High swr on skip shooter antenna

[Handy Andy]

@Slowmover - following his comment - there are situations even with the stainless-steel bolts they say they use to hold these brackets on - they need physical electrical connection to "get thru" those rustproofing and sealing materials to even get to that base support frame the cab uses.

Once the RF gets thru to there, that cab frame - then the sky's the limit - less noise too...

 

[Groundhog KSS-2012]

My 7 ft skipshooter is a 1.1 on channel 1 and almost 1.5 on channel 40 with the nail all the way down. Would it hurt to spit the coating and snip off a quarter inch or so of the wire on top or, would that completely ruin the antenna. I know a 1.5 isn't bad but, i'd like to match it as close as possible. Thanks in advance. Btw, I have an older skipshooter also that the nail is rusted in so bad I can't get it out.