RF shutting my truck down

[Eldorado828]

I remember hearing about this sort of thing circa 2005 when there were lots of BIG radios amongst the trucking community. Sadly those "real" old school drivers have mostly retired out bringing in a whole new swarm of steering wheel holders but that's a whole other conversation there.

Anyhow, around that time the big ranger made Galaxy 98vhp, connex 4300-300 and other similar rigs were fairly new to the market and I recall many drivers cooking the ecm's in their trucks. Now I don't know their full stories but it was a common conversation on the interstate.

Either drivers learned and remedied the issue or just not as many hard core cb drivers on the road nowadays but I believe it's the latter.

I once ran the 98vhp in a 04 kenworth with no issue but remember feeling uneasy about it after hearing the stories. Was it rf grounding issue, stray rf..... maybe bad antenna system all together?? I don't know and don't want to deal with a cooked ecm.

 

[Slowmover]

I remember hearing about this sort of thing circa 2005 when there were lots of BIG radios amongst the trucking community. Sadly those "real" old school drivers have mostly retired out bringing in a whole new swarm of steering wheel holders but that's a whole other conversation there.

Anyhow, around that time the big ranger made Galaxy 98vhp, connex 4300-300 and other similar rigs were fairly new to the market and I recall many drivers cooking the ecm's in their trucks. Now I don't know their full stories but it was a common conversation on the interstate.

Either drivers learned and remedied the issue or just not as many hard core cb drivers on the road nowadays but I believe it's the latter.

I once ran the 98vhp in a 04 kenworth with no issue but remember feeling uneasy about it after hearing the stories. Was it rf grounding issue, stray rf..... maybe bad antenna system all together?? I don't know and don't want to deal with a cooked ecm.

My feeling then and now is that it was sub-standard wire gauge, assembly & routing.

Done right, the power cable (complete) will be from $100-$200 when correct in all aspects.

20A draw, and up (6-AWG; 4 is even more likely)

I’ve had them get over $200 following USCG guidelines. (40A at 32’)

NO ONE wants to spend big on power cables. So, they don’t. (Wrong in every specification).

I believe the truck manufacturers are today better in this.

This may not be the whole answer, but I’d bet it would have “fixed” most of those stories.

.

 

[codeman]

YEARS ago I ran team from Texas to California. When we had time kill,we would fire up the radio with my co drivers amp and radio. We got paid by the miles back then. I don't recall the amp but the radio was a cobra 29. Anyway we would sit there at night talking smack drinking a few cold ones watching the odometer spin, getting us a few more miles
This was back in the mid 90's before cell phones were cheap, so cb radio was alive and well at the truckstops. No telling how many miles we got sitting still. hahaha
Goodtimes!!

Nowadays, in the the semi I run my old Uniden "president" Grant with a RM 203. It does the job and I don't worry about frying the computer.

 

[jessejamesdallas]

Timing sensor? Do you mean the crankshaft position sensor or even camshaft position sensor? Another problem with the GM's is the battery connections, they get corroded between the two connectors on the positive side, and then they seem to loosen themselves after a while.

actually it was the crankshaft sensor...Autozone guy called it a Timing sensor...just seen this post pop back up from the dead, so had to clear up the sensor thing...That was the problem tho...least at that time!

 

[Slowmover]

actually it was the crankshaft sensor...Autozone guy called it a Timing sensor...just seen this post pop back up from the dead, so had to clear up the sensor thing...That was the problem tho...least at that time!

Thx for update

I bumped thread as the subject seems to get potentially worse (RF Interference with Vehicle) due to passenger compartment devices.

Is the way I’m reading things.