pulling my hair out !

That 10ga is way to small,need something like 4/6ga.
Where on the frame did you ground it ?
You must have metal to metal or your not properly "grounded"

There may still be some hope for your situation . . . . .

 

breezrk, the issue here is the short 4 foot antenna. Basically you have what amounts to a 48" antenna with 18" of that being deflected by the cab, The antenna is fine, however, the problem is your mounting location being so close to the cab of the truck. What is happening is the signal you are transmitting is being fed back into the line and causing your SWR reading to remain high, this is what is known as "reflect". You should actually be using a magnet mount antenna on the roof of the cab in this situation. The only resort to solve the current mounting location issue is to run 2 antennas from both corners, this way each antenna is causing "signal rejection" on the other and creating the transmit field to the sides, this of course does lessen your front and rear transmit signal pattern, but, not to the point where it will matter a great deal anyway. You may even consider purchasing a magnet mount base for your fiberglass whip, or upgrading to a really good antenna such as the Wilson 1000, which I highly recommend, unless you need a 72" antenna with a 6" coil, which serves no real purpose other than it looks "tough" LOL, let me know you make out. Also I wanted to mention that all of the grinding and sanding and power cable trouble you went through for the grounding procedure friedtater mentioned is completely unnesessary, I'm sorry I didn't read this post before, it would have saved you a lot of trouble. A single side of lamp cord is more than enough, but, again, to have ac power cable... well, some guys just like the "tough" look, bigger is not always, needed, there's only 12 volts of power to ground, not 220.

Dodgem250
Just Google me!

 

Sounds like a typical Cb Shop,got it all figured out and only uses the
finest lamp cords for your "this will get ya by" custom installation .
His shop must be in Prescott Ar(that dump across from Loves)

"Cooter an Maters Wrecking Yard,CB Repair and World Famous BBQ"

 

My apologies friedtater. I just prefer to offer my customers what is more than enough to do the job, I have no need to make $2.00 profit per foot on power cable that they don't need and is entirely overkill. I promise to you I won't sell no more lamp cord. I'll use 4 guage welder cable from now on

I'm just trying to help the guy, but, your toes are now crushed obviously, so, I won't get in your way anymore.