2010 Freightliner Cascadia antenna solutions

Walcot cb sells a bracket for the Cascadia that bolts to the front of your mirror, you remove the 2 bolts that secure your mirror and mount the bracket with stainless bolts that they supply. I have done this to my 09 Cascadia. I had to experiment with different antennas to find one that will work properly. The one that worked for me was a Predator 10K with a 27" shaft, the shaft is long enough for the coil to clear the top of the mirror. I did have to tilt the antenna forward slightly to avoid reflect from the door frame. I have 1.5 swr across 40 channels, this is the best I could do. I still think I am getting a little reflect. This antenna works good with my General Lee. I am tempted to try a fiberglass top loaded antenna to see if it will get a better match. I was thinking of the Firestik KW7, If I try it I will let you know how it turns out. The kw7 is 7 foot tall, you can get away with that height due to the bracket being so low.

 

I have one for sale in the forsale section

 

I have a 2009, the trick to getting SWR down to be albe to get better reception is in the back of the antenna mount...

Passanger side the FM radio antenna is attached with solder to the CB mount.
I was told a trick is to unsolder the FM antenna & run 5 ft wilson silverloads.
SWR is low across the board & also I can transmit n recieve over 8 miles when running with a buddy who has same setup on his cascadia..

I was told the 2010 cascadia was different & is harder to get the SWR low on...

 

I just recently got into a 2011 Cascadia and ran into an SWR so high it actually pegged my meter. I ended up disassembling the mounts and cleaning all the silicone and loctite out of it and reassembling them with a pair of Wilson 3' fiberglass antennas with the ground leads. Grounds connected on both sides to the mount mounting bolts, and both tips installed but all the way down. I now have a nearly perfect SWR, reading just shy of 1.5 on channels 1 and 40 and just barely twitching the needle on channel 20.

If you pull off the dash panel that surrounds the stereo and then remove the instrument cluster, you'll see a little aluminum box mounted just above the steering column. Inside you will find a diplexer, which basically allows the FM stereo and the CB to use the same antenna system. This is inherently stupid. You'll never see one in a truck stop, but if you can find an electronics supply place you can get a UHF-F to BNC-F adapter and bypass the diplexer, leaving the FM antenna lead dangling. You may also pull a new UHF-UHF cable from the back of your CB to the Y cable going to the antennas, and then tap into that with a plain old UHF coupler. When I did that my resonant frequency dropped maybe 100KHz and it seems to push quite a bit more power. Also reduced my receive static.

I'm pretty sure the SWR problems on these trucks are due to a bunch of problems: first off, the coax they use is lousy; they use mini-UHF connectors into the antenna mounts; the mounts themselves are assembled such that they have very high Z to ground; the Y cable is of unequal length; and the diplexer is a really poor design. Freightliner's engineers really need to get their heads out of their tailpipes and either wire it right or not wire it at all. Yucky.

 

DanBowkley !

Great job ! It's do- able but, not easily done ! MUCH patience required & NOT applicable for slip-seaters UNLESS you have a mechanic who understands AND cares about keeping the drivers happy and getting this poorly designed system straightened out . Wouldn't you just love it now that you've got it working RIGHT and the company makes you change tractors ! THAT would really stink but, I have worked for companies that do that kind of crap .

 

Proving that the system was designed by a cost engineer, not an actual radio user.

 

I wonder if thats the reason why my FM transmitter for my Ipod wouldn't hardly work? It might have been caused by my CB being on. In the 2010 Cascadia.

 

I drive a 2010.. and use a 949..and have low swr's.. all factory. but the 05 columbia i had to rig up ground straps