Jeep wrangler mount

[Gniederb]

I want to mount a cb antenna onto a 2017 jeep wrangler. Probably get a 1/4 wave stainless whip, but I have a magnet mount willson if I have to. I'd like to find an swr of a 1.5 at the very most. I'd like to mount at the rear, on the spare tire carrier preferably since it's more centered right to left that way, and that pleases me aesthetically, but could do the corner of the bumper too if it would work better. I wonder, you guys that have had jeeps, is that achievable? also being at the end of the vehicle and not more centered front to back, how much will that skew the performance? I know I should probably plop my magnet mount willson on the center of the hood, but I don't want too.

 

[wrr20891]

Going to send you a private message concerning a supplier who may be able to help you out. I'm not associated with the supplier, just a satisfied customer.

 

[Firekite]

@Gniederb Wranglers are a lot of fun. I’ve built a CJ, TJ, and LJ crawler and worked on JKs. They’re a terrible base for radio comms, though, and everything is a compromise. It helps to understand how you’ll be using it, but for CB the spare tire carrier or a brake light mount are probably your best bets. Get the top of the antenna as high up over the roof as you can, and if you’ll be wheeling under trees and such or pulling in and out of a low garage daily, make sure you have a good spring that will hold it upright but still give when pressure is applied. And absolutely check your SWR and tune accordingly. So many off-roaders install a CB antenna and get crap for transmit range because they don’t know how and/or don’t bother. There should be local shops that will help out for a fee.

Going to send you a private message concerning a supplier who may be able to help you out. I'm not associated with the supplier, just a satisfied customer.

Why not share publicly so everyone can benefit?

 

[W8RMH]

@Gniederb
Why not share publicly so everyone can benefit?

Sales.

 

[Gniederb]

@Gniederb Wranglers are a lot of fun. I’ve built a CJ, TJ, and LJ crawler and worked on JKs. They’re a terrible base for radio comms, though, and everything is a compromise. It helps to understand how you’ll be using it, but for CB the spare tire carrier or a brake light mount are probably your best bets. Get the top of the antenna as high up over the roof as you can, and if you’ll be wheeling under trees and such or pulling in and out of a low garage daily, make sure you have a good spring that will hold it upright but still give when pressure is applied. And absolutely check your SWR and tune accordingly. So many off-roaders install a CB antenna and get crap for transmit range because they don’t know how and/or don’t bother. There should be local shops that will help out for a fee.


Why not share publicly so everyone can benefit?

I'm especially concerned about swr cause I have a lot of money invested in my radio, and I don't want to burn it down feeding 100s of watts back into my linear. I have a ham/cb guy but he's hours away, just looking for advice for a starting point before I make the trek to his shop to have it checked out. I also know guy, being a prafectionist and super concerned with mounting location is probably going to try to get me to set my willson 5000 right in the center of my hood, but I don't want to scratch the paint with the magnet. And I like the look of rear mounted antennas on Jeeps. I used to run a 102 inch whip on the roof of my Silverado, lol. Imagine that. I am familiar with the idea that the lobes your antenna generates get stretched when it "sees" the metal in the vehicle. I'm curious how badly my Jeep will distort it with a rear mount and if I'll notice.

 

[mmckenna]

It will be directional towards the front of the Jeep if you mount it on the spare tire mount, but you can work with that.

After years of reading "installing antenna on a Jeep" posts and having a friend with one, here's what I can brain dump:
Make sure you get a good mount. The mount needs to make good metal to metal contact with the spare tire bracket.
Spare tire bracket needs to make good metal to metal contact with the tail gate. It will do that through the mounting bolts, but make sure you remove the bolts, wire brush them, make sure the nut inside the tailgate is clean/shiny.
Don't rely on the tailgate hinges/latch to make a good ground connection. Run a grounding braid from the tailgate to the body. Make sure there is good continuity through the latch, might need to remove the components and make sure there is good metal to metal contact.
Bonding all body panels together will help with the ground plane. That'll mean good bare metal to metal contact, but bare metal needs to be protected. Using braid straps from doors to body, hood to body, body to frame, etc. is important.
Remember that DC grounds and RF grounds can be different things.
Make sure your radio and amplifier chassis are grounded with wire braid to the vehicle body. Run a strap from the radio chassis to the amplifier chassis. Don't rely on mounting brackets or the negative power lead for your radio/amp ground.

