New to CB, any tips?

Unfortunately, no matter what you do, you'll barely get out across the median with the stock junk Cascadia antenna system. Surely they'll let you put your own antenna on it. Tell them you need it for safety if they want to balk about it. If they do let you put your own on, or are willing to install it for you, go with either tall fiberglass (at least a 5.5' Francis) or preferably an open-coil antenna with a long shaft.

 

Just put a good antenna on it and leave it alone.

 

What he just said...Now if you like, you can find a good shop to peak and tune it for you to get the most out of it, but not really necessary. You can leave it bone stock and it will do what you need it to do.

 

It's not the antenna itself that sucks in the Cascadia, it's the system leading up to it. There's a series of junction boxes in-line so they can use the same antennae for both the CB and the AM/FM radio. The result is that neither one works well. Swapping antennae won't help this matter, all it will really do is kill your AM/FM reception.

 

Just get that 2 bolt bird perch and a 5 or 5 1/2 foot francis antenna, some good coax and you should be good to go.

 

I'm pretty sure I've seen Maverick trucks with the 2 bolt bird perch. Using existing bolts to mount something, and not cutting or drilling, isn't really modifying the truck. Crete has the "no modifications" policy too, and I have a big Monkey-Made antenna on a 2 bolt bird perch, with a 2 foot fiberglass antenna pointing down underneath it for counterpoise. I've had it in the shop with that setup, and they haven't said a word.

Not letting you wire in your CB yourself is understandable. If you hook it up backwards, you'll damage your radio, and they also want to see the radio, to make sure it's not a "big radio" that could draw enough power to overload and damage the circuit, which could theoretically result in the truck burning to the ground. Has that actually happened? Who knows, but they are making sure it won't.