Off Roading

[AdmiralCochrane]

I think the critique was mostly regarding off-road rough trail driving.  Mall crawling is a lot easier on antenna mounting.

[nokones]

3 minutes ago, AdmiralCochrane said:

I think the critique was mostly regarding off-road rough trail driving.  Mall crawling is a lot easier on antenna mounting.

Did somebody say I was mall crawling? Nope that is not the case, but I know and I have first-hand experience of having an antenna ripped off and it wasn't because I was crawling at malls. There is a related discussion I posted somewhere on this forum

I already lost my CB antenna on the trail.  My CB Antenna did not have enough thread engagement with the antenna lug and coax cable stud and as we were climbing over the rocks in a creek wash a low-hanging tree branch ripped that sucker right off and I lost the lug, quick disconnect, spring, and the 5 Ft Firestik II antenna element.  The problem was that the Heavy-Duty Spare Tire Carrier Bracket provided Antenna mount was a little too thick and I didn't have sufficient thread engagement between the coax cable antenna stud and the antenna lug so I abandoned that configuration and went back to the Terraflex Mounting Bracket bolted to the rear door hinge. The antenna lug and antenna coax cable stud have plenty of thread engagement now.

And there's no doubt, I may/will lose more, but I have spare parts to fix/repair right away and get back on the air once I get home. Now, the problem is that Firestik no longer has the quick disconnect and heavy-duty springs.  They blame it on Supply-chain issues and they are having difficulties in negotiating with various suppliers.  I was able to find three quick disconnects and springs from a few sources throughout the country so at least I have spare parts. 

However, I'll be installing a Trunk-Lip/NMO Mount at the rear edge of my hood on the passenger side and with a Laird C27 Base Load Whip Antenna (parts already on-hand) for my CB Radio in the very near future once I get my quarterly radio programming updates done on all my mobiles and portables, to see if this hood/cowl configuration performs better

You can see the difference in the thickness of the two antenna bracket mounts.

[OffRoaderX]

1 minute ago, nokones said:

Did somebody say I was mall crawling? Nope that is not the case

The Armorall on your tires says otherwise!

[marcspaz]

 

I have to disagree with some of this...

 

5 hours ago, WRXP381 said:

Haha .  The last one is the best option I’ve been jeeping for over 40years.  I’ve built jeeps and off road trucks as a living for over 30years. I’ve installed 1000s of cbs gmrs and hams.

 

I'm not saying this is you specifically, as I don't know you well enough, but that is not a qualifier to convenience people you know what you are doing.  I spent the past 40 years fixing well over 1,000 crap installs from offroad shops and gas station mechanics who think they know how to install a radio (especially CB), but don't.

  

5 hours ago, WRXP381 said:

The front fender in a line of sight frequency like 460 is the worst possible place to mount anytning. 

 

This is not accurate.  Fender and hood mounted antennas for VHF and UHF work great for almost all vehicles, including Wranglers.  It's not as good as the roof or other high point on the vehicle that provides more elevation... but the performance difference with the extra height wouldn't be noticed by the average user.  Meaning, there may be a measurable improvement, but not a practical one.

 

The worst places (which seem to be a growing fad due to Ausie videos) is the front bumper, bull bar, and rear bumper.  The only way to get worse than those is to have them inside the vehicle or dragging in the dirt behind you.  LOL

  

5 hours ago, WRXP381 said:

...but the fender mount is also the most susceptible to major damage.  Any one I’ve ever off roaded with that had a fender mount anything has ripped it right off in the bushes. 

 

Unless someone didn't install a mount right, you would have to do a lot more than drag through some bushes to damage an antenna mount.  I have been wheeling the heavily wooded and rocky trails of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic for 40 years.  Almost all of those years have been in a Jeep with a hood-lip/fender mounted antenna.  Same with a vast majority of my friends.  I have never seen a lip mount or fender mount antenna get damaged or ripped off in the bushes.

 

In fact, if you watch the video I posted, my Jeep fell 6 feet and crashed into a dirt wall, snapping my fender flare and side mirror off.  I even dented the fender, the lip of the hood and the side of the bed.  The antenna mount and antenna that sticks out the side were not damaged at all. 

 

5 hours ago, WRXP381 said:

You have over spent big on the jeep and midland radio and lair antenna but then it gets neutered but being mounted in a place that it won’t work very well.   When I off road I need my radios to transmit a good distance in all directions.  Not just forward to the next jeep.  

