Date:         Fri, 16 Jan 2009 13:28:12 -0600
Reply-To:     joel walker <uncajoel@BELLSOUTH.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         joel walker <uncajoel@BELLSOUTH.NET>
Subject:      Re: mounting cb radio?
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
              reply-type=original

>I was given a CB radio (this one:
> http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2102604) for
> christmas, and am hoping I might get some advice on how to mount it.
> A
> quick look through the archives indicates that this has been a
> recurring
> problem without a really great solution.  But maybe someone has
> thought up
> something good in the last few years?  I like the look of it, so I'd
> love to
> not have it on the floor or way out of the way...
> Any tips would be appreciated!

an acceptable place i found was on the walk-through aisle side of the
passenger seat support. there's an empty space under the seat so you
can drill holes through the wall-carpet and secure the radio mount
fairly easily. and the battery is right here, so you can sneak a wire
under the carpet to the battery without a lot of cursing. ;) be sure
to put an inline fuse. connecting the radio direct to the battery cuts
out a lot of ignition/dash noise in the radio.

now, there are a couple of downsides to this.
- if the person who sits in the passenger seat is, shall we say, a bit
wide, it pushes the seat-side kinda down onto the radio controls. not
good. so you have to mount the radio as low as you can ... but that
means having to watch out for the antenna connection and the power
connection at the bottom of the radio!! too low and they won't have
room to bend nicely.

oh, and i ran the antenna under the floor carpet over under the
passenger footwell, and up behind the glove box, then up the
a-pillar/windshield support (tactfully hidden behind the windshield
gasket) to a through-the-glass cell-phone-like antenna. not the best
range, but it worked ok for my purposes. just make SURE you think
about the windshield wipers when you position the antenna!! been
there, and had to redo it. :( i found the best way to figure out where
to put that through-glass type antenna was to spray glass cleaner foam
ALL over the windshield and then run the wipers a couple of times ..
that gave me a really clear idea of where the wipers would NOT be
hitting an antenna. :)

<downsides continued)
- the passenger can get befuddled fumbling with the radio as they try
to connect their seatbelt. so the radio has to be put kinda forward,
away from the seat belt.
- the driver has to bend a bit and lean a little bit to get the
microphone.
- the mike cord will block the aisle when you're talking, so the
passenger can't get up and walk to the back while the radio is being
used. not a terrible thing, at least in my case, cause i mostly just
listened to the truckers for weather and traffic tidbits.
- if you want to change channels, you have to look down, away from the
road. NOT a good thing. so you can't be changing channels too much in
heavy traffic. unless you can count the clicks. ;)
- it takes up some leg room when you walk through the aisle frontwards
or backwards ... and the sharp edges kinda hurt your shins if you bump
it. :(

a good thing is that the mike cord comes out of the top ... that's a
better arrangement than one radio i had where it came out of the side
toward the front of the bus. that was more awkward. :(

is it the best positon? nah. it's ok. i really really wanted to mount
it over head on the a/c ducting ... but could never figure a good way
to do that. :( maybe a smaller radio could be done that way.

good luck!
joel
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