In , RobertK
wrote:
hi,
after some soul-searching, i'm seriously inching towards hard-mounting a
long whip on the top of my car. does anybody out there know of any
relatively foolproof -- and definitely leakproof! -- procedure for
intalling a roof mount? i'm considering one of those ball mounts, so
that i can easily adjust the whip angle.
i should mention that i do have a luggage rack, so i could always attach
to that. i am a bit cocerned, though, that the stresses placed by a
'whipping' 102" whip on a luggage rack might be too much for it. any
thoughts on this?
thanks much!
thor
You are going to be hitting a lot of bridges and trees if you put a 102" whip on
the roof. You might consider using two antennas -- a shorter one for the road
and the 102" for when you are parked. If you think you will be swapping antennas
frequently, you can get quick-disconnects that will fit the standard 3/8-24 base
thread.
I would recommend mounting it in the center of the roof without a ball-mount. If
you are going to use a ball-mount anyway, it might be better to mount it on the
side of the body or the bumper. Above all, avoid the cheap ball-mounts. They
frequently slip, and when they do you will end up driving a screw inbetween the
two pieces just to keep the whip off the ground.
As for waterproofing, the large rubber gasket and teflon/poly insulators that
come with the mounts do a pretty good job of sealing out the water. The stud and
antenna should also have rubber/teflon/poly O-rings to keep water out of the
threads. If you are really concerned (or if you live in Seattle) you can take
the mount apart every couple months or so and check for condensation and
corrosion.
A couple tips: sand away the paint for an inch or so around the hole (on the
inside of the vehicle), then clean the bare metal with a good solvent so you get
a good ground connection. Also, I have noticed that many newer vehicles don't
have very thick metal up top, so sometimes I add a sheet of steel or aluminum to
stiffen things up.
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