The friend I have with the old CJ on an M38 frame is an amateur radio operator and ran VHF and HF from his Jeep while on the trail. He did have a 2 meter antenna mounted (drilled) smack in the middle of his hood. 20 meter antenna was off the rear corner.

 

[Project25_MASTR]

I've always used fender mounts CJ/TJ/JK for CB and VHF. My personal Jeep is an XJ...so I have my VHF antenna roof mounted but my CB antenna is fender mounted. Fender mounts and Jeeps have always been the best performers in my experiences. I tried a spare tire carrier mount on my XJ and I just couldn't get a decent VSWR with it...the fender mount sits at 1.3:1.

 

[Firekite]

Sales.

That’s not much of an answer. We constantly share info about products we use. Why be shady about it?

 

[ill41]

I agree,fender mount gives you the best ground.

 

[Gniederb]

It will be directional towards the front of the Jeep if you mount it on the spare tire mount, but you can work with that.

After years of reading "installing antenna on a Jeep" posts and having a friend with one, here's what I can brain dump:
Make sure you get a good mount. The mount needs to make good metal to metal contact with the spare tire bracket.
Spare tire bracket needs to make good metal to metal contact with the tail gate. It will do that through the mounting bolts, but make sure you remove the bolts, wire brush them, make sure the nut inside the tailgate is clean/shiny.
Don't rely on the tailgate hinges/latch to make a good ground connection. Run a grounding braid from the tailgate to the body. Make sure there is good continuity through the latch, might need to remove the components and make sure there is good metal to metal contact.
Bonding all body panels together will help with the ground plane. That'll mean good bare metal to metal contact, but bare metal needs to be protected. Using braid straps from doors to body, hood to body, body to frame, etc. is important.
Remember that DC grounds and RF grounds can be different things.
Make sure your radio and amplifier chassis are grounded with wire braid to the vehicle body. Run a strap from the radio chassis to the amplifier chassis. Don't rely on mounting brackets or the negative power lead for your radio/amp ground.

The friend I have with the old CJ on an M38 frame is an amateur radio operator and ran VHF and HF from his Jeep while on the trail. He did have a 2 meter antenna mounted (drilled) smack in the middle of his hood. 20 meter antenna was off the rear corner.

If I put it in the rear and it becomes directional to the front. I wonder how bad/noticable it will be. Especially using a full quarter wave whip? Will that help regain a little performance?

I have a soft top so there's no roof mounting option outside of the hood and I don't want to mess around with the hood.

 

[citiot]

Anybody try removing hood bumper and put NMO there?

 

[Firekite]

Anybody try removing hood bumper and put NMO there?

Seems like a ton of heat and EMI/RFI for an antenna mounting solution, and it’s definitely not centered in the hood for an even ground plane.

 

[krokus]

I wouldn't run an amp with your CB, with any CJ/Wrangler body. Ignoring rules & regulations argument, the RF exposure is a concern, especially with any mount that is not at the roofline.

 

[Gniederb]

I wouldn't run an amp with your CB, with any CJ/Wrangler body. Ignoring rules & regulations argument, the RF exposure is a concern, especially with any mount that is not at the roofline.

Breaking the law, breaking the law. I get what your saying. I always had it on the roof before, I'll have to look up some more data on that, and see what I'm comfortable with, thanks.

 

[FiveFilter]

It appears that a lot of Jeep owners who use the CB for club-type outings are happy with various rear-mount antennas despite the limitations. Since the only thing many of them want is to be able to talk to the group which is within a mile or fraction of each other, what's to worry about? And it looks so cool whipping around back there!

But hanging an antenna off the back on a spare tire mount or whatever leaves the antenna just hanging there without the needed sheet metal required for best results. It usually takes some mesh copper straps to cobble things together well enough to get by, but it's still a compromise.

Since there's no sheet-metal roof or even a trunk on the Wranglers, the next natural, horizontal sheet-metal place is the hood. I know the OP doesn't want the antenna there, but that's the place. Fender mounts get close to it, but the on-hood mount is the best solution, performance wise.

Aesthetics are nice, but they don't haul the freight.

For me, I plant a mag-mount Wilson 500 or 1000 on the hood of my TJ whenever I need radio communications in the field. It's not a pretty place to have it, but it's a tool, like my HiLift jack and the winch and the rear-facing work light. And practicality beats aesthetics every time in the field.

