I want to mount dual CB antennas on my tool box but not sure best way to run cable into truck. any help?

 

Well, if you don't want to drill a hole in the back of the cab (which would be an easy repair later) then how about bringing it up through the floor board (an easier repair later).

 

I can give you all the CB tips you need, and the first one would be that two antennas are useless on a pick up. Second, they don't do so well on toolboxes unless you have a heavy duty steel box instead of the usual aluminum. I usually come up through the floorboard becuase you can usually always find a rubber plug in a hole about 3/4" in size. I generally slice the center of the plug and shove the cable through the plug and stick the plug back into the hole in the floorboard. Then, never ever ever coil your slack, and if you run an amp ( CB amp, not speaker amp) don't get the cable near any speakers.

 

That is good advice. What i did on my truck was drill into the bed on my truck and mount the antenna mount strait to the bed so you have a good ground. I then ran the cable through the firewall and it should come up right behind the carpet underneath your floorbord mat on your driver side. I did that the first time the secound time when i had to replace my cable because it had been weathered to bad and was breaking i ran it underneath the cab like you guys were saying. On my model truck there was a little black cover looking deal right in the center of the truck cab. I put a hole in that and ran the cable through and it came up right in front of the bench seat in my truck. I then ran it to the cb that was mounted on the very bottom of my dash. I personally would recomind running it through the firewall after doing it both ways. i can take some pictures tomorrow if you would like

 

i dont know about your truck, but on mine their is a hole (two actually) on the back of the cab about 6 inches below the back window... there's a little rubber thingy in there that just pops off and you can run a wire through and pop it back in...

and yeah i had two antennas and switched to one and noticed no difference.

 

Mine is as dead center as you can get, this balances the signal in all directions (front, right, left and rear). The metal on the truck will "push" the signal in certain directions so try and keep it centerd. I have a K40 on the rearward section of the cab in the center of the roof (magnetic base). I ran the cable (with an insulator on it just so the door didn't chew it up) in the third door of the cab, inside the molding, under the carpet to the dash. If you have alot of cable left over, don't spool it up. You kinda have to run it in a zig zag formation under the carpet or something or else it will distort your signal. I also trimmed it using a meter to tune it to my CB. If you do the bed, try and get the the metal of the bed, not a toolbox or anything like that. Keep it as close to the cab as you can. The better ground you have on the CB the better too. I noticed a gain on hardwireing the CB over using the cigarette lighter adapter.

 

The directional transmission you get from putting the antenna more forwards or which ever you decide is pretty much a joke. It you put it in the rear corner of the bed, you might get a little, and I mean only a very little bit further in front of you that the rear. It's so little I would come close to calling it a myth. The main key is a good ground for you antenna mount, keep the load of the antenna ( the coil ) as high as you can, don't coil the slack of you coax, and get a good SWR ( below 2.0:1 is good, 1.5:1 is pretty good and 1.2:1 or lower is excellent). The best antenna system is 102" steel whip bolted to roll bars in the bed. I run a Wilson 1000 magnet mount, ( the magnet is the ground ) and I have a 1.4 SWR, and it does just fine. If your brave enough to drill your roof, I'd put a K40 on the roof. I did that once and it was a hell of a setup for CB.

 

I was just thinking of another way I did this. I had a K40, but you could use a Wilson 1000, but either one with a trunk lip mount. I mounted on the hood opposite of the stereo antenna. It's a good location, no cble is visible cuz you can run it through the floor. You don't get the load very high, but as long as you don't push too much power into it, it will do very well for you there. HOWEVER, keep the coax away from the computer and fuel injection controls. Very important.

 

What do you guys think about running it out of the hole in the roof that the XM radio or on-star come out? I haven't looed at it, but you should be able to get it out the same hole and modify the cover for the wire right?

 

Pretty much what Chevy112488 said, there are 2 vents on the backside of the Cab. I ran mine through one of those holes and remove panel under radio and mounted cb in there. Perfect fit and works great