2016 freightliner cascadia - newbie needs help w/ antenna

My 7 foot Firestik mounted on my mirror arm works better than anything I ever had mounted on my old ProStar's upper mirror arm.

 

Talk is cheap, google this ,google that, stainless steel, aluminum, driver side mount, spot mirror mount, long shaft attenna with coil, 5 to 7 ft fiberglass, short attenna on spot mirror mount. This subject gets more posts and friendly debate than any other cb related thread on this forum, I hope Freightliner is happy for coming up with such a horrible design and giving such little thought to the cb setup, maybe they feel that cb is a thing of the past and it isnt important amymore. Theory and classroom is one thing and real world results are another, having said that , all I know is that using a 5ft Top loaded attenna mounted on a Wilson mirror braket mount with 18 ft of mini 8 coax hooked up to a Galaxy 99v2 radio I have a swr of 1.2 and am able to tx and rx 15+ miles, so I guess the attenna has not lost too much effeciency being 30 inches from the block, I will be glad when they put me back into a Volvo and go back to drivers side bird perch.

 

I just know that there have been some streets in Chicago area ( Melrose park specifically comes to mind) and other cities where a passenger side attenna wouldnt stand a chance and get ripped clean off.

 

I made my Cascadia mount out of SS (well my buddy made it for me) and used a bracket much like yours. I also had problems with it slipping when I tried the Wilson 2000 on a 40" shaft. I took my Dremal tool and a cut-off wheel and did a little etching on the bracket post and my antenna bracket and that stopped the slippage. I suppose my brace I use off of the top of the mirror would have prevented that as well though. But, that was the last set-up that I settled on so the etching thing was well tested by that time.

 

This is what's holding...

 

That would hold well. That is what I did with my homemade bracket, but it don't look as pretty.....works just as well though.

 

Generally, where on the perch do you want the antenna? Closer to the cab, furthest out or centered?

 

This isn't my truck, however, that looks like a lot of potential leverage, I'd say close in just to reduce that. The bracket looks like it's already bent.

 

Think long and hard about any mount that goes on the passenger door. There are about 1000% less trees and obstructions for an antenna mounted on the driver's side.