looking to add linear

I have the same setup, but with a Uniden Bearcat 880. Since we both added the deadkey, that makes the CB have two finals. Now we can add a Texas Star 250W or a Fatboy 180W linear. You won't need to buy high wattage unless you really want to catch the attention of the FCC. My only problem is figuring how to wire a linear in my company truck without wiring it directly to the battery terminals. I'm thinking about going to a CB shop that wires it up for me.

 

Bearing in mind that more power isn't going to make your receiver work any better, it'll be easy to get to the point of being an "alligator station".
But also consider that, unless you *can* get your DC wiring directly to the battery, you're going to have a choice to make. You'll have to either be able to:
1) find an existing pair of conductors that go there that are "enough larger" than what the truck already needs to satisfy your new amp's current's demands and make an essentially zero-ohm connection to them with big enough leads, or
2) expect one or two volts drop at the input of the amp when you transmit, making an already "non-linear" amp seriously even less linear, tearing up your audio (and many of the other channels on the band). With anything less than a perfect connection for the "big red" and "big black", the bigger the amp, the worse the voltage drop will be.

Even most hams don't run over 100 watts, and on many of their bands their antennas are much less efficient than what's available for CB. The difference seems to be the attention given to minimizing noise sources that affect their receivers and making the most of what they can hear.

But if you're intent on those watts, you have to get them in to the finals first as pure DC (proper voltage at enough amps) to allow them to produce the RF watts. They already don't work at 100% efficiency; strangling their DC supply will never give them a chance.

 

+1 on what Handlebar said.

Most of the CB crap out there (and yes, it really is crap compared to what licensed radio services expect) barely works right when hooked up properly. In this case, "properly" means directly to the battery.

That said, you don't HAVE to use the truck's starter battery...

I once ran a 100W ham rig in a company vehicle using only the cigarette lighter socket. The trick was that the radio was connected to a 12V 10Ah battery, and the battery was connected (via a 15A slow blow fuse) to the lighter socket. The lighter socket would keep the battery charged, and the radio would draw its current from the local battery.

I'm not sure how well that would work on a 200W linear; I would definitely use a bigger battery, on the order of 20Ah or more.

 

There are "high drive" and "low drive" amplifiers. The ones you see that say "3 to 5 watts max" mean just that -- maximum. They already have an intermediate stage, often times called a "driver", that runs the level up to some higher level that the "high drive" amplifiers need to see.
How much input a specific amplifier will tolerate and remain tolerably clean (I hesitate to use the term "linear", as most are not really linear; that's a really specific term) will vary with the manufacturer and model. The RM Italy amplifiers, for instance, have a popular line that advertise 1 to 10 watts AM input, but the people who have used them and analyzed them on the service bench will tell you that 2 watts is really the maximum for that model to ensure a long life of the product.

Bear in mind that, especially after you get out of the factory radio, each stage of amplification is going to distort the signal. If I had the radio you have and decided I *needed* 200 watts, I'd have the RFX stinger removed so that it wouldn't be adding garbage to the Cobra's nice signal (and have the Cobra retuned to factory spec), and *then* put on a single amplifier after the radio.

MsJamie had a good idea -- a secondary battery to run a 100 watt rig. Let the lighter keep the battery charged and filter out the alternator noise that shows up on the line.

Once you have 100 watts, the change by going up to 200 watts will be less than one S-unit at the receiver of whomever you're talking with, probably less than the width of the needle on the meter. The only thing you get by going to 200 watts is bragging rights, and a whole lot more headaches.

 

Any amp needs hooked straight to the battery. The cigg lighter wiring usually is too small/not adequate to sustain a heavy load an amp usually pulls. To hook an amp to the cigg lighter is counterproductive to say the least. The batt OTOH has a wealth of amperage, and it's that amperage you're going to want/need to maximize the most of an amp....not to mention you can quickly melt down your trucks wiring/start a fire if you attempt to run a high current drawing device off of the factory wiring. Trust me, I learned this when I was 17 and attempted to run my car stereo amp off of the fuse block wiring...melted the wires good, thankfully the car didn't catch fire.

Also as posted, the amp is really just a supplement to a radio; it is the antenna that is the focus on the transmit/receive, and IMO one of the most overlooked areas. Care to mention what kind of antenna/coax you are running?

 

Turbo-T is right...1st, if you try running a 200w AMP threw the cigarette lighter, you most likely will blow the fuse soon as you key the radio...If you change the fuse to a larger one, you risk a total melt-down...

AMP's need to be wired directly to a battery period.

Also, since your radio has the RFX-75 installed, the smallest Amp you would be able to run would be something around a 4-pill (400-500w)...anything smaller, and the radio will be "Over-Driving" the Amp and most likely blow the finals in the Box...

If all your wanting to do is run 150-200w's, then disconnect the RFX-75, or get another stock radio.

Then there's also your antenna to consider... Most antenna's can handle up to 100w's, but not all. Some fiberglass antenna's will melt at 50w...So check the antenna's watt rating before hooking up a kicker!

 

Got to hook it straight to the battery with a inline fuse you'll need a high drive amp to handle 20 watts input go with a fatboy or davemade and make sure you have a good antenna and coax like a monkeymade,predator,fatboy,etc.FYI if you can get a davemade its the best amp out there hands down