kenworth t680 install.

[Slowmover]

Hear, and Get Heard.

While everyone understands ya needs an amp to get heard. being able to hear as far as you can transmit is the other part.

Other part of what? (You ask). Serious about radio means serious about overcoming the bad radios other guys have. You can’t hear them, and they can’t hear you, basically.

Luckily,

Your Radio is better than you realize, but it can’t filter noise the way you need it to. Noise covers up what the radio has caught.

The ham radio guys long ago got DSP added to their $$$ Radios. Digital Signal Processing.

This is available to anyone to add to a CB by way of a stand-alone unit between Radio and external speaker, or — as I did seven (7) years ago — to buy a high-fidelity external speaker with integrated DSP.

WEST MOUNTAIN RADIO CLEARSPEECH

(See thread with that title).

Use DUAL LOCK to attach to bracket (not shown) and about (4) 8” zip ties to attach it to the bin over the drivers left shoulder. D-L to bracket and bin face ahead of bungee straps. Zip ties in two runs over bungees and radio.

This is the SUPERIOR audio position. Right-brain intuitive understanding. And, as no other sound source in that position, monitoring for key words is easier. AND keep volume lower. Controlling DSP means you’ll keep that between 10-12 o’clock almost always. Just have to sneak up in radio volume with speaker volume.



You say, I’d never leave home without my CB

I say, I’ll buy a crap radio on the road and run it thru the DSP and have better ears than ANY radio without it (where the rest is the same).



Baby Amp + DSP = $300 or so. You don’t need “a big radio” You need the RIGHT radio plus these external additions.

$125 AM/SSB Radio
$75 baby amp
$200 DSP unit
———————
$400

No golden skrewdriver Super Whack Pack radio is better (it ain’t even close when it’s time to hear those guys waaay out yonder).

— and, you can swap out the radio itself any time you like. The “radio” is a sub-system of its own. (Get it?)

DSP + 6’ antennas on a T680 are the BIG changes.

The rest (later) is about clean power + signal (and safe operation).

.

 

[Slowmover]

Power (part 2)

Juice needed for:

Radio
Amp
Speaker

Power draw will be under 20A; just (with single-final radio plus other two devices).

No amp? Then factory wiring is fine for radio + speaker. (Typically a 15A fused circuit, but with the factory wiring provided, that’s a stretch).

Taller better antennas will increase the radius -distance you can hear and be heard (more important than who can hear you), thus is the way to start. Most bang for buck when DSP added.

Once you’ve done antennas and gotten DSP, then install a KL-203. And, you’ll need to run your own power (upgrade coax appeals to me at the same time). (Possible to squeak by on factory 16-ga, but why take a chance? Some guys will run heavier AWG to the box and pop in a fuse tap, but it’s NOISY!)

And, how to distribute the 12V power?

I wanted a radio rig that goes in & out of the truck as easily as possible. So I invested in new tools and supply to do this with Anderson Power Poles. Consider this the recommendation. Do the search to find relevant info. (E-Z to install, E-Z to use an APP distribution block, etc)



My too long thread on 579 Peterbilt has that 2.5-year journey plus more (noise abatement). I’ve learned and tried. And, tried again. So reconcile everything you thought I’ve said with this:

The Bible of Mobile Install is: www.k0bg.com

— Make a written plan
— Assemble lists.
— Buy quality tools and use best supply.

My typical big truck rig has a $250 radio, but it totals out to over $1,000 when everything else is included. (Has component additions not part of this thread).

Hear this part: and it pays for itself 2-3X per year and will last up to ten years. How’d you like to get paid for 1-2/weeks extra every year?

A quality CB system will make money for you. Keep you out of trouble. Acquaint you with other good men. And give some fun, to boot.

The Enemy has taught you to avoid CB. Hollywood cornpone. Then there’s the dim bulb old hands at every truck stop who’ll give ya a story about how they took it out (same ones wear their mask behind the wheel). The Enemy is afraid of you and other men talking, afraid of your identifying problems and coming up with solutions . In real time. (Get that).

