I'm moving into a Volvo Saturday the truck has dual factory fitted cheap fire sticks , now what I want to do is mount my own Antenna on the drivers mirror ,i was hoping I could of mounted a predator 10 k on a bird perch but the Volvo perch is just a single bar unlike the freightliner perch ,which is dual screwed into the mirror arm also the Volvo perch screws into the upper part of mirror arm and the Antenna mirror mount that fits on the bar won't take a big antenna maxinum 5 feet ,I like to work skip anyone who drives a Volvo or truck have any other recommendations on other open coil antennas or even somewhere else I could mount a predator 10 k .
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Mounting Antenna On Volvo Tractor
- Thread starter skip searcher
- Start date
Not an open coil but a wilson 2000 may not be too heavy for that perch mount. That multiplexer system a lot of the newer trucks have sucks imo. Had a lot of trouble with the one in my international before I bypassed it. Are there any horizontal grab bars on the back of the cab? Have seen guys mt antennas on those with good results. If you have a high air dam, as alot of volvos do, don't know if that would have any negative effect or not. Might be worth a try with that 10k.
73s
73s
First off, the Wilson 2000 that you would use on a truck mount in place of a Firestik is not a base loaded antenna, its a central loaded antenna. Wilson sells 5" and 10" shafts, and I have seen 18" and 22" shafts available, I know G. I, Joe's sells them...
Why, in your opinion, do you think the Firestik would outperform the Wilson?
The DB
Actually a wilson 2k is a mid load antenna with optional 5" to I believe 36" shaft, and performs very well on a semi imo. The factory dual antennas he talking about are most likely not firestcks, if they are factory they are 3ft pencil thin fiberglass whips, and provide signal for the cb, am fm stereo, cell phone etc etc, through a multiplexer box under the dash. This factory setup sucks. The factory sevice manual will tell you only replace with factory specified parts including the antennas. And not to run more than a 4 watt radio. I'm just guessing since he's dxing he would be running more than 4 watts. I don't blame him for wanting to upgrade his antenna, but Its hard to find a place to mount one when everything is covered with fiberglass. Not trying to start a debate over what's better, only suggested the wilson because its durable and lighter than predator 10k, and has served me well over the years
Please don't use mirror arms for mounting antennas, they're not that good. Far better to get a fixed body mount. Whilst a mirror mount may provide good DC conductivity it isn't always the case with RF and its the metal directly under the antenna that counts, not what is alongside it.
I had a simalar issue when I had my 06 T 2000. I ended up mounting the Predator on a 4' mast that I clamped to the back my headache rack. Worked good enough to work Birminghan UK from Pheonix AZ on LSB and 100 watts you can do the same thing off the grab bars on the catwalk.
None of these big trucks have metal bodies anymore, plus they have air-dams and that doesn’t leave a lot of options.
Here is a KW, but they are all similar.
I have been driving Volvo's off and on for years. In my opinion the best place for a antena is mount it to the back of the cab/sleeper on the pig tail bar. Run the best coax you can get to left and down through the passenger door up to your radio. Does not matter what type of trailer you pull.
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I know what you mean. Its still possible to do better than the mirror arms though.
Talking of trucks, this is who I drive for and what I'm currently driving. DAF CF with 45ft semi-trailer running at 44 tonnes/97,000lb, 460HP, 12 speed automatic gearbox and we get just short of 10MPG. Just about to renew the entire fleet because at 5 years old they've got a million kilometres on. Not bad when you think we're restricted to 90hrs driving a fortnight and the speed limiters are set to 56MPH.