So for me, the hood mount works about as well as the missing metal roof would, and surprisingly so, because I was anticipating lots of RF gremlins popping up from the engine ignition, alternator and/or other potential underhood threats. None showed up when I put the antenna there, so count my blessings, the thing actually works.

Beauty is in the ears of the receiver.

 

[Gniederb]

It appears that a lot of Jeep owners who use the CB for club-type outings are happy with various rear-mount antennas despite the limitations. Since the only thing many of them want is to be able to talk to the group which is within a mile or fraction of each other, what's to worry about? And it looks so cool whipping around back there!

But hanging an antenna off the back on a spare tire mount or whatever leaves the antenna just hanging there without the needed sheet metal required for best results. It usually takes some mesh copper straps to cobble things together well enough to get by, but it's still a compromise.

Since there's no sheet-metal roof or even a trunk on the Wranglers, the next natural, horizontal sheet-metal place is the hood. I know the OP doesn't want the antenna there, but that's the place. Fender mounts get close to it, but the on-hood mount is the best solution, performance wise.

Aesthetics are nice, but they don't haul the freight.

For me, I plant a mag-mount Wilson 500 or 1000 on the hood of my TJ whenever I need radio communications in the field. It's not a pretty place to have it, but it's a tool, like my HiLift jack and the winch and the rear-facing work light. And practicality beats aesthetics every time in the field.

So for me, the hood mount works about as well as the missing metal roof would, and surprisingly so, because I was anticipating lots of RF gremlins popping up from the engine ignition, alternator and/or other potential underhood threats. None showed up when I put the antenna there, so count my blessings, the thing actually works.

Beauty is in the ears of the receiver.

I know it's a compromise and hood mounting is the practical location, but what I want to know is how much performance will I loose and how bad is the compromise on the performance end so I'll know if I want to go through with it.

 

[Firekite]

You’ll lose three point eight ampibobules of performance.

But seriously, every situation is different. For CB, we’re talking 11 meters (~36ft). I’m not sure how much a couple feet of hot and noisy hood will do for you if you’re looking for a ground plane for a mag mount. If you really care, put a ground plane kit off your B-pillar roll bar with a rigid mount antenna.

Otherwise, it’s all a compromise, and I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a permanently mounted and tuned CB antenna in the center of someone’s hood. Rear mounting is not ideal, but it’s generally sufficient and more practical.

 

[Gniederb]

You’ll lose three point eight ampibobules of performance.

But seriously, every situation is different. For CB, we’re talking 11 meters (~36ft). I’m not sure how much a couple feet of hot and noisy hood will do for you if you’re looking for a ground plane for a mag mount. If you really care, put a ground plane kit off your B-pillar roll bar with a rigid mount antenna.

Otherwise, it’s all a compromise, and I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a permanently mounted and tuned CB antenna in the center of someone’s hood. Rear mounting is not ideal, but it’s generally sufficient and more practical.

Thanks. I got a soft top, so a roof mount isn't really an option. I got a ****ty vehicle to put my radio into basically. Think I'll try the back and have my favorite radio guy analyze it and see what I have to do to make it work as best it can from an imperfect spot. I don't want to scratch my hood up with my Wilson, and I don't see how a fender mount being all the way to the side of the metal (plastic fender flares) and towards one end, would be any better than centered on the back. Hopefully using a ton of less than legal power will cover some of the gap in transmission efficiency, and hopefully I'll still receive half decent....

 

[Gniederb]

I also noticed on my 2017 Wrangler, the hood is exceptionally flimsy and flexes a lot in high wind gusts or at excessive speeds. Not sure it would hold a magnet perfectly, lol

 

[jwt873]

I run a 102 inch stainless steel whip on my 2016 Wrangler.

It's mounted to the spare tire carrier using a Teraflex adapter. I use it for my ham radio. I have a tuner that lets me operate on the 10 and 15 meter bands. I've found that it works well in this location. I've never tried it on CB. But, many have so they must work OK there.

Below is a pic showing how I attached it. The coax goes through the grommet beside the tire carrier, then runs along behind the plastic cover on the inside of the gate. I bundled the coax with the factory wiring harness that exits the gate near the hinge. Then I just tucked the coax under the carpet and ran it up to the front.

For CB, the 102 inch whip alone might be too short. I've seen people using a spring on the bottom of the antenna that extends the length closer to 108 inches.