Take heart that the stupid don’t crowd the airwaves (not like the late 1970s with every channel full). The ones on base stations who won’t shut up, ask them to give their name & addresses. Repeat. Repeat again. Remind them THEY ARE NOT HARD TO FIND (so try being useful).

When the chips are down you’ll find your new best friend (with His help). It ain’t coincidence when you’ve made your own luck — that others who are like you — are DOING THE SAME THING!

He helps those who help themselves.

Good luck

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[Slowmover]

did you have to cut or trim the face plate

CB PANEL PLATE

The face plate is considered by KW to be part of “the headliner”. RANEYS Truck Parts sells it for $40. Buy a new one NOW and store it till you move out.

Now trim away to make your radio work.

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[Slowmover]

T680 Order of Work

1). 6’ Skipshooter pair
2). DSP Speaker
3). AM/SSB radio (plus best microphone)
4). New heavier AWG power wiring + fuse
5). APP or similar junctions
6). KL-203 amp
7). New coax

— Other noise abatement as desired. Phone chargers, refrigerators: inverters, etc, all create noise. There’s ways to cut it down or eliminate.

— Chokes or filters to cut background noise picked up by the antenna SYSTEM. (Can reduce, not eliminate).

Treat the noise source, and treat the victim of noise.

If my little mud-duck truck-stop radio I got with points (plus cigarette-pack sized amp & DSP) can hear & be heard farther than Billy Big Rig with his $600 chrome BEEEG RADIO with gonad-killing $1,200 700W amp . . .

who’s your Daddy?

.

 

[Eldorado828]

Just to add a little to the thread. I came out of a t880 day cab a few months back and the one I was in had coax issues that never got ironed out. A buddy of mine just got out of a 2019 t680 sleeper from national carriers and we found his had a box that fed the am/fm stereo out of his passenger mirror antenna. I didn't think paccar did that mess anymore but in his case it was so. He used his own coax and a vise grip mount on the driver side to mount a firestik.

Hopefully yours won't have that garbage signal box, I had that issue in the freightshaker too.

Keep us posted!

 

[Slowmover]

Just to add a little to the thread. I came out of a t880 day cab a few months back and the one I was in had coax issues that never got ironed out. A buddy of mine just got out of a 2019 t680 sleeper from national carriers and we found his had a box that fed the am/fm stereo out of his passenger mirror antenna. I didn't think paccar did that mess anymore but in his case it was so. He used his own coax and a vise grip mount on the driver side to mount a firestik.

Hopefully yours won't have that garbage signal box, I had that issue in the freightshaker too.

Keep us posted!

I was in a T880 a few years ago. Brand-new. (More for the new guys; below):

In the video you can see that the coax is built to fail at several points on the drivers side:

1). The mount stud plate isn’t much of a cover to keep corrosion & dirt away.

2). Removing the mirror arm assembly exposes the body-to-mirror-arm coax joint both ends of which corrode.: The bolt-plate faces corrode and need to be cleaned & treated. Shiny metal with some DOW #4.

— This is an RF Bonding, not a DC Ground. The vehicle is one-half of the antenna. RF current has to be able flow back to the source, and that voltage potential is as much the same on body/frame as we can make it. (Multi-meter testing won’t reveal “good” RF Bond). (Did I get that right, Ridgeline?).

3): Thus the recommendations of antennas + DSP: most hands won’t pull the mirrors to correct & treat this, much less run new coax (testing first the old for continuity).

— Upgraded a friends T680 with 6’ antennas and tested for distance. On my way into the truckstop — where he was sandwiched between two other van combos — he was having difficulty hearing me (much less responding) with the stock antennas. I was approaching such that he faced towards me.

— The following morning I left ahead of him and he was able to RX/TX when I was heading away and was “behind” him (New, stock C-29 w/SRA-198) for over two miles until the road curved east.

— A KL-203 + DSP would have bumped him by 1/2X to 2X as far as he was doing. As I was leaving, it wasn’t that my signal was fading so much as it was it fell under his radios SNR floor (signal-to-noise ratio) too soon. Sooner than those additional components would have allowed.

