CB Installation in my 2015 Vista 27N

[maryinreddin]

We ended up getting a Fire Stik antennae and are all set now. We were able to tune it in our driveway with the help of a tuner gadget that hubby bought.

[rgvtexan]

Anyone have any luck using the Factory installed CB Ant.? I have not bothered to try it.

[ziaptrn]

Hi -
The CB antenna on our previous Monaco was abysmal, and I replaced it with a FireStik No Ground Plan antenna, which worked well.
On our recently-new-to-us Vectra, the factory antenna works better than the FireStik did on the old rig.
Happy to report that it works well and even better than the 'new' antenna on the previous rig.

[rgvtexan]

Originally Posted by ziaptrn

Hi -
The CB antenna on our previous Monaco was abysmal, and I replaced it with a FireStik No Ground Plan antenna, which worked well.
On our recently-new-to-us Vectra, the factory antenna works better than the FireStik did on the old rig.
Happy to report that it works well and even better than the 'new' antenna on the previous rig.

Thanks

I will get it hooked p before we hit the road in the spring.

[Dives2little]

My 2016 Ellipse has dedicated CB power near the steering column. No antenna connections, however.

[Jos 56]

Originally Posted by Rick FLA

The big question is it worth having a CB. Most people I have talked to say no they never use it. Would be inturested in your experience . Thinking about just using one of the portable ones.

I have come across roads on crown land where loggers or construction workers tune in to a certain CB channel and call out the mile posts (or kilometres) so that everyone slows down for a meet. Apart from that, maybe for finding out why traffic is backed up or for emergencies to let people know that I am changing a tire, but in a real emergency I'd probably resort to a Garmin inReach.

[HollywoodGT]

This is an old post but I wonder what year they started? I also wonder if the coax is there also. I think there are many times having a CB would be useful

[Morich]

Originally Posted by HollywoodGT

This is an old post but I wonder what year they started? I also wonder if the coax is there also. I think there are many times having a CB would be useful

I've not thought CB in a very long time but at one time did work the radio shop!!
Reading back through this old post, I'm guessing most folks who were having trouble had no idea of tuning the antenna and what getting the ground plane right meant.

Mostly old forgotten techie stuff but the antenna is called a 1/4 wave length and using the length of the antenna as 1/4 and the ground plain as another part, if remembered from years back and fully admiting to not planning to ever need that again! So if using this type antenna and not cutting the whip to right length or connecting to ground correctly, the radio is way off the correct frequency! Many were designed to screw in the metal roof of cars/trucks to get solid metal connections so doing it in a fiberglass Rv may be their problem?
Stuff to check which is long out of my field!
This info from post above?
https://www.rightchannelradios.com/b...g-instructions

But looking at drawings for your RV, I might be more help there?
This drawing might fit fo ryou and have good info on antenna on page 6?
https://www.winnebago.com/Files/File...ire_166025.pdf

I did a snip and marked up some items I thought might help. Click the drawing or go direct for best view and maybe it fits for your RV??

Throwing in the info and you can throw it out if totally wrong!

[armullis59]

I installed a Cobra 29LX and a Firestik NGP antenna. The radio had an SWR meter and I tuned the Firestik in 10 mins!

[Chaffeekid]

I used the cb wiring to install a 144/70 cm ham set and used the cb antenna cable, on the roof I removed the cb antenna and modified the mount a little and mounted a short 2 meter/ 70 cm antenna on it works great.

Don’t listen to CB since I hung up my semi keys

N0LZS

[liveaboard74]

Originally Posted by JUS1MO

My Brother in Law is a long distance trucker for Wal-Mart and has a CB in his truck for emergencies only. He says he does not turn it on most of the time because of the raunchy conversations and foul language most people on the radio are carrying on. I don't have a CB so I can't testify to that, just FYI...

Tabor City boy here so grew up close to you.


Guys if you want to hook it up for fun its cool just get one with the weather channel on it so it will have some value. . Just retired 8 million miles last 20 years never turned it on unless I run up on a traffic jam and wanted to hear if some of the locals knew a way around it.

