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Easy and free - Remove the ball from the top of your current antenna. Cut to the size needed and epoxy/JB Weld/etc. the ball back on. Works fine and doesn't look as goofy as a rubber stubby.
I had a short rubber antenna for a time. One day it didn't come home from the car wash. The stud remained in the antenna mount, but the antenna itself was gone. The factory antenna has seen dozens upon dozens of car washes and made it through every time.
I cut mine down - worked well. Do you guys take your truck into carwashes with that antenna? I thought I had read some horror stories.
I've seen guys that stop and remove them every trip to the car wash. I never have on my 2014, 2016 or 2017. Haven't lost one yet. But others have, so the experience varies from person to person. As with most things in life, there's no guarantee.
I went with a shorter 21" antenna that would clear the frame of my garage door. I can tell that the reception isn't as good, it isn't horrible. I keep the OEM antenna in the back seat in case I really want to listen to the radio while I'm out in the sticks.
I remove my antenna when I go through the car wash. On a previous truck I had the antenna whip back into the A pillar and take a divot out of the paint. I don't know if the antenna on my Superduty is capable of that or not but I'm not taking a chance.
If I could find one, (haven't really looked though) I'd want to replace mine with a powered antenna. I rarely use the radio anyways, since we mostly run SiriusXM, so for the most part I wouldn't need it deployed. That way it'd be out of the way of clearing the snow off the passenger side of the window. I hate having to work around the antenna when brushing snow, washing the truck, etc... But I'd have it available whenever the wife wanted to switch to local radio without having to go out and mount it back on.
I'm not so worried car washes. I took my truck through the nearby touch-less wash once, and never again. Yes the antenna hit a couple of times, but otherwise the truck fit. My issue was that the truck didn't get clean. It was so close to the max clearance (84") that the spray pattern on the wash didn't have good coverage, I ended up with streaks and runs all over the place. Now I stick to washing in the driveway. It just sucks in the winter months, as I can't do a quick, "rinse off the salt" in the driveway, which is my usual use for the touch-less wash.
I got this one from Amazon.
Seems to work as well as the stock one, cuts out in the same place through mountains.
It was cheap and I still have the stock one.
I have not noticed any difference in reception, but I have not listened to AM/FM since about 2004 when I got my first XM radio. It's only an emergency, when XM isn't working kinda thing anymore. Which is hardly ever. But the truck just doesn't look right without an antenna. This one goes up just about to the height of the top of the truck. A perfect fit.
I got this one from Amazon.
Seems to work as well as the stock one, cuts out in the same place through mountains.
It was cheap and I still have the stock one. Amazon
I have the 21" version of that one. Looks OEM and I have yet to notice a difference in radio reception.
Years of 2x wash / week on my 99 and no problems. After about ten washes in the same car wash on my ‘19 the below is my antenna mount. Haven’t decided what to do about it yet. If anyone knows how the trim I pulled up comes off proper to get to this I’d appreciate it.
