Hey
I am looking to put a CB radio into my truck, has anyone installed one into a 2011 yet? If so where did you mount it?

 

I have spent a good bit of money getting my cb installed in my new 2011 f250. After getting it installed, I had a lot of rf interference making it almost useless. This is a new cb. I also picked up interference on a scanner I had installed. The radio works great when the truck is not running.

I took the truck to the Radio Shack / installation team that installed it and they spent a day going thru it trying to figure out what was causing the RF noise. Also took it to the local Motorola dealer that installs radios in police, ambalance, bus and commercail vehicles. They verified that the installation was good and also looked to see what could be causing the RF problem. Even though I figured it was'nt a power supply issue because the noise went away when I unpluged the antenna, they suggested I put a filter on the power line in case the noise went away because there was no load on the radio. So I installed a $130 filter....still have the noise. They said that the noise is probably being radiated by the truck's altinator, fuel pump, exhaust or fuel injectors.....also stated that if the engine ground is not good, that could also cause rf noise and the exhaust acts like an antenna.

Next stop was the ford dealer.... notice that I only went to them after trying other options first. No one else can fix mechanical problems with the truck! The general attitude that I received was that its a after market cb and not a truck problem. I told them that if I had known that I could not install a cb in the truck I NEVER WOULD HAVE PURCHASED A FORD PICKUP. Any way, I think they were not sure how to handle this, so they suggested I call Ford.

Next I called ford. The person I talked with actually seemed to care. He esculated it to customer solutions. Meanwhile, I got a idea to see if I can here the noise from another radio. So I got a handheld cb and checked it. Noise inside the cab, in front of the truck, at the tailpipe! This proves that it's the truck radiating the noise.....not my radio or the installation. Took the truck back to the ford dealer and talked with the shop forman. He listened and agreed about the noise. Also suggested that I go to the front and test it on a new truck..... so I tested it and no noise on the other truck...with identical equipment. This is good, because it means that something is wrong with my truck and hopefully will be covered under warranty.

Today, I unhooked the CB and the scanner to take them out of the equation...still have the same noise. I have a appointment to take it back to them tomorrow. Hopefully, with the help of Ford's techinical division they will get it fixed. I'll let you know what happens.

 

Sorry....I forgot to answer your question about mounting location. I located mine on the side of the console. The installers did a awesome job of cutting the storage bin to make it fit flush next to my right leg. I'll take a photo tomorrow and post it for you.

Joe

 

I am sorry to hear that hopefully they can fix the problem under warranty. Thanks for all that info though. Let me know what they do.

 

My money will go on a bad Altenator.

 

My guess is it's the tracking device your wife put in your truck to figure out where you REALLY spend all of your time. lol

 

 

If you want to know more than you ever wanted to know about this subject, this site can keep you busy for a while:

KØBG.COM

 

I have a 2010 f-250hd. I am also looking to mount a cb in it. I was going to mount it in the center roof console. but the cb is to big for it, any other ideas to mount it. I have a k-40 trunk mount antenna that I am going to mount on the hood.

thanks

 

Has anyone been able to install a CB and not get any interference in the 2011 f 250?

 

I physically put my radios on the top of the dash tray as the middle seat still needs to be usable. The CB is a Cobra 29 LTD. I powered it through the AUX-2 upfitter. Antenna model is a Larsen NMO 27 with RG-58 NMO-FME terminated cable assembly and then a FME to PL-259 (UHF connector) to interface with the radio. Characteristic impedance in the whole RF system up to the antenna loading coil is 50 to 52 ohms. (Then the antenna element can be considered like a matching device to the free space impedance of 377 ohms.)
The antenna is mounted on the driver's side fender in order to be farther away from the broadcast band whip antenna, and in my case I also have a PCTEL MUF8455 850MHz 5dBi on the passenger side for the UHF radio.
I was able to tune it to a 1.2:1 SWR on channels 1 and 40, and around the middle of the band at channel 20 it's a perfect 1:1 match - at least there was no measurable reflected power. Dead key (AM carrier only) forward power was about 34dBm which is realistically close to the 4W specification.

In the telecom industry, especially when dealing with anything RF, electrical noise is present everywhere, so you never eliminate noise, you mitigate noise. In my specific experience, I have not experienced noise from my 2011 SD with the engine running that severely impedes communication, and certainly nothing that the built-in filtering circuits (noise blanker and automatic noise limiter) on the Cobra 29 cannot squelch out. I am regularly able to listen to skip shooters from all over North America.

I will do a write up later, but for now, here's an image.

 

I do not know if anyone is still monitoring this thread but I am curious how the antenna wiring was routed into the cab. I also agree the noise if mitigated. A quality antenna installation and the quality of cabling is crucial.
I am not certain from where to thread the cable into the cab.

 

I found that you can come into the cab from under the hood at the top edge of the fender. There is a spot just inside the fender next to the firewall that is a hole about the size of a quarter and if you carefully feed a coat hanger through it will come out in the door jam right near the top edge close to where the windshield, fender, door, all meet.
I had my power cord and coax fed through there, then tucked it inside the rubber for the door down to the corner of the dash around and under the dash then feed the radio location.
Getting ready to do it again as soon as I decide where to put the radios in my 2012. I can remove 1 set of cup holders but I would have to cut the bottom of the counsel to make them fit down in far enough so not to interfer with the fitter switches. draw back to that is replacement cost of the counsel if I decide to sell is 800.00 unless I can find a used one in the future. The other alternative I have is to put both radios on the dash like the other did in here or locate them inside the counsel and loose some storage space, but they would be out of sight which I like to prevent theft.

Sarge

 

Would appreciate seeing the install. Thanks.

 

I was thinking of installing mine like Trent did as I need to keep my middle seat usable. Does the top of the dash come off very easily? I'm a little paranoid of drilling into the unknown and would like to use more than a screw to hold the radio down.