Rugged Ridge CB Radio and Antenna Mounting Kit Write-Up

[WxNerd2015]

As promised, here is a more detailed write up on the installation of the Rugged Ridge CB Radio and Antenna Mounting Kit, as well as the radio and antenna themselves, with pictures.

So this was, in fact, the first modification to my Jeep. I had a CB from my truck as well as 2 antennas lying around, and I loved having the radio in my truck, plus, I just think it is cool! So this was a must for me to get into my Jeep, and besides, I had almost everything that I needed just laying around anyways! So I went on eBay and from this CB installation kit, with antenna mount and radio mount all in one, for around $40, which isn't too bad and I was happy to spend!

Jeep Wrangler JK 07 14 New CB Radio Antenna Mount Kit 11503 96 | eBay



This kit that I purchased was something like that above! So the kit came within a few days, and the installation was done on the following weekend! Total install time was probably around 3-4 hours of actually working and figuring out how and wear to run the actual wires for the entire system, not counting any parts runs to the store, but it was installed within an afternoon!

Installation:

1. Since the kit only comes, as you can see, with the brackets, you will need to still get all the wires and connections needed for the antenna and a power source for the radio. Now I had already had my radio installed, so I had had most of these to begin with. So I disassembled my previous antenna mount to harvest the antenna connection to install on the tailgate mount. This is what the mount for my truck looked like:



This was fairly simple as it was just unscrewing the connector on the top (which is the left side in the picture, and the wire attached on the bottom (the black wire attached) and all the hardware you need just slides out of the whole and you are goo to go to install it into your new Tailgate mount.

2. Just repeat the steps from my removal in reverse order to reinstall. Therefore, Line the bottom connection (the black wire) up directly beneath the opening in which you want the antenna to be.

***Make sure it is centered as the whole is not a tight fit so a perfectly centered install will make it much more secured and stable, and in my opinoin, I just like to do it right!***

3. Once lined up, insert the washer and the connector on the top of the mounting bracket and thread into the black antenna wire's connector that you have lined up beneath the hole on the mount.

4. Go ahead and tighten your connector down until your are confident it is tight and feel secure with the connection.

5. Go ahead and remove you spare tire from the tailgate.

6. Once the spare is removed, go ahead and remove the the upper passenger side bolts (there should be 2) which hold the spare tire carrier to the tailgate. Here is the location which can be seen by where the mount is located:



7. Once those bolts are removed, discard the bolts as the kit provides new longer bolts to account for the mount being on the tailgate.

***Side note, when I installed my tailgate mount, I had to redo steps 2-4 as I originally placed the antenna in the outer whole, but when I reinstalled the spare tire, I found that the mount was actually slightly inside the rim. And having the stiffer fiberglass Firestick antenna, i could not really bend the antenna to get it in the mount and tighten it correctly. So I ended up having to move the antenna mount to the inside mounting location which then allowed for just enough clearance for the antenna to thread properly into the hole and not be bent***

8. Hold the bracket in place and insert your new longer bolts with washers back into the same holes that your pulled the old bolts out of and tighten down your bolts. Make sure both are threaded correctly (not cross threaded or not all the way in the whole, etc.) and are properly tighten as the spare tire mount is pretty important and is also supporting a good amount of weight, so you want to make sure that all is properly secured. Mine looked like this once on:



9. Next step is to decide where you want to run your wire for the antenna into the Jeep. There are many different ways, as the tailgate has built in rubber grommets that you could go through, or follow the wires for the middle brake light, or make your own location, or just run them over the top edge of the tailgate and let the edge of the rear window or tailgate bar seal it off. The method that I chose that suited my needs and made the easiest installation was to run through one of the slots in the tailgate vent directly inside/behind the center of the tire carrier. I just lifted up one of the flaps and feed the coax cable through into the inside of the tailgate.



***Side note, I chose this location because when running through the tailgate, there are multiple layers of sheet metal, it is not just going through the front and coming through the back to the inside. The location that I selected was the most bottom, driver hand side vent opening as this was the closest to where the opening on the backside of the tailgate was for the wires running to the 3rd brake light. This allowed me to reach in from the opening in the inside of the tailgate much easier and find the wire to pull through, without too much of a hassle or struggle. Now I am not saying that this is the best location to run the coax for the antenna, but IMO, it was the simplest and easiest to do and it has been installed for almost a year and a half that way and been off roading and storm chasing and all that and have no issues whatsoever.***

10. Once you have Coax antenna cable fed into the inside of the tailgate, remove the black plastic cover on the inside of the tailgate that runs the width of the tailgate. This is just snapped into the tailgate, no hardware involved. Just carefully pry it off and it will pop off. This will give you access to the innards of the tailgate where the Coax is currently sitting through the same hole that the 3rd brake light wiring is going.



11. With the cover removed, reach into the hold which will be to the further right side in the picture above under the cover and find where your coax cable is sitting in there and pull the coax all the way through the tailgate until there is just a very slight pit of slack left outside. (Just enough so that the wire outside is not hanging there, but nothing is pinched or bent or pulling)

12. Go ahead and install your antenna into the antenna mount. Make sure that it threads in straight, and depending on your preference, tighten. Personally for me, I park my Jeep in a garage so I take the antenna off to go in the garage so I typically on hand tighten, which is plenty tight to hold the antenna securely. But if you would prefer, or the antenna is staying on there permanently, go ahead and once hand tightened, go ahead and give a few twists with a wrench. Then that antenna is not going anywhere!

13. Lastly, to finish off the outside work on the vehicle, go ahead and reinstall your spare tire onto the mount and tighten it down securely.

