Lowering my antenna 1"

Point it forward?

 

I would not worry about your ant being 1" over height. I have run all over the country with mine for years at 14' from the ground to tip of ant and never had anyone say a word about it.

 

I've got a 102" whip mounted on my lower mirror bracket. When it was new, it reached to 15'6". Yes, I've scraped it on bridges marked 15' rolling down the highway. I mounted it up that way nearly 7 years ago...since then, the tip has broke off and I haven't re-measured...but it is still pretty tall and well over 13'6". Other than smacking into dern near everything....trees, bridges, signs, overhead doors, etc....it has never been a problem at scales or during roadside inspections.

 

The only thing i would worry about if its hitting an overpass..99.9999999% of the time you will ne ok..Dont worry about over height sensors ect
Actually the higher the ant is the better..Take note i say antenna not the whip..As log as antenna is tuned for low swr,high coefficient of reflection(basically is a measurement of reception)you should be fine..
Now someone mentioned leaning it foward,you can do that bit no more than 10-15 degrees..After that its tricking what the radio sees as a good swr(swr is more or less radio protection)...All these fools you see with ant leaned past 45 degrees are doin more harm than good plus it looks stupid as duck!!

 

What's wrong with having your antenna @ 13 foot 7 inches?
You could always shorten the shaft by an inch without affecting the tune of the antenna.

 

Shorting the shaft will affect the tune.It messes with the electrical length of the antenna..How much difference i dont know for sure but i suspect a few points on swr which changes the tune on all the channels..Might tune some in better and some worse..It will lower swr on channel 1and raise it on 40 and lil bits inbetween..Ex if your tuned into channel 19 @Say 1.3 it now might be a 1.5 which is still great..
Keep the ant as tall as possible(i dont mean lengthing the whip,i mean the entire ant) just lean it 10-15 degrees tops..

 

I design and build antennas and I've been doing it for quite a long time and any changes you make below the coil have almost no effect on what is necessary above the coil. You can add three feet of shaft to almost any antenna and you might lose a quarter inch whip above the coil. I guarantee if you subtract 1 inch of shaft it will have no effect on the tune. Try it and get back to me. I've been there and done that hundreds of times.

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