I have everything wired but I cant figure out how to put on the mount. Im placing it above the tail light and know I have to drill into the body but I cant figure out how you would drill the body and put a nut and bolt on to hold the mount. I was wondering what everyone else has used for this job? Im guessing self tapping screws but Im not sure if they would hold the mount has 4 holes for screws but I dont know if it will bend the body of the jeep........

 

I justed used self tapping screws. Put them in with a drill

 

Worked for me.

 

did that using custom aluminum bracket and four #12 s.s. sheet metal screws. looked real nice and worked well until I drug a tree down the side and broke the bracket. If you do any wheeling no matter how moderate, that bracket sticks out and seems to catch everything. Gave up on it and am waiting to build new swing tire carrier and will mount to that.

 

ok thanks Ill get the screws tomorrow and drill them suckers in

 

You're not mounting it on the hatch are you? If you have access to a welder I suggest welding it. I haven't seen many people weld them on and I don't see why not, I welded mine and I'm happy with it.

 

Not true fab moved to grand cherokee tech.

 

Thanks XJ I know its not a true fab but I didnt get any hits with the same post in the tech forum and since I needed help I figured the fabrication guys would know.

I dont want to weld the thing on there in case I sell the truck one day. Im mounting it above the driver side tail light just like most of the other drivers did.

 

I made a tab out of a small strong-tie bracket i got from Lowes. Spent all of $2.75.

 

Andy thats what im doing I ordered a mount off of a site though someone recommended it was a while back it looks like that one though. I ran the coax through a hole near where the tail light wires are since it was already there and its a flat connector that goes around the bolt so it ran above the tail light to the mount. Did you use self tapping screws? Do they hold well?

 

Yes, 1/4" self tapping works well. When its installed, the tail light also wedges it in place. I have a 4' whip and have never had an issue.

I tried running the coax through the hole for the brake light wires, but I ran into clearance issues with the coax. The tail light assembly wouldn't seat itself because of the thickness of the coax behind it. So I pulled the bumper cover and ran the coax cable down through a body hole there on the lower left side. There is a rubber plug down there and i ran it through there easy enough.

how much is the mount running you if you dont mind me asking? Like I said before, it cost me a couple of bucks and that was without my military discount at Lowes!

 

It ran like 12 bucks for the mount but it was a christmas gift I just got around to putting it in now. What sucks is the swr meter I dont want to buy one to use it once and there are no semi shops around me to have them tune it. But I had a hole already drilled into the body behind the brake light covered with a piece of silver tape so I ran the coax through there.

 

i bought one from Radio Shack, used it, then returned it that evening saying it didnt suit my needs.

 

lol thats a great move I think Ill do that too

 

Could just find a local CB'er or Ham and flip them a couple of bucks to tune your antenna. I've have people approach me asking to tune their antennas.

I rarely use just a SWR meter to tune an antenna post-installation. I use an antenna analyzer which actually tells you the resonant frequency of the antenna (among other things like locating breaks in long runs of coax, and of course SWR) which is more important than the SWR when it comes to how well the antenna performs. Expensive piece of test equipment. But when you have an antenna farm it is a worthwhile investment. Especially when you work the world on less than 5W (QRP), and radio finals cost some serious bank. It's a bit overkill for one time usage, but could be a good investment for a club.

http://www.mfjenterprises.com/Produc...uctid=MFJ-259B