Antenna set-up on Mack Vision

I have a couple friends who run the same truck. They have predator 10-k mounted on the slide bar on the back of the cab. Works great for them.

 

I used to drive a Vision daycab pulling flatbed and dump trailers. I had a 22" Wilson 2000 mounted on the bar on the back for a while. It worked great and tuned well, but when I was pulling the dump trailer, it really messed with my receive from behind me. I could hear and talk to guys coming at me for an easy 4-5 miles, but then would lose them less than a mile after passing them. I never tried a top-loaded antenna back there (I swear by them now) but I bet that would have solved that problem. I would guess that the tanker would be similar to the dump trailer. I had mine on the back because there was a place I dumped that I had to get the driver's side mirror under the gutter of one building while backing into another one, so I kept hitting my antenna too. I ended up buying a quick release antenna stud for the driver's side mirror mount and just reaching out and taking it off before I backed in there, and I was really happy with that setup. I drove a flattop sleeper Vision for a while, and checked the ground to the horizontal grab bar in the back, and it seemed to be grounded pretty well, so there must be some kind of metal frame in that fiberglass sleeper. Several other drivers had antennas mounted there and they seemed to get reasonable SWR.

 

454, I would just run a 4-5ft Skip Shooter antenna on the slide bar. They don't have to be grounded like most other antennas. I can get 10+ miles (no amp) down the road with my Grant XL. Rated at 3000 watts for the 4ft. And 5000 watts for the 4.5 & 5ft. Run some RG-8X coax and you will be well pleased. I know that I run a 4.5ft and it out performs my Wilson 2000 and the SS cost less.

 

I guess how much coax you need will depend on how you route it. I'd run it out the passenger door and out back and just tape or wire tie it up for a couple of days to see if you're going to like it before you go to the trouble of routing it more permanently. If you really like it and are going to keep this truck for a long time, you could remove the necessary interior panels and drill a hole in the back of the sleeper for the coax and put a grommet in it. That would be the tidiest looking way, IMO. Another way would be to run it out the firewall, under the sleeper, and up the back. If you already have qualcomm lines running up the back, you could bundle it in with and wire tie it to them and have it look better than just one wire hanging there. Radio shack sells a couple of kinds of no solder PL259 connectors, you could buy whatever length you need from a cb shop with one PL259 on it, and then run the bare end through the firewall into the cab and use the no solder connector on the radio side.

Does this truck have a weed burner on it? If it has dual rear mounted stacks, you might have problems with getting reflect off of them.

 

As far as routing your coax I would route it down the backside of the cab, under the cab, zip-tie it to existing wiring or frame rail so it doesn't get caught on anything but leave yourself a little slack for movement and usually if you look closely you will find a couple places where there is a rubber grommet that will pop out under the sleeper. Pull one out cut a straight slice in the middle of it to where you can push the coax through it push the grommet back into it's place and route the coax up from there on the inside.