lkennamer

Just bought a cb radio with a pa out put and am buying a speaker tomorrow. I plan to mount the CB on my dash in the center lowered portion of it then somehow run the antenna back to the top of my toolbox and then mount the speaker in the bumper.

will anyone give me some guidance on this please ive never wired anything before. Thanks yall!

zx14_rider

I've never run a PA so I'll pass on that..

Run the power and ground for the CB thru the firewall and connect both to the battery this will help isolate the CB from the trucks computer and electronics and provide "cleaner" power for the radio..

Your coax for the antenna can be run under the carpet or under the door sills if you want it hidden your choice....I ran mine under the door sills and behind the rear seat and out what looks like a vent in the back wall to my antenna which is on the tool box as well.....Do a search for rear seat removal if you go that route..

I would get 18 feet of coax, I use Beldon with Amphenol connectors...your choice on that one also..



Back wall w/seat part way removed for coax..



Passenger side firewall for CB power and ground wires..There is a big rubber grommet looking thing that I went thru..

zx14_rider

The PA should just plug into a jack on the back of the radio I would guess..

Jammit

ZX is spot on above - the vent behind the seat, and then a hole drilled in the oval grommet at the front of the bed is the way to get coax to the toolbox. I routed my coax thru the headliner (careful of the airbags, and you're going to need a fish tape to do it that way), but in your configuration, down through the tray, under the door sills will work great. you can get your glovebox to swing all the way down by pushing the sides in, giving you good access to the coax to get it to the sill plates.

Run your PA cord the same way up thru the tray, just like you do the power, through the grommet nipple behind the glovebox - you'll need to fish it from the engine bay side. When you have the passenger door open, there's a triangle trim piece on the dash with a hole in it - it pops out easily (pull back the door rubber) and makes fishing thru the grommet a TON easier.

Make sure to ground your toolbox to the bed with a short braid. You would be wise to ground the bed to the frame as well, also with braided wire.

You've GOT to fuse your power at the battery end AND the radio end. Fuse both + and - is the best plan, and use good heavy power cables. Don't think you can get by with an add-a-fuse at the panel - you'll get too much alternator noise and a crappy ground - that is NOT really any easier than going to the battery via the nipple grommet either.

LSULariat

Lol. When I saw the rear seat I was thinking screw, but I couldn't get my mind wrapped around the door hinge. Kept trying to figure out how you installed suicide doors. After wrestling with my mind, I finally figured it out. Lol. Man, I'm exhausted. Haha.

lkennamer

[QUOTE="Jammit"]ZX is spot on above - the vent behind the seat, and then a hole drilled in the oval grommet at the front of the bed is the way to get coax to the toolbox. I routed my coax thru the headliner (careful of the airbags, and you're going to need a fish tape to do it that way), but in your configuration, down through the tray, under the door sills will work great. you can get your glovebox to swing all the way down by pushing the sides in, giving you good access to the coax to get it to the sill plates.

Run your PA cord the same way up thru the tray, just like you do the power, through the grommet nipple behind the glovebox - you'll need to fish it from the engine bay side. When you have the passenger door open, there's a triangle trim piece on the dash with a hole in it - it pops out easily (pull back the door rubber) and makes fishing thru the grommet a TON easier.

Make sure to ground your toolbox to the bed%2

lkennamer

Sorry iphone messed up on first quote attempt but how would i ground the toolbox to the bed ? And how do i ground the bed to the chasis? And if i hook the CB and PA up to the battery instead of through the fuse box like your saying wont it drain my battery overtime?? Sorry for all the questions man ima noob with wiring and electronics haha

lkennamer

Thanks for all the help man! How do i run wires under the carpet?

Jammit

PA just is a 1/8 plug into the back of most cb's - like your home stereo, the speaker isn't powered itself, just gets it's power from the CB ~4 watts.

Re: draining battery - i guess if you left it on for a week or 2 without starting the truck, you might drain the battery, but in receive mode, a CB doesn't pull much wattage - probably around 0.3A, like it does when you're transmitting closer to 1.5A. At that current drain, you're looking at something like 7 or 8 days to drain out your battery. Just turn the thing off when you get out of the truck, and if you happen to forget one night, don't stress about it. If you're really anxious about draining the battery, get one of these http://www.powerwerx.com/fuses-circu...ff-switch.html

A LOT of people do a LOT of stupid things trying to get ignition switched radio power thinking it's either 1: convenient or 2: protecting against dead batteries. It's usually neither, and usually introduces noise, shorts, grounding problems, overheating wires creating fire hazards, etc. The best answer IMO is power directly to the battery, and shut off the radio when you shut off the truck, or use the powerwerx solution above.

This guy will teach you more than you need to know about mobile radio installs, and grounding/bonding http://www.k0bg.com/ What bonding does is makes your antenna work better, and reduces noise introduced into the radio's receive. If you're doing a mag mount antenna, this is less important, but since most toolboxes are aluminum, the likelihood is that you're not doing a magmount.

If you want the cliff's notes version of bonding your toolbox in this application, do this: Take some braided wire, or at the very least 12 gauge solid wire, and making it as short as possible, attach to your toolbox body and connect the other end to the bed rail. Use another to connect the lid of your toolbox to the body of the toolbox if you're mounting to the lid portion. Use a Star washer at a minimum at each connection. Similarly, you might want to bond your bed to the frame the same way, just leave a bit of slack since the bed moves around....try just the box first and see how that works out.

Jammit

Don't - door sills are much easier.