Comments By ironmike

Hey CJ, It sounds to me that your new radio is fine but it's the antenna that is junk. Those built in the frame antennas that come in the Freightliner are not very good at all for "getting out", "talking", or transmitting. The built in the frame antennas will sort of "hear" or receive ok and are better than nothing. You can hear "skip" or distant signals in the late morning and in the early afternoon but they just won't transmit more than 300 or 400 yards. You can use this to talk in a truck stop or to the shipper while parked closeby inside the facility. But if an Eastbound driver passes you and you are Westbound, you guys have about 10 seconds to communicate...which is not long enough. I recommend you get a good antenna mount and antenna and mount it outside, run the coax in to your radio, put an SWR meter on it to get it matched. I like the 4 foot length antennas. There are many to choose from. The actual mount must be in contact with the trucks ground because the trucks frame/ground is actually the second half of the antenna. The whip is only the first half. You can have a CB shop check the SWR for you and it shouldn't cost you much more than $20.00 or so. You could also have the CB shop bench test and check your radio just to make sure it is good. Or you could have the CB shop do the whole deal. For the Freightliner, Loves sells a 2 bolt mount for $29.99 that uses 2 of the mirror mount bolts to hold it secure. I took some pics of these here and there and I just need to get the pics posted. Good luck and drive safe...keep the Shiney side up. We gone bye bye. .

As long as you do it all, you are ok. No specific order is required by law. If you are asking about what order you will be required to perform these tests at the DMV for your class A licensing examinations, then I can tell you that in California, the applicant is required in most cases to begin by performing the air brakes tests. Next the pre trip inspection, beginning with the in cab and moving outside to the out front, under the hood, then the walk around. After this is performed, you get to do the driving and the skills tests. Best of luck to you. I hope this helps.

Good Morning Cjoanz,,,, I just thought I would give my thoughts on the cb situation there. I had the same antenna and the same problem in my 2014 freightliner cascadia. It used to frustrate me when I was headed West and an Eastbound driver would see me and ask me how Weather conditions were behind me. I calculated we could talk maybe 15 seconds and then it was all over. That antenna can hear in the listening mode much better than it can talk or transmit out. I would agree with Scott L. aka lawdog and say your best bet is to just be happy listening or else go and invest in one of those mounts for about $30.00 that use 2 of the cascadia mirror mounting bolt holes to hold it and then mount a real cb antenna to it. I also saw a one screw hole stud mount that just uses one of the mirror screws. Of course put the swr meter on it and check the match when you get it all in and done.... If you were to take and get a high power radio and run power into the stock cascadia antenna you'd run the risk of burning something up like the nice high power radio. I started thinking on how to remedy this problem a while back and I began taking photos of other cascadias and the antenna mounts. I will see if I can get a pic of the mount into this site.

Hahaha, it wasn't you he quoted Iron Mike. :-)

Ok. Lol. Thanks Sue.

Honestly, I wouldn't be all that worried about it right away. The majority of your radios will give you plenty of range to get traffic alerts and such. The biggest factor right off the bat is having good antennas and get them dialed in properly (owners manual should explain it) my Uniden did it with a push of a button and many newer radios do as well.

If you're that concerned with doing it, research a good reputable shop that actually does an upgrade and doesn't just snatch a filter or resistor off the board and tell you they peaked the radio. It will sound louder and does increase the power some but it spreads it across more channels so in reality it actually loses power. It will probably run $75-$100 to have it tuned up properly.

Dint listen to this fellow, he obviously has no clue about CB radios. Out of the box, a CB generally produces 4 watts of output (1 or 2 mIles of range). Peaked and tuned, you'll put out upwards of 35 watts (7-10 miles of range). 50 to 100 bucks for the package. P.S. don't run your antenna like a Lance as some of the morons do. You want to have it pointed forward just enough so's to have the whip stand straight up as you drive into the wind.

Who are you saying to not listen to? I assume dint was suposed to be dont?

How much do cb shops charge to get your radio dialed in?

Radio has been a hobby of mine since I was a kid hauling a barbie doll in my tonka truck for the girl next door....

There are 3 parts to a CB radio set up. The radio. The antenna and feedline, and the truck which is half of the antenna system. Every truck is different and every antenna is different. A good CB shop technician knows this and will match you up with the proper antenna for your truck. Yeah, you can through anything on there and it will work or you could get lucky. But if you want maximum performance and efficiency, more is needed. I noticed the 2014 and the 2015 Freightliner cascadias use an internal hidden antenna which some appear to double as the trucks AM radio antenna. These antennas are junk. Can talk maybe a quarter mile, but work on receive ok. So if you are Northbound at 65 mph and a Southbound driver sees you as he approaches or is passing you and asks you how the weather is behind you, you may have 15 seconds to talk to him.

The previous quotes on prices are close and good but each shop is different. If a technician needed to pull coax through the truck this would be some labor and more to pay. If there is no power at the power leads then the technician needs to trouble shoot and see if its a blown fuse or cut lines and fix that problem. The final matching of the antenna SWR(standing wave ratio) involves trimming the antenna to get the optimum performance and this assumes the antenna likes the truck and is close to begin with. A good technician will use a quality analyzer such as the MFJ 259B which will read several properties of the antenna system such as impedance, inductance, and SWR. This way you will be talkin LOUD AND PROUD as you motor down the road. There are other things you can do such as using a matching device to protect the radio or an antenna tuner as they are called. