Drilling roof for CB antenna -siting and coax route?

[biosurf]

Just bought myself a shiny new Wilson 5000 CB antenna to finally get my Cobra 148GTL DX Cb fitted in the surf.

I want to try and get the best out of the rig that I can for a mobile platform so bought an antenna that fits properly rather than via mag mount etc.

Though the centre of the roof would be the best place to site it I have an ally roof crate on there at the moment and even if I change that I'm always going to have some sort of roof bars/ rack/box on there so the centre is no go.

My plan is to site it in the centre of the roof at the rear just in front of the spoiler. The front of the roof doesn't seem practical as I have a sunroof so the only portion in front of that is sloping and being at the front will just mean it gets attacked by low branches etc.

(If any groundplane gurus reckon that mounting it on a piece of metal attached to the roof bars then grounding those via the medium of some bits of bare metal would be a beter option, then do let me know as that would be easier, but from what I understand that just wont be as good as drilling into the roof)

I've pulled away the centre section of the upper rear trim and disconnected the rear interior light and think I can see where it will fit with a bit of fettling. See ringed area on pic. Good Photobucket skills eh?




I think if I get a dremel (ooh, excuse to buy a new toy! ) I should be able to remove enough of the inner metal (the bluer coloured metal in the ringed section) to have a portion of flat metal to fit the mount body. (This bit)


About here


Does this seem right? It looks like the inner metal should come off fairly easily if I can get at it?


Ok. Next part of the question is. Should it be feasible to route the coax along within the headlining without removing the headlining first? I can certainly pull the headlining down at the rear and push a wire someway in. If I remove the mushroom tabs that plug in to the strengthening ribs of the roof would that leave me enough room to push a wire though all the way along the outer edge of the roof lining, past the sunroof and then pick it up at the top of one of the door pillars and feed it down the door pillar to the rear of the dash?
Obviously I would need to feed it with stiff wire or maybe feed a piece of string with stiff wire across the roof then pull the coax through with the string or is life just not that easy?
I've looked on headling removal threads and can't see clearly enough whats in the way.

Failing this idea, are there any other existing routes (i.e. the rear wash pipe or the rear wiper power feed) that could be disconnected at the rear and the coax attached to and pulled back though? I presume these are cable tied etc. so this wouldn't be feasible? I can't face taking all the headlining out if I can avoid it.


Oops very long thread

Any help or general mocking appreciated!

[wishbone]

You could tuck the cable just inside the edge of the roof lining ( above the doors) and then run down A pillar to dash. Another option is run down to boot floor behind side panel in boot then under the carpet edge to front.

Either way requires some trim removal but leaves the roof lining alone.

[biosurf]

Interesting idea thanks. Just been and had a look and it seems that the lining is quite 'tight' around the edges. Is there room to squeeze a cable the width of a coax in the space?

[BUSHWHACKER]

Get some fence wire, only a couple of quid for a few metres, and us it as a 'fishing wire' to pull the co-ax through.

[Wez ssr-x]

I will do some pic's tomorrow of how i mounted my cb ariel on the spare wheel carrier gets out well with a low swr.I then routed the coax along the sill covers and under the seat to the center consol.

[biosurf]

Get some fence wire, only a couple of quid for a few metres, and us it as a 'fishing wire' to pull the co-ax through.

Cool Thanks I was hoping summat like that would work

I will do some pic's tomorrow of how i mounted my cb ariel on the spare wheel carrier gets out well with a low swr.I then routed the coax along the sill covers and under the seat to the center consol.

Thanks be interesting to see pics. It's definitely going on the roof but be good to see where your coax went

[Apache]

What coax have you got Paul?

Anywhere in the roof will be a better ground plane than a bit of ally bolted to the roof rack. I put mine about a foot back and a foot in from passenger side (no sunroof). The plan was to fit another on the right for a VHF, but never got that far.

I do have a 3 metre Bowman whip at work looking for an application...

[wishbone]

Interesting idea thanks. Just been and had a look and it seems that the lining is quite 'tight' around the edges. Is there room to squeeze a cable the width of a coax in the space?

Yes, gently prise away the plastic trims from along the top of the doors and rear side windows and you will be able to slip the coax up under the roof lining. You'll need to remove the grab handles and a pillar trims completely (these go up over the front doors) The rear quarter trims need very gentle handling on the bit above the rear seat headrests as the clips break very easily there.

[biosurf]

What coax have you got Paul?

I do have a 3 metre Bowman whip at work looking for an application...

It's the coax it comes with. From what I've read it's meant to be RG8X or RGmini8 (not sure if these are the same) but can't be sure.
How does the mounting point look to you?

Out of interest what did you use as an antenna for your scanner in the surf?(IIRC you had one mounted alongside the CB?) Thought I might use the handheld in the truck too.


3 metre whip?! Love it! Mount it on your bike?

[Maverick]

When the good doctor angle grinder, aka 4x4 toys, aka TonyN. Fitted my roof bars (there is a write up on the forum somewhere with pictures) we fitted a rubber duck CB ariel to the roof. As the liner was already down we fitted it slightly forward of your position, I ran the coax cable down the side of the boot and then along the floor under the passenger seat to the centre console. I've run a few cables using this route and personally find it the easiest, as all you need to do is remove the door sil trims and lift the carpet slightly, then in the boot area you prise the bottom of the trim out just enough to squeze the wire in place. If you have to top trim off where the boot light is, all you need to do is remove the bottom trim (5 screws) and you should be able to prise the side panel out just enough to get the wire in place.

[biosurf]

It was your thread that I had been perusing for pics, so thanks for that. (Here if it is of use to anyone reading http://www.hiluxsurf.co.uk/forums/sh...highlight=roof


That route sounds pretty good too, I'll investigate, particularly if the fishing doesn't go to easily Only problem I see is the cables gettin squashed and damaged by putting lots of heavy crap in the boot on top of them or getting trodden on too much in the passenger foot well.

So did you run it down the side of the boot at the very rear then under the carpet from right at the back or am I misunderstanding?

Cheers

[biosurf]

Just a thought, am I right that the grounding will come from the pointed ends of the connector digging in slightly on the inside of the roof rather than the contact with the edge of the hole?

I was planning to hammerite the cut edges of the hole once drilled but if this is the ground obviously I can't

Also, the fitting has a large rubber washer that sits on the outside of the roof. I presume this should be sufficient to stop and water ingress or should I put any silicone down?

Cheers

[Maverick]

If you remove the door sills you'll notice that the carpet is just clipped to the edge of the sill, lift the carpet up and you'll see the manufacturers wiring. If you run alongside this the length of the truck your wire won't come to any harm. In the passengers footwell you can cable tie it to the glovebox support and bring it down by the ecu. In the boot if you tuck it under the side trim there is no concern of squashing the wire.

Ive used this in my truck for the feed for the rear fuse board, the control wires for the rear work lights, the camera ac cable and power cable, the tv aerial, radio aerial, and CB aerial wires. In my sisters truck it just has the feed for the multidisc changer now, but when it came from Japan hers had all the sat nav wiring using this route.

I would include pictures but at the moment I'm 300 miles from both my truck and my computer.

[Maverick]

Sorry that should be camera AV cable not ac, as my rear view camera doesn't have air conditioning. But this iPhone does have a sense of humour.

[biosurf]

I would include pictures but at the moment I'm 300 miles from both my truck and my computer.

Shoddy Mav, just shoddy. Can't ou grab a camera and nip down??

Sorry that should be camera AV cable not ac, as my rear view camera doesn't have air conditioning. But this iPhone does have a sense of humour.

They all do!



Thanks for the info. Appreciated