If your running with some buddies hauling a toy behind you and every agrees to add one to their rig it might be fun but there is almost Zero talk on channel 19 any more.
Always a choice but I had enough of that toy the last 35 years.

[jayelldouble]

8 million miles in 20 years? 400k miles per year? Over 1,000 miles per day?

[Morich]

Maybe that's just kind of random guessing?
I would guess that once past that first million the rest are pretty much a blur anyway. Once you have been scared a hundred times, the rest gets easier to forget!

[liveaboard74]

Originally Posted by jayelldouble

8 million miles in 20 years? 400k miles per year? Over 1,000 miles per day?

You read it wrong. I"d "SURE NUFF" be a super trucker with that. Have not turn the CB on the last twenty years.
Put my first load from east coast to west coast in 1979 Company called Carolina western out of Clover SC. Ran double. 48 hour east coast west coast delivery.
Run husband and wife team Carolina to North West for 14 years. Yakami Washington return trip. 4 trips a month two trips week off in the middle two more trips. Take 2.75 days to get across the top side running double. left Yuma AZ hit the dock in Norfolk VA 43.75 hours. That was my claim to fame run.
Retired year before last hauling cars out of Chicago but just worked up there been by the Outer banks for 23 years now worked for United Road. Been car hauling since 1998.
Went back to work Sept for something to do local around the house picking up seafood .
Trucking industary has taken a hit just like most businesses . They can't find help. I was going to work part time , part time moved to needing me more back 5 days a week but home every night. After traveling all my life it still feels like I'm not working nicest folks you ever imagend working for. . Best part ,, I get seafood at cost.
Got to work those little necessities in while the planning stage is going on.

Back in the 70s we had fun on the CBs 80s came, more fighting and nasty talk than most of us could handle. By the 90s CBs populatity had taken a hit.
Hauing cars with a day cab stayed in Hotels every night. Rolled my suit case in there like a boss.
66 years young. 43 years OTR after last year being off. Still wide open with a lot of hobbies now back to driving full time. O ya,, one of two 18 wheeler drivers at Nixon. Other guy is 78 still in the game.
Get to make a joke about it as much as I love fishing and I moved where I am now for the fishing and a country boy its fitting I get to drive a truck with a catfish on the side.

[liveaboard74]

Got a update. There was a old CB in the truck in the back sleeper owner said it didn't work. Ask him if I could take it home work on it. He said yes.
All that was wrong was the mike wire was broke.
This one has the weather channels on it so what the heck I ordered a skip shooter antenna, mounted it added this to the RV.
It has the built in SWR Cal and set where you can check the SRW using the radio. Will a little cutting of the antenna got it down to 1.1
Never thought I could mess with this on the RV but hard to turn down a high end Cobra for free.

Used a one inch starboard same size as the mount to drop the mount down where I could tilt it down more once mounting the radio to see it better.
Is there where I get to say old truckers never die.

[Ray,IN]

Originally Posted by maryinreddin

My hubby found out that our rv had a hook up for a cb. He bought a nice radio and hooked it up but cannot get the channels to work. He thinks it might be the antenna. Is there a way to tune in the antenna? We have looked on the internet and most say you have to go out into a field away from everything to do this. Is that true???

Yes, if you have the factory-supplied CB antenna on the roof if has a tuning ring on the base to adjust SWR/standing wavee. Mine was covered up with dicor sealant at the factory though.

[Ray,IN]

I only answered part of your questions, sorry.
The antenna must be away from metal buildings and outside of any building when matching the radio and antenna, otherwise the reflected wave will bounce back off the building and overload the antenna.

[Ted Fyden]

I HAVE THE 2017 VISTA lx 27N. wanna add a cb. did you have to do something to the mic and speakers to work together?

[creativepart]

HEADS UP... this is a 6-year old thread. So, the original poster first started this thread in 2017 and he is not currently active on the forum - nor has he been for 3-years.

I mention this so that people that just discovered this thread today after it was resurrected by another poster to not to expect to ask the OP a question and see a response from them.

[staggerlee]

Your BIL is right, it does get pretty nasty when you near a city. Across the open road it is pretty normal to listen there.