— But he’d already gained a BIG jump in TX/RX distance with 6’ tuned antennas. The antenna tips were ABOVE the trailer height..

4). He could barely hear out ahead very far. And to the rear was a joke. Reports since is that he can hear 3-5/miles regularly, and get out 1-2/miles with that stock 4W radio under BEST CONDITIONS.

— IOW, now he had something more like a 1990s FLD with West Coast mirrors.

Bummer about the duplexer. Running a single (as shown in the video) is what most guys will use to “upgrade” versus ALSO getting a separate AM/FM antenna.

Did you & your friend remove both mirror assemblies to clean things up + test? New tractors or not, those ten (10) points on each mirror arm are otherwise sources of signal degradation over time.

5). Bright metal (paint removed) with a light layer of dielectric grease afterwards and wrapping coax joints with SCOTCH 88 would have kept problems at bay longer as well as made an immediate performance change.

— This work (new coax, ideally) is enough to call it a job of a full day (34-reset) so as not to hurry. A Dremel with good selection of abrasive SHAPEs is best to do the clean-up effectively and in a timely manner. (I’m thinking of using a sealer on the mirror arm stud plate and atop the Allen fasteners this time).

— Running RF Bonds from antenna stud to cab, then bonds across door hinges, is the accompaniment to clean & treat.

.

 

[Slowmover]

Run New Cophase

Given I’m assigned a T680 I’ll try a pair of these to mount the antennas (as in a post above). Use a longer stud to the OEM stud-join and hang the antenna outboard. Run new coax plus feed-point chokes. Wrap the chokes and coax join to waterproof, then zip-tie the assembly to the arm.

— First step is to exit the cab at the door wiring harness. Then forward BEHIND panel and PAST mirror arm to under hood. Then, back and out along rear of arm.

— Easiest, IMO, to use a fish-tape to get the coax end thru cab wall (wrap end with tape and tape that to fish-tape end). Loosen exterior body panel (shown in video).

Don’t close up anything until cophase harness has a little slack for each leg where it’s on the truck exterior. Work it carefully back & forth: want a minimal amount outside, but with nothing strained.

WILSON single or cophase coax with FME ends ($50?) makes this easy.

This full full bypass of the factory coax leaves it intact for the next driver plus eliminates at least four (4) splices plus the duplexer (if present).

I’ll mount a separate AM/FM/WB antenna.

.

 

[Slowmover]

Custom Antenna Mount

This example of an arm onto which to mount a best quality antenna would be the ideal. While the truck shown is not a KW T680/880, the idea is correct.

The mount arm needn’t be this tall, the takeaway is the strength of the arm bracket bolts with a plate is key.

Getting the antenna above the body (away from the body) is the thing. (Pic is of a knowledgeable drivers’ assigned truck; amateur license holder).

I wouldn’t go OVER 14’ clearance, but I’d snuggle up next to it, (No, an antenna won’t set off a 13’5” clearance detector).

The strange politics of the past few years (last year especially) means more drivers are afraid of getting far from home. A BEST QUALITY radio system means earlier warnings AND ability to identify + problem solve to make a living.

Come out from under a rock . . AND TALK.

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[ForestRunner98]

If you want a weather bomb proof seal use this:

Then wrap with the Scotch 88. If your connector is vertical start wrapping from the bottom up. Water will not get in!! If you need to unwrap for whatever reason you won’t have the sticky residue on your connectors.

 

[Slowmover]

If you want a weather bomb proof seal use this:

View attachment 45320
Then wrap with the Scotch 88. If your connector is vertical start wrapping from the bottom up. Water will not get in!! If you need to unwrap for whatever reason you won’t have the sticky residue on your connectors.

I’ve used self-amalgamating silicone tape (RESCUE brand) under 88. Is this similar?

Thanks for tip!

 

[ForestRunner98]

I’ve used self-amalgamating silicone tape (RESCUE brand) under 88. Is this similar?

