/MMCAS-L.jpg
here is a different one

 

here it is installed:
http://www.wearecb.com/store/images/MMCAS-L-installed.jpg

 

Thanks for the pix rabbi! Man a pic is worth 1000+ words! That is not a bad looking mount at all!

 

I had a Columbia and it did the same thing...the SWR meter barely moved when I keyed up. It seemed to receive & transmit pretty fair. This AFTER changing the mount, running new coax and tuning, tuning, tuning...etc.