Freightliner cascadia

[timenright]

Anyone running a single antenna on a Freightliner Cascadia? they come cophased and I want to single it out and use one side for 11 meter and the other side for 10 meter (switched). I was just wondering about the ground plane in the factory mount position ...

... tim

 

[Chipster]

Drop the headliner

Probably have to drop the headliner to trace it. I run a Cascadia day cab and had to take off the right antenna because it kept hitting the air dam up there. Sounds like it you are loosing a fender and very irritating. I pulled out a bunch of the factory panels from the the front of the headliner and never could find the coax. The roof is plastic so I settled for a vise grip mount on the grab handle behind the cab. I figured they would be mounted in rubber, and not ground very well, but it seems to do OK.

 

[Thayne]

Those are co-phased like you say and there is a multiplexer that lets them use the 2 ants for CB, WX, AM-FM & cellular. My son has a columbia but I have never had a chance to find the coax routing & multiplexer. I would bet it is somewhere near the top compartment area though. He knocked one of the 54" masts off and it really messed up the coverage. Some company called R.A. Miller makes them for Freightliner. I bet if you called them maybe some info would be possible.

 

[timenright]

We have the multiplex system and RAMI claims that the setup will work just as good as a non-multiplex system. I really want to have an antenna for my 10 meter radio so I am going to pull some new cables to bypass the multiplexer. We shall see ...

 

[thunderbritches174]

I always used separate antenna mounts and coax for my cb, 10m, and 2m

 

[timenright]

Nice! my eventual goal (2,10,11 meter) do you have pictures of your antennas? how much seperation did you come up with between antennas? you help is appreciated ...

... tim

 

[xcalibr]

First time here, suffered the same problems as you all have discussed. First, the multiplexer is behind the speedometer. The coax runs down the drivers side A piller into the multiplexer, then under the drivers side floor mat to the antenna. I ran coax to the original mounting location on drivers side, but didn't have a real good ground plain. I fab-ed up a mirror mount (Cost for materials 42.50) and now have good ground plain, 1:1 SWR on 19. Can give anyone that wants to fab up this mount a parts list.

 

[Thayne]

Glad to see this pop up again. Anybody ever try or see how to tie a cell into it? Evidently the multiplexer is is made to piggyback that on also.
I realize most on here want to maximize performance for CB or 10M.
My son the trucker still needs an external Cell/PCS antenna so since I will probably have to pony up the labor I was looking for an easier way out than installing a dedicated one.

 

[xcalibr]

Multiplexer

The multiplexer does have a place to screw in a cell phone cable, you can get the extension cable and the adapter for the phone (what ever type you have) at Wilson Antenna. You can order it online. The part # is 952310 - 10' Extension Cable - Times Microwave LMR-400 Ultra Low Loss Coax and I found this at wpsantennas.com - Cellular Antenna and Amplifier Reception Solutions - Search. Hope this helps. Like I said before I've been through this truck with a fine tooth comb trying to get my radio to work right. Could tell you anything you want to know about it.