I'm sure it is possible, but is it safe? Till about a day ago I had a pair of 4ft fiberglass antennas on my mirrors, but on my X-mas trip the left one vibrated itself out of the compression fitting and while tightening it back down I snapped the threads, and the right side was all cracked up near the base from flapping in the wind and beating against the side wall of my slide-in camper. I am now looking at replacing both antennas with stainless steel whips, I'm pretty sure they will also sway in the wind as I'm driving but at least they will not fall apart like the fiberglass ones, and I can still go under low trees and such (when the camper is off for the summertime) without fear of breaking anything. I can get both the 1/4-wave 102" whip and a base-loaded 64" antenna for like $20. I have read many comments online that the 102" being a true 1/4-wave antenna will outperform the shorter model, and it being as tall as it is means it will come above the camper and thus have better all-direction reception. The 64" will also be above the camper by at least a foot, so it should perform at least slightly better than my old fiberglass antennas... So while I really do want the 102" whips, the question is can the mirrors support them? I have the elephant-ears towing mirrors, bolted to the doors on double-A arms (not your regular tripod, what I have would be called a quad-pod I guess), so they are pretty sturdy, but those fiberglass antennas really could make them move when they started swaying in the wind. A stainless steel antenna has much less air drag than a fiberglass whip, so I am hoping the sway will be greatly reduced to begin with, but still, I do not want my mirrors shaking all the time and eventually causing cracks in the doors sheetmetal... So what do ya'll nice folks think on this subject? By the way, this may be important to mention, but the twin antennas are not co-phased - left side is for CB and right side is for the FM/AM radio, factory radio antenna is removed as it was rubbing the front wall of my camper.

 

your right about the drag so it's possible. but i still feel safer with my 102" hooked to the toolbox. go for it i guess

 

Heres how mine are held on.

 

Hawgystyle, I cannot install antennas in the bed area, as I have a slide-in camper that goes in there. I pretty much only have the mirrors as a suitable mounting locations, especially seeing how I already have the doors drilled for the co-ax and the co-ax cables are nicely wrapped around the mirror posts and then fed into the doors and from there follow the factory door wiring harnesses into the cab through the factory rubber bellows.

John, this is similar to how mine are mounted, only mine are spread further apart cause of the dually wheels in the rear and the camper right between the antennas. Actually I am pretty sure it was turbulence from the strong headwinds pushing back on the front wall of the camper that messed up the fiberglass antennas and caused them to sway so bad...

 

You did use springs right?

 

use springs on what, the fiberglass antennas? Didn't think I would need to, as they were only 4ft tall, which is not enough to even clear my camper roof - nothing to hit the antennas, and with them being less than a foot from the camper side walls I didn't want to give them extra ability to flop around and beat against the walls when the wind starts blowing from the side. Actually I think what killed them most was they were of poor design, instead of having their threaded base molded solid in the fiberglass like that Firestick John is using in these pics, my antennas would go into hollow steel tubes with a compression ferrule on the top which allowed for some up-down adjustment (for SRW purposes) - well the antenna whips must have been a bit on the thin side with respect to the ID of those hollow mounts they slid into, as even with the nut on the compression ferrule I could still feel them wiggle some inside them hollow mounts.

 

102's off the mirrors? That is about the single most hillbilly thing I think I have ever heard of. Is it doable? Sure, anything is doable. Are you going to want to deal with the antennas slapping everything in sight, and bowing back into your line of sight going down the highway? Probably not.

My opinion, a center load coil antenna is a much better choice for your application. Look at something along the lines of this: Enforcer 15KW Flat Coil Antenna Polished Aluminum The steel 102" used to be the end all, be all of CB antennas, but that was back when your choices were a poorly built fiberglass antenna or a 102". These days, the antenna builders have stepped up their game, applied a LOT of design technology, and the only really compelling reasons to run a 102" are nostalgia or you intend to push so much wattage that you'll make any other antenna ignite into a fireball.

 

I used a spring on my 4ft firestick II, worked quite well. Maybe it was your cheaper made antennas?

 

Oh man, I only have a little Cobra 19 radio, while I'm sure that center-load antenna works great on real and more powerful radios it is completelu and utterly overkill for my needs! I do see your point about the 102" whips tho, which is why I asked about them in the first place.

Yes, the way the antennas were fit in their steel tubes at the base was definitely a factor - the tubes should have been bored to a smaller ID, so there is virtually no slop between them and the antennas that slip into them. Adjusting for SWR sure was easy as pie tho, no cutting involved, just slide the antenna up-down some and then tighten it in place - really a prime example of a great idea but poor execution. However, I do not think fiberglass was the right choice for me to begin with - sure it works great while the camper is on, because due to its height I do not go into low places, but comes summertime I unload the camper and hook up to a gooseneck trailer, and with that I sometimes go through some rather low-clearance forests roads, where any fiberglass antenna even if it has a spring mount would still take the beating of a lifetime from branches and stuff. Stainless steel antennas wouldn't care much at all for trees and such, and I can easily tie them down if I feel the need for it... Which is what I'd be doing to the 102" whips if I installed those, but that's obviously a no-go plan now.

 

No such thing. A good antenna will do more for your transmit & receive than you'd ever imagine. Also, that antenna is one of the bigger name brand antennas from a CB junkie store, and the price reflects it. Center loads are not always that expensive. I bought a similiar one at Flying J the other day for $25-30 or jump on Ebay and do a quick search in the CB section for "coil antenna," and you can find some dang good deals on center loads like this one:
CB MOBILE ANTENNA AIR COIL 1500 WATTS 65" L BLACK NIB - eBay (item 320600505784 end time Jan-05-11 06:43:34 PST)

 

I just got my 102 in the mail with a heavy duty spring and a ball mount. I think I'm going to mount it on the passenger side of the fiberglass topper. There's a metal loop on the bumper so I'll be able to tie it down easy. My issue is figuring how where to run the cable back to the CB unit without drilling any holes in the cab. Since it's already wired for towing, I think I'm going to find those wires and merry them up with the antenna coax

 

Fatness,

there should be some rubber plugs under the cab, working from underneith, pop out a plug and split it in from one side to the middle then ream the center a little with your pocket knife, but don't cut any out -(unless it's the big coax). may have to split the floor matt to push the coax through all the way then slip the plug over the coax then pop it back in place. May want to wrap a few rounds of black tape around the coax where it goes through the plug as to help hold and shield it from the metal cab. I have used a tie strap to anchor it to something like the bottom of the seat, but you may be working with it to run it under the floor matt, depending on where you came through. A dab of silicon would really seal it off. use tie straps coming under the truck -- also cut strips of rubber like an old tire tube, wraped and taped around the coax ANY where it may rub on a sharp place under the truck. If it rubs and grounds out, the SWR's will shoot up and burn your finals out of the radio.

 

your right about the drag so it's possible.