Kenworth t600 cb

81 inch center or top load antenna works best on that truck.

Downloadfile by rabbiporkchop posted Feb 6, 2018 at 1:09 PM

antenna by rabbiporkchop posted Apr 5, 2015 at 7:09 PM

81 inch stainless steel and copper t-660 antenna by Jerry by rabbiporkchop posted Feb 13, 2012 at 2:56 AM

 

Ground, ground, ground! Providing the 29 meter is reading correctly the swr isn't bad. The KW's antenna mounts suck. Everything is powder coated which doesn't promote a good ground.

This is what I did on my t680 and my t880 this weekend. I use 1 antenna on the passenger side with 18' section of professional coax. While running the new coax I start by removing the antenna mount and removing the paint from the underside where the stud goes three the mount. The remove the paint where the 4 bolts attach to the mirror arm. Take the mirror off the truck remove the paint from the 2 bolt hole closest the the engine, and remove a little bit of the paint around the same holes on the truck body. You can also buy a 18" ground strap to run from 1 of the 4 bolt holes of the mount to 1 of the 2 bolt holes at the body. I use a dab of dielectric grease anywhere metal touches metal.

As for the antenna you should use a lease a 5' antenna. We tried 4 different antennas
1. Wilson 2000 swr 2.42
2. 5.5' Francis swr 1.28
3. Predator swr 1.32
4. 5' firestick tunable tip swr 1.03

You have to get away from the KW factory coax and antennas yo get the performance that you are looking for.

 

Your overall height restriction will be 162 inches. Your mounting bracket is 81 inches above-the-ground, which leaves you 81 inches to work with. For maximum performance you should get as close to that 81 inches as possible without going over your height restriction.

 

Is that a Hustler antenna in the pics?

 

You ran new coax to the factory mount on the T680?

 

Yes. From the radio to the passenger side mirror. Why?

 

Im in a 2019 T680 and was just curious how you routed the coax. Did you just follow the same routing location as the factory coax?

 

I was in a 2018 T680 for the past year and used 2 Firestick II 4 footers with better than average results ( nothing great) , the swr was 1.2 and Rx and Tx range was 5+ miles, and it was recommended by Robert at Clays to remove mounting plate and scrape the powder coating underneath, like you did, but I never got around to it. I just moved into this 2019 T680 and currently have two 4.5 foot Procomm Quad wound antennas and they seem to have slightly better range than the Firesticks and the swr is about 1.5, but I have a feeling I may be staying in this truck for a while so I would like to set up a good single antenna.

 

In all due fairness to the stock coax and mount on two occasions I was able to talk 15 miles to a base station in the 2018 T680, once from Calera Al to Pelham Al, and another time from Zephyrhills Fl to Plant City Fl , both times with a stock Uniden 68 LTD radio, granted this was to base stations that obviously had very efficient antennas at least 30' up ( Im guessing) but still all in all not that bad.