Thanks for tip!

It could be the same...probably is. Just the brand I got from a vid from DX Engineering.

 

[Slowmover]

Am champing at the bit to get this one started. Most gear assembled & ready. Hoping coax in good shape if I have to use an older truck (2020 model). Will use the Lincoln II+ and 6’ Skipshooters. Run power.

Having to wait thru pre-employment items to line up.

 

[Slowmover]

Antenna Mount Base: 6.75’ (81”)
from ground on Mirror Arm.

A). 5’ Antennas (60”)
(141”) 11.75’ top-out

B). 6’ Antennas (72”)
(153”) 12.75’

C). 7’ Antennas (84”)
(165”). 13.75”

Big truck with van requires 13’5” clearance.
(Stock photo; OEM 4’ antennas shown).

Definitely easier to work with than the 579 Peterbilt. Antennas far enough to outside of trailer dimension to be able to see it from rear.

As I’m starting in an old-timer (MY-2018 & 365k-miles) with new trucks on order, my work here will be to clean both mirror & antenna-stud mounts of powder-coat.

I may run a ground strap thru the arm (fold-back arm design) connected to coax below antenna stud and out to cab. I’ve some unused narrower strap, and may as well find out if it’s a beneficial change.

Just got it back home a few hours ago. Need to move gear aboard. RADIO RIG changes will be on-road as no time tonight. Get under a load in the morning and a 1,400-mile run to East Coast.

7’ Skipshooters

This won’t be the tallest installation by about 5”. One does have to be aware of tree branches. So a pair of HUSTLER Quick-Disconnect adapters are going to be installed (which will bring me to just shy of 14’; call it that for GP).

.

 

[Slowmover]

The other drivers are gonna be jealous of this rig: White. No jake. 15L 400HP Cummins with an 8-speed!!

I’d gotten tired of the automated manuals. Gimme a handshaker. But an eight speed?

For the readers, the fewer the gears, the fewer the choices. BIG gear splits makes acceleration on an open road easy, but sucks eggs for being in traffic. Can’t tailor momentum to the flow. Like being crippled if you know what you’re doing.

OTOH, it’ll run 70 (so I can safely pass, thus cruise at 67-68/mph), and no tattletale devices (companies use against you). Xtra small company — private fleet — on dedicated lanes running out and then a backhaul to D/FW.

Thus — unlike last two medium fleets — I’m not bogged at 64-mph max, trapped running VA — PA — GA — OH, and back around circle again. “Okay”, you live in NC. Home isn’t far away. I live in Texas. Hard to get home on a specified date.

How does this relate to a CB Radio thread? Means I’ll be out- then in-bound on many of the same lanes. Ought to be able to start to learn locals names and habits. Maybe a few base stations on AM-19. 14-states.

Tomorrow I’m headed to Maryland. A receiver who contracts1-2/loads per week, and not far from one receiving 4-5/loads per week.

There’s a limit to how many alternate routes exist to a given point in a 1,400-mile run.

If nothing else, I’ll be sending wake-up calls. Looking forward to this aspect, greatly.

Farmer Brown, due to the de Soto bridge crack at West Memphis I’ll be running IH-20 to Birmingham then Knoxville versus thru Texarkana.

“Terrible” sacrifice (I’ll tell ya’), given how good is the boudin at the Shreveport PETRO. Or, a breakfast at the T/A in Tallulah, LA. Hmmm, and the T/A east of Meridian, MS on prime rib night.

OTOH, getting past Chattanooga is not fun.

.

 

[Crawdad]

No jakes?? That's no good. 8 speed?? Never had one of those. Beats hell out of automated, didn't like that at all.
Sounds like a pretty good dedicated gig. Ran dedicated for 8 years, never go back to blundering around the country and having to sometimes wait too damn long for the next load. Never knowing for certain when you'll get home.

Good looking KW. Hope it works for you.

That I-55 bridge @ Memphis must be taking a hell of a pounding, crossed it hundreds of times, usually heavy with Kool-aid. Was never my favorite.

Be safe out there.