Right Channel Radio CB Installation

By | December 14, 2008

‘Hey, who’s the driver of that tan FJ40?’

‘Hello….anyone?’

‘uummm….hello? Anyone know which way to turn at the intersection? ANYone??’


How many times have you been ‘that guy’ on the trail ride? I have a few times…and it isn’t fun. The problem? The rig ahead of you is responsible for you making correct turns and helping get you unstuck…but many of us forget to check our mirrors when we trail ride. So, now the responsibility becomes yours: communication. Is your CB in good condition? Is it TUNED? Or, like many, should you just stick your head out the window and yell because you’ve neglected to install a CB and instead dropped $1000 on tires and wheels that STILL left you stuck on the trail? RightChannelRadios.com has the solution for us…

IMO, the best bang-for-the-buck in trail communication is still the CB radio. Yeah, the FRS stuff is ok, but half the time the batteries are dead or I’ve left it in another coat pocket…and fact is, since it’s not hard mounted in your rig, your odds of forgetting it are high. And as much as I love my ham radio and the power it offers, not all of us are going to invest that extra money into a good 2m radio AND take the time to study for the required test.

So, that leaves us with the simple and reliable CB radio. But wait, what do you order up? I don’t know how many times I’ve run across poor installs, low-quality components, and radios that were never tuned.

RightChannelRadios.com offers two different KITS with components that are geared specifically towards the offroad user. They’ve selected high quality Firestik stainless mounting brackets, heavy gauge Belden antenna cable, a sweet Flex-48 Wilson antenna WITH a tunable tip, your choice between a Uniden PRO-510XL (my personal favorite) and the Cobra 75-WX-ST radios, AND they even include a nice small antenna tuner and the short-cable required to use it.

What, a complete kit? Yeah…no more mix-matching the parts, forgetting to grab something, or hitting 4 different stores to assemble the parts you need…one order, one request, so so simple. And…who’da thunk….$100 for the Uniden kit, $160 for the Cobra kit? Exactly….so what was that excuse again?


Step 1, packaging…RCR actually boxed everything, rather than shipping the antenna separately, so everything arrives intact and well protected. Nice use of recyclable stuffing too…


Step 2, laying out what ya have and need…you can see the pieces that were packaged up


Note the difference between my old cable and the new stuff….size = durability AND better performance


I chose to use my custom mount point on the roll cage, but the new stainless antenna coupler was a nice upgrade to the cheaper (and rusted) chrome one I had before…


My old setup relied on a spring to mount the antenna…with the more-flexible FireStik, I don’t need that….this will be plenty flexible to not get damaged while on the trail.


Here you see the tunable tip on the antenna….VERY nice for adjusting your SWR. I’ve owned the ‘trimmable’ antennas in the past and once you trim too much, they are junk…


Don’t mind the rust and dents, but the cable is neatly tucked under the body line inside the tub and then zip-tied securely along the interior cage…you definitely want to protect the cable well.


Pics of the mounted CB pending….I’m in mid-wiring harness work right now and the interior is a bigger mess than usual 😉

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