My CB Installation

Cobra Installation
"Cobra 29 NW ST" Note, this setup is the ultimate setup if you want to communicate in the mountains while 4wheeling.
You could go with a linear amplifier too, but for the average person the hot rodded chip I have and the 4' Firestik antenna gets my signal out loud and clear.
Plus linears can bleed onto other channels and interfere with TVs quite often.
I don't care for them myself, plus they are illegal.
Just ask anyone who has gone on trips with me.
They have no problems hearing me at all.

I finally got the CB installed March 4th 2000.
I looked at mounting it down next to the console with the controls facing up, but its hard to read, and the radio just looked out of place there.
I settled for it mounted on the passenger side under the glove box. I can reach the controls pretty easy from my seat, and it does not look to bad mounted there.

Eventually, the CB will end up on my headliner mounted in one of these overhead consoles.
Very easy to install. You take off your rear ceiling lamp, and remount it to the console.
The console uses the pre existing screw holes where the lamps were to secure it.
Same up front too.

I went with this big of a CB as it has a lot of extra features that I wanted. It has the Cobra Sound Tracker technology in it which make others come in a lot clearer with no background hiss. It also allows you to transmit further. It also has a built in SWR meter which is very important to tune your antenna. Normally you would have to buy an external SWR meter and disconnect your coax to put it in between the radio when you peak out your SWR reading. With the meter built in, its much easier.

I had the CB hot rodded recently, and it kicks butt. The final amp was taken out, and now it's putting out around 24 watts.
From what others tell me when I key up, they can hear me loud and clear.

Below is a picture of the unit at night. I took the photo with my flash turned off.
It looks pretty cool at night as it is backlit from behind.

Below is a picture of the antenna mounted to my ARB bumper.
It is mounted to the ARB by an ARB antenna mounting bracket.
Click the 2nd picture to go to 4x4 Connections website to purchase one.

It's a 4 foot Firestik II. It has a tunable tip on the top of it which makes it real easy to adjust the SWR.
I have it mounted on a heavy duty spring so the antenna can flex while off roading.

Firestik has an excellent FAQ section on their website that can answer just about anything you want to know about CB antennas.

Below are pictures of a new quick disconnect I bought for the antenna. It is much nicer than simply unscrewing the antenna nightly like I use to do.
I take it off nightly to prevent theft. Don't buy the cheap $10 ones from some stores, they rattle. The one I bought goes for about $20 to $25, but well worth it.

The first two pictures are where I use to have the antenna on the hood.

The next three pictures are my current setup on the ARB bumper.
You can see in the pictures here how easy it is to take the antenna off and put it on again.
The 3rd picture shows where I grounded the antenna lead too.
To wire up your antenna coax to make sure you don't short it, or get a bad ground, please click here.

Here is a Radio Shack external speaker I added awhile back. It fits in perfectly on the back of the console above the ash tray.
It's a lot clearer hearing than the smaller built in speaker.
I may sometime attempt to hook the CB upto the 4" factory in-dash speakers and do away with the external one I have now.
That ought to sound better.

Also here is a close-up of the mic bracket I have mounted to my console.

CB Toys OK, I'm not into those noise gizmos that make Tarzan sounds or a woman having an orgasm, but I do like Roger beep type of sound effects for when you un-key your mic.

They can be very useful when traveling in a large group while on the way to your trail ride, or when you are up there wheeling.
Sometimes the traffic can get quite busy on the CB, and having an identifiable beep after you end your transmission makes it clear to others who just spoke.

I went with a "Roger Five Tone" chip. It can be programmed to sound like the one beep the Roger beep ones do, or play up to 5 tones all at once.
You can control the pitch and speed of each tone too.
Here is the site.

The shop used an existing switch in my CB instead of wiring up an external switch on the outside of the unit.
On my CB it has a tone control marked high/norm for the sound.
I always have it on high as having a little treble makes it easier to understand other users.

The shop just disconnected the wire and left them in the open position which leaves it at the "high" setting.
Then he used that switch and wired it up to the new Roger Five toy.
So now to have it on, I just use the high setting, and when I want to turn off the Roger beep, I put the switch to the normal position.

CB Links:

Firestik has an excellent FAQ section on their site that can answer just about anything you need to know about CBs.

For an excellent AVI video on how to adjust your SWR, Truck City CB has a step by step one for you.
It's about a 12 MB file. Right click it and save it to your PC.

Copper Electronics where I purchased my CB from.

Stuart's CB formally Jet City CB. This is a local shop, and where I got my 24 watt chip put in to hotrod my CB.

CB radio tweaks and more.

Uncle Jim's CB site. Jim also has an excellent forum that is listed on his page if you scroll down about 1/3 rd of the way.
All they do is talk CBs on his forum, so if you need expert advise, check out his forum for CB help.

CB Tips Antenna coax:
When running your coax from your CB to your antenna, most Toyotas have lots of grommets along the firewall.
You may need to enlarge the hole some, that is easy to do with a knife or other sharp instrument.
Be careful to not cut any wires inside the grommet.
I have my coax going out the far upper left side grommet that exits out by my brake master cylinder.
Once the coax is out the grommet, I have it inside some of that electrical flex tubing like you use for wires, and it exits the tubing a few feet from my bumper where it goes to the antenna mount.

SWR reading:
Make sure your match is the lowest you can in order to be able to transmit with maximum power.
Make sure you have a good ground to body right where your ground wire from the coax sheath exits it.
I have about a 1.1 match across all 40 channels, which is considered very low.

Power hookup:
The two wires that come out of my CB are black & red for ground & power.
The black wire goes to a bolt underneath the dash on the firewall, and the red power wire I have going out the firewall to my auxiliary fuse box so the CB has full time power available to it.
You can simply take the red wire and tap into a fuse in your cab in the fuse box.
Use one that only has power with the key on, or a circuit that has power when the key is off too.
A good circuit to tap into is the cigarette lighter one.
That is the one I used before I went with the auxiliary fuse box.

We run when we are up at Greenwater, so give us a shout if you are up that way sometime.
Please click the above GIF for more info on CB channel 4.

TOC