14. Once the outside is all buttoned up, you will need to run the coax cable inside the vehicle. Line up the coax with the 3rd brake light wiring and zip tie the cable to the wiring across the entire tailgate.

15. Reinstall the black plastic cover over both wires making sure that none are caught or pinched as you snap the cover back into place.

16. Once the tailgate is all buttoned up, you need to decide how the wire will go into the vehicle. Since I had already run the coax cable along the pre-existing wiring, I chose to just continue following that path into the vehicle. I removed the plastic trim in the truck area in the passenger side which gave me access to slight the cable in the existing tailgate catch location where the strap to stop the tailgate and the wiring for the 3rd brake light is run.

 

[WxNerd2015]

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17. Follow the existing wire exactly, and zip tie the coax to the wiring. What I mean by follow exactly is, the tailgate is a hinged and moving part on the Jeep, therefore you must leave some slack in the wiring so that it can flex when the tailgate is opened. Therefore, if you follow the existing wiring and leave the same amount of slack, zip tied to the wire, then you will have no issue with the flex when the tailgate is opened.



18. Once you have the coax zip tied up, you have to decide where to run the coax up to the front of the Jeep where the radio will be. Since I already ran the coax into the passenger side of the Jeep, I really just had two options. One, run the coax along the existing wiring along the floor (which requires a bit more working with pulling back of carpet and fishing wire), or two running up behind the trunk panel which I already had removed, up to the roll bar (as the radio will be at that height anyways). So I opted for the second option and ran the coax up inside the panel and up to the roll bar, and then reinstalled the trunk trim panel. Here is what that looked like buttoned back up with the coax sticking out the top:





19. Then, probably the easiest part, I unzipped all the roll bar padding on the passenger side and ran the wire along the roll bar, and then zipped all the padding back up.

20. Now you have the coax to the top edge of the windshield on the passenger side, so the next step is to remove some of the trim pieces along the windshield.



21. First, remove the two bolts holding in the passenger side sun visor on.

22. Next remove the bolt holding the upper passenger side trim corner on.

23. Remove the upper trim panel on the passenger side and then loosen the plastic trim that runs across the width of the upper part of the windshield. This panel is just held by clips, no other hardware. Loosen this panel by pulling gently at each of the clips to release them. Be extremely careful not to break a clip or crack or bend the plastic trim (it’s plastic, it’s not hard to break).

24. Once you have this trim piece loosened, find the center footmans loop and remove the two screws holding the footmans loop there, but hold the footmans loop in place where it is.



25. Grab the CB radio mount and line the end up with the holds that match the holds of the footmans loop.

26. Replace the screws through the bracket and the footmans loop and tighten back down. The mount should now look something like this, with the part sticking out from the windshield being the mount and the horizontal piece is the bracket that comes with the radio:

 

[WxNerd2015]

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27. Now, its time to test fit your CB radio on the mount. Attach the U bracket that came with the radio to the radio.

28. Go ahead and place the U bracket over the bracket and figure out where the radio will mount best on the mount.

***When test fitting the radio, make sure that you have clearance for the radio in respect to being able to see out the rearview mirror still, as well as clearance between the sun visors (depending on the width or your radio), and being able to get the coax cable plugged into the rear of the radio too. Don’t forget to leave space for the mic if you want to hang it off the side of the radio too!***

***For me, the radio had to be installed offset to the right, meaning the bracket was only holding the left side of the U bracket. This Cobra radio just barely fits wit the mic attached between the visors, but it does actually fit.***

29. The CB mount bracket has a bunch of pre-drilled holes for mounting for many different kinds of radios, so line up the holes on the U bracket to the pre-drilled holes and attach screw(s) and washer(s) to both brackets and tighten.

***For my install, I did not feel secure with only 1 single screw holding the radio, as well as one caused the radio to pivot when I did not want it to. So I ended up drilling my own mounting holes in the U bracket that lined up with the mounting bracket and fastened down***







30. Go ahead and grab the coax cable again and run it inside the plastic trim at the top of the windshield and run it until the middle footmans loop and then bring it out through there.

***I chose to bring it through the footmans loop location because I did not want to cut any trim pieces and that was the only place it fit to come through.***



31. Go ahead and connect the coax to your radio now.



32. Then grab the power cord and run it back through the upper trim piece the same way that you just ran the coax cable, just the opposite direction.



33. When you get to the passenger corner of the windshield, instead of going over to the roll bar, run the power cord down through the A pillar and into the side of the passenger side of the dashboard.

34. At this point, go ahead and reassemble the upper trim pieces above the windshield, the corner containment piece, and the passenger side sun visor.

 

[WxNerd2015]

(continued)

35. Now is the time to decide how to connect the radio to power. You could wire the radio directly to the battery, you could wire the power to a 12V outlet or other power source, etc. Many different ways to attach. My choice was to attach a 12V outlet plug to the power cord.

***My 12V plug also has a power switch on the end of it as well***

36. With a way to power the radio now settled, I then ran the power cord under the passenger side of the dash, and to the center. Then brought the cord back out of the dash right below the bungee pouch on the lower center piece of the dash.

This is the wire tucked up under the dash and over to the center dash trim piece.
This is a shot up under the passenger side glove box. The thinner black wire on the left which is getting tucked up into the trim is the power cord.
The Cord coming through the center dashboard.

37. Then, plug in the power cord into the 12V outlet plug.



38. With the 12V plug that I used, you have to make sure the ignition power is on, then flip the power switch on, and then go ahead a turn the radio on!








There ya have it! CB radio and antenna installed and ready to use! Let me know any question you may have and I will answer to the best of my ability, otherwise, I hope I answered some questions and provided some help!