Has anyone put a CB in their Escape? (Mines an '02) If so, can you post some pics? I've finally found the first car I'm going to fully own (My mom's giving me her Escape), and I want to put a CB in it, and do a few other things to it. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm a bit of a newbie, but I'm eager to learn whatever I can! Thanks!!

 

I am a licensed amatuer radio operator (Ham Radio), I never put my mobile rig in this Escape I have for whatever reason.

It all depends if you want a clean looking professional job or one where you just stick the radio under the dash somewhere, run the power lead thru the firewall and stick a mag mount antenna on the roof and run the antenna wire through a window.

There are many radio installation shops around, even Best Buy installs radios. If you want a clean looking job, just check with them if they will do the install. One thing you want to remember try and get the antenna as far away from the engine as possible. A good rear bumper mount works fine and the RFI generated from the radio will not interfere with the operation of the vehicle.
Doing this yourself is really not an easy job and takes a lot of time if you never installed one before.

Just my opinion...

 

If definitely want it to look as good as possible. The car itself is pretty beat up, but I do want this to not make it look any worse. I was told best buy can not install anything on the exterior of the car...I'm perfectly fine with running the antenna wire myself, I've done it before for a different one, but will they mount the radio and hook it up in the vehicle even if it's not an audio deck (they told me that's what they specialize in)?

 

Honestly, the only way to find out is go to or call Best Buy or any place that installs aftermarket radios and ask. Don't know where you live, but we a few independent car audio businesses around that will just about install anything. Check around and see who is out there that does this kind of work.

Next would be installing it yourself if all else fails. You have to get a mount that fits the rig. Check with Radio Shack they used to sell universal mounts for CB radios, but I have heard that Radio Shack has really changed and only sells half of what it used to. Once you mount the rig where you want it, all you really have to do is route the power leads to the battery. Do not hook up the power leads to anything else, like the fuse box, run the wires directly to the battery and make sure both the black (negative) and red (positive) wires are both fused.

Make sure you find a spot to mount the radio that will not interfere with any driving maneuvers, such as steering and braking.

I would run the antenna lead through the back tailgate and the antenna mounted on the rear bumper. Don't know what kind of antenna you will be using, but a lot of the old time CB'ers still use those 102" whips. If your just using a mag mount, place as far back from the engine as possible, but still maintaining the roof as a good ground plane. Even though the legal output limit of a CB transmitter is only 4 watts, you never know what it might do to the functionality of the engine. If the antenna lead is too short you're just going to have to extend it with couplers and adapters.

Good luck!

 

Thank you for the info. I just have one more question: Is there a way to connect the radio power to the battery in a way that it will turn off when the ignition is turned off? I have a bad habit of draining batteries. There is an ACC empty fuse slot in the fuse box. Does it have anything to do with the ignition?

 

Sure there is a way you can do that, but I wouldn't. Like I said, your safest route is to connect the hot lead (red) wire directly to the battery and have a fuse in the line, same with your ground wire.

I don't recommend using any empty fuse slot in the fuse box. I don't know if the extra ACC is tied into the ignition switch, but you can test it with a volt meter.

The problem with running hot leads within the vehicles circuitry is that it could cause problems with your onboard computer because of the RFI being generated by the radio. You will have to get used to turning the CB on and off in my opinion.

Also when running the the power leads, use 10 or 12 gauge black/red wire, since a CB is only pushing out 4 watts you probably can get away with 12 gauge. Now if you get an amp (illegal, but CB'ers use them all the time), of course that will run separately from the rig and heavier wire will have to be used.

 

Alright, thanks. I think I can eventually train myself to turn it off.

 

I've gone ahead and decided to put it in our truck. Makes more sense to put it in the car with room for it. Shouldn't be too hard to find a location in there.