Where is everyone #5

Hummmm???


Our commercial tenant has this parked out front when I got home from Colorado. Very tempting.

 

Always told myself if I got a sport bike I’d be dead by the weeks end.

 

Sitting in SLC looking bored...

Didn’t think it would be a 5 hour wait for a reload...

 

Ok bear with me, the Crapcadia CB install. Here is what you will need to have a good TX/RX combo @stwik

1. Get your radio a peak and tune. I recommend Chuck @exit 126 on I40 just south of the North 40, Ray in West Memphis behind Petro, or my friend here on 49 in Flora, Ms. Either Chuck or Ray will do a good job.

2.18 feet of RG8 coax

3. Wilson Heavy duty mirror mount bracket specifically for Cascadia, and a normal four bolt mirror clamp.

4. Decent external speaker, I like Roadpro.

5. Astatic 636L or Cobra Coffin Style microphone.

6. A six foot Firestick Antenna ($20) or a six foot skipshooter antenna ($28 at Ray’s) . The firestick bends less, but I really like the Skipshooter. Skipshooter has adjustable tip to tune, Firestick is trim to tune.

7. Cheap SWR meter and a 3 foot coax jumper.

While this list may add up to $100 or more, you can use all these things for any truck for years, minus the specific Cascadia mount. Pics to follow.

 

I'm a Chevy man, but I must admit the old Ford is getting it done.

 

Here is the Cascadia specific mount for 2017+. Notice the mirror bolts are a star pattern, but the mount comes with a Allen head style. You will remove the two star bolts, take the washers supplied with the mount and put them on back side of the mount, then thread the bolts through the holes and tighten. Then attach the four bolt mirror mount like in the picture. I put mine about an inch from the edge of the mount to keep it away from the truck body.



Note the 20 degree tilt of my antenna, that’s due to the signal reflecting off the windbreaker. You want as little reflect as possible. In your case @stwik, without a windbreaker you won’t need near as much forward tilt. The black piece at the bottom of my antenna is a piece of 3/4 inch PVC pipe painted to match, about a foot or so in length. Since the skipshooter flexes, it reinforces the base and keeps it vertical at highway speeds. The more the antenna bends to the truck, the higher your swr goes, so the PVC stops it.




Time to route the coax. We just run it right thru the door and put a little wire loom around it to prevent pinching. See where it goes up the wall? That is the only coax you will see. I could have hidden it even better, but I was sweating my ### off.

 

These trim pieces on the A pillar just pop right off. Where I have my hand, just grab and pull. Now you can run your coax up the wall and hide it. Then pop it back in place.



Take a Torx bit and remove those two screws from behind the driver side window shade.



Take same size torx bit and remove the two screws holding the cb mount which is the plastic overhead piece with the sunglasses holder up above the steering wheel. With the two screws by the window shade removed, you can now feed the barrel end of the coax thru and pull your excess coax in, and run it back and forth. In this pic, the gray coax is the antenna coax, the copper coax is my jumper, the black cord by my finger is the external speaker jack cord. The wire loom is power wire for anything you might need to put near your Cb, muhahaha.

So we pulled our excess coax thru, we didn’t just bunch it up, we run it longways and try to keep it uncoiled,now it’s time to wire the power cord.


Freightliner supplies the yellow and black cord. Take two butt splices, put red wire with corresponding power wire, butt splice and tape it up. Same with ground wire. Then the end of the cord plugs into the power cord in the overhead console.

 

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

I need to stay off TruckPaper during downtime. Might get myself an expensive birthday present that I can’t ride in for a few more years if I keep this up...

Moved my ### to the TA near Tooele. Got a roofing load tomorrow morning going to California for Monday. What the #### did I do to deserve that god awful state twice in two weeks? Honestly, as much as we all dislike the northeast I’d prefer it right about now... sheeeit.

 

The roadpro speaker mount can be screwed into the passenger side overhead compartment . Pop the sunglasses cover, run the speaker wire back thru so you can plug it into your cb. Take the speaker bracket, using one of the overhead torx screws fasten it up, then put the speaker on and tighten.

Now you can take your coax and run it into your SWR Meter in the center console thru the holes by the hinges. So it’s time to put your cb in the overhead compartment. hook up your power wire and plug in power cord, connect your coax jumper and your external speaker jack.

This is your overhead center console with the door open. Those overhead hinges have holes that are perfect for passing coax thru, then you can put your swr meter in the console and always have it inline (or amp). Run the jumper to the transmitter side of meter, the antenna coax to the antenna side. Now you can tune the antenna with the meter. Remember my finger in that picture pointing inside the console? You can slip 8 gauge wire thru that hole at the bottom where my finger is pointing and it comes out right by where that rubber bushing is in this picture.

For those interested in running power, you would need about 13-15 feet of power wire with quick disconnects. It would run from the console back across the driver’s side down the A pillar and down to the floor by the pedals.

 

For those running amps


Hood popped, drivers side. See the red power wire with loom around it? (Next to fuse cover).

Driver’s side firewall, same location as last pic. See the grommet at the top? Cut a slit in it, feed the power wire thru into the floor of the truck by the driver side kick panel. Zip tie it up like in the picture. The other end of the cord is headed towards the battery. You can run the coax and amp power wire at the same time up the A pillar.

We loom the power wire and run it down the plastic wheel well cover going to the batteries by the DEF tank.



Pop the cover down to access the DEF tank and the power wire should be right here on the left side by the wheel well. Pop the cover off the batteries, and loom the wire to protect it for when you put the battery cover back on.


Cover is off the battery, we run the positive wire to this battery with an in-line fuse within a few inches of the positive post.