So I haven't had time yet to get the back rack done but I needed somewhere to mount my cb antenna so rather than make one, I bought one from friestik that would mount in the stake pocket and it was fairly cheap. Well once I received it and installed it I noticed that ranger bed sides aren't flat so my antenna was going up on about a 25-30* angle. I ran it for a few days and finally decided it was time to build my own.




Didn't think to get pictures of the build until after but it was pretty basic. Cut a 2"x3" piece of 3/16" plate for the main mount, and put some ends on it. I drilled the 1/2' hole in the middle for the stud and then ran 4 5/16" bolts down to a piece drilled and tapped on the underside of the bedside stake pocket. After I mocked it into place I made the sides out of cardboard and once they were perfect traced them and cut them out with some more plate.

Welded it all together with the mini mig, grinded all the welds and gave it some coats of paint and it doesn't look to bad and works pretty good.

So basically it's just 2 pieces, the top and the bottom. The bottom is just drilled and tapped and the top is just a wedge to put the antenna level.


This is the bottom, one side is longer than the other

Goes under the bedside

Antenna stud and my fire ring on the inside of the top

I put two bolts in to hold it


slide the long side in first and then pull it back so it has contact under both sides of the pocket


Put the other 2 bolts down and tighten everything up.

This is just my setup

 

Looks good man!

 

Looks good... great idea!

 

thanks guys. was more of a ranger innovation lol

 

Nice work!

 

Yea, nice work looks good.

 

That's about the only solution I can think of that doesn't somehow scratch/mar or otherwise damage your paint. I suppose that only goes for those with a bedliner of some kind though. Regardless, great idea!

 

Looks good. I like that bumper sticker lol.

 

i like that. can you take it apart and post pics of the pieces?

 

thanks everyone and ya I should be able to pull it apart and get some pictures for you today

 

Sorry forgot to get pictures this weekend I'll try and get them as soon as I can

 

new pictures added

 

Ken,
First Great Idea, looks good, like someone else said no body marking !
BUT sorry to be the A-Hole here but where is the ground.
Antennas do not work without a good body/frame ground.
The piece of metal clamping to the under side of the Bed Side is clamped on a painted surface, the top part of the mount is painted and mounted on bed liner, no grounding there.

What is your SWR reading ?

 

Your not being an A-hole at all its actually something that was giving me problems at first so I sanded the under side of the bed rail so that it is gorunded through the bolts to the unpainted bottom piece to the bed side and the bed has a grounding strap to the frame, and everywhere there is bare metal has dielectric grease to prevent rust. Right now the swr is about 2.0 so its not the greatest but it works pretty good for what I need it for. I'm not sure whether putting a grounding strap right to the mount to the frame would help it or if its worth just leaving it now

 

OK then thanks… not an A-Hole, that’s good to know.
Part of the problem with the SWR is reflected grounding area - 2 to 1 isn’t too bad if you have 50 watts but with a CB and 4 watts then only approximately 2 watts are getting out of the antenna.
The bed rail is small and can not do the job as well as a roof and when it does work the main transmission area will be off the passenger’s side of the truck.
You might try a separate ground strap, yes strap, from the mount to the frame, might help.

I had a problem with a 2-Meter Antenna mounted on a sports bar, high SWR, chg’d it to a magnet roof mount and all the troubles went away. Ground Plane area or reflected area is important.
I will be mounting my VHF/UHF Tri-Band Antenna on my back rack and will see where it goes same situation.

luck,

 

Hello here is a link to a mount for you
guys that don't have the skills to make
your own GeoTool Pickup Truck Antenna Mounts
I have 2 in my rear pockets one is so239 for
vhf ham antennas other is 3/8 24 for HF