 

Again, that is not accurate.  Having the UHF antenna mounted on the fender does not make it directional.  We are dealing with an electromagnetic energy bubble that extends for thousands of miles in every direction.  A non-conductive cab on a Wrangler (even conductive cabs on most other vehicles) is entirely too small to make an RF shadow.  For UHF and VHF radios, unless there is a piece of metal close enough to the radiating element (7 inches or less on GMRS) to obscure the bubble or short the signal, there is zero impact to performance beyond the very minor height different you could achieve with a roof mounted antenna.

 

Due to shielding by the metal of the cab of most vehicles and the special coatings on glass of all modern vehicles, the RF energy has some trouble penetrating the glass and roof, going inside the vehicle.  This does not impact performance outside the vehicle. Wranglers don't have conductive roofs and the glass is only an issue if you are trying to use an HT inside the vehicle, with all of the glass windows in place.  Otherwise, any glass that is in place is actually helping protect the occupants of the vehicle from RF exposure from the outside of the vehicle.

 

[marcspaz]

3 minutes ago, OffRoaderX said:

The Armorall on your tires says otherwise!

 

Shots fired!

[nokones]

51 minutes ago, OffRoaderX said:

The Armorall on your tires says otherwise!

No, that shine/glare is not from an Armorall coating.  That glare is shining from your chrome bumper onto my Mickey Bajas

[OffRoaderX]

1 minute ago, nokones said:

That glare is shining from your chrome bumper onto my Mickey Bajas

HOW DARE YOU SIR!   HOW...DARE... YOUUUU....

[nokones]

4 minutes ago, OffRoaderX said:

HOW DARE YOU SIR!   HOW...DARE... YOUUUU....

Now, I know what present I can get you for Christmas, a green can of Dupont Chrome Polish and bag of micro-fiber cloths.

[AdmiralCochrane]

15 minutes ago, nokones said:

Now, I know what present I can get you for Christmas, a green can of Dupont Chrome Polish and bag of micro-fiber cloths.

Dang, how can I get on your Christmas list?  Wait, nothing I own has chrome on it

[RIPPER238]

On 12/6/2023 at 7:21 PM, StogieVol said:

• Who all off roads?
• What vehicle do you off road in?
• What channel you use for trailing (is it open or simplex set up)? 
• What's your favorite local trail/trails?

 

I do! 

I purchased a 2019 4Runner because my son who is a bug Jeeper said it would be the better choice. And i had a feeling the nanny and safety systems were going to ruin the 4Runner going forward. Couldn't have purchased at a better time and did a year of overlanding all through 2020.

GMRS 21-23 open. Simple Midland GMRS with ether a ghost antenna for day to day or long whip for more range. 

Love VA and WV trails, Peters Mill and a few others in that area. 

 

 

 

[gortex2]

Spent most of yesterday cleaning up and fixing more of the JK from our last JJ Uhwarie trip. Wife got to apply her "band aids" to the damaged metal. I got to replace the driver steel brake line from the ABS unit to the rear of the jeep. Ya me. Even prebent stuff is a PITA to install. Also did the 3rd pressure wash to get mud out and off it and replaced a ton of the plastic clips on the front fenders. Laslty installed a new amazon ccr AM/FM/BT/Car play radio. We mainly wanted to be able to stream from our phones and old radio only supported the aux port (no usb) and the AMFM was broken. Today need to get it loaded back up and take it for a spin. Cumberlands in a couple weeks. 

[StogieVol]

On 10/4/2024 at 4:52 PM, marcspaz said:

 

Use DaVinci Resolve.  It's the same software many commercial movie production companies use, and is the top rated software used in Hollywood.  The best part is, its free for folks like us.  Commercial licenses don't give us anything we need.

 

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve

 

 

I use Corel VideoStudio also, which is $80 to buy, but is way easier to use when I am doing something quick.

https://www.videostudiopro.com/en/

 

 

Thank you! I will look at it this evening. 

[nokones]

Well, I got all my quarterly mobile and portable radio programming updates done so, my next project was to install the Antenna Specialist/Antenex/Laird/TE Connectivity Trunk Lip NMO Mount and C27 Base Load CB Antenna on my 23 Wrangler IZARUBICON 2 Dr. as recommended by a couple of forum members. The install went pretty easy and yes, I have chassis ground continuity at the mount and NMO connector. That was verified before I cut the cable to the desired length and installed the UHF (PL 259) Connector.

The mount and antenna was installed at the hood rear lip edge in front of the cowl on the passenger side as near to the outside as possible to not interfere with my Ditch Light.

Before I do any cutting of the antenna element, I better check the provided cutting chart and see what is recommended for the CB freqs and the chart indicated a cut at the 49" mark for 27 Megs. I measured the element and it was already 49". In checking the VSWR, right off the bat my Rig-Expert indicated an initial VSWR at just a tad less than 1.5:1 on Ch. 1 and a little less than 1.2:1 on Ch. 40. Since, I can't stretch the antenna element, I elected to raise the antenna element about a 1/4" in the antenna ferrel. That worked pretty good but, based on my readings, I elected to drop it a tad back down and I ended up with 1.05:1 across the board. I'll just have to live with that.

Next will be the comparison test and see what would be the difference in the Farz between the Firestik II and the C27 antennae. However, I have to wait until my friend gets back from Colorado next week so we can use the same Avalanche vehicle and I need to get another C27 antenna, so we are testing with a like antennae again.

Onto the next project.

Oh, by the way, please note, there is no shine/glare on my tires, and it is obvious that there is definitely no armorall on my Mickey Bajas.  It had to be the shine/glare from that well-polished Chrome Bumper.

 

[SteveShannon]

51 minutes ago, nokones said:

I ended up with 1.05:1 across the board. I'll just have to live with that.

Drats!

[WSFA347]

My off-road rigs

[nokones]

After being accused of amoralling my tires by our beloved Queen, and then I responded to that allegation saying it was the glare off his freshly polished front chrome bumper on his "Notarubicon".

Today, I took my Jeep for it's annual ceramic treatment and to have the Arizona Pinstripes buffed out and of course they a fantastic job as usual.

Unfortunately, and after I specified, "No Armorall" treatment on the tires so I don't get ridiculed and lose all respect by not only our beloved Queen, also by my fellow Jeep Creep Friends.

They even armoralled the Spare Tire and the damn steps of my rock sliders. Now it is very slippery climbing into the vehicle.

I hope I can gain some respect back.

[OffRoaderX]

1 hour ago, nokones said:

They even armoralled the Spare Tire and the damn steps of my rock sliders

next you'll be driving a Toyota!

[SteveShannon]

1 minute ago, OffRoaderX said:

next you'll be driving a Toyota!

As long as it’s a 4Runner (or Sequoia or Land Cruiser).

[nokones]

1 minute ago, OffRoaderX said:

next you'll be driving a Toyota!

God, I hope that I never stoop down to that level.  Then, I would have to give up my license plate for something that relates to a Tundra or 4 Runner. If I ever did that, I would check myself into one of those special White Coat institutions.

[SteveShannon]

Just now, nokones said:

God, I hope that I never stoop down to that level.  Then, I would have to give up my license plate for something that relates to a Tundra or 4 Runner. If I ever did that, I would check myself into one of those special White Coat institutions.

Just look at reliability figures for the 4Runner versus any Jeep.  

[OffRoaderX]

24 minutes ago, SteveShannon said:

Just look at reliability figures for the 4Runner versus any Jeep

None of that applies when you're doing "real" off-roading.. I once took a group of Toyotas to a moderately difficult trail on the California/Mexico border and 3 of them broke...  Don't believe me? it's all on video right here:

 

[SteveShannon]

9 minutes ago, OffRoaderX said:

None of that applies when you're doing "real" off-roading.. I once took a group of Toyotas to a moderately difficult trail on the California/Mexico border and 3 of them broke...  Don't believe me? it's all on video right here:

 

Thanks!  I will. 

[nokones]

10 hours ago, SteveShannon said:

Just look at reliability figures for the 4Runner versus any Jeep.  

Yah, I know, the Jeep has horrible numbers but I rather own and drive a Jeep than any Asian or British car.

[nokones]

I assume that the driveshaft that broke was an OEM driveshaft and not a Tom Woods, Adam's, or a JE Reel driveshaft? When I use a vehicle beyond the limits of grocery getting, I always replace the weak OEM parts that normally fail under extreme conditions as a piece-of-mind thing. I did the samething with my racecars.

I replaced all my cheap Jeep weak soon-to-be-broken parts such as all the suspension and steering and driveline components with heavy-duty parts immediately after I got my Jeep. It barely had 2,000 miles on it when I started ripping off the cheap stuff that will break on the trail.

[WRXB215]

11 hours ago, OffRoaderX said:

next you'll be driving a Toyota!

Hey! I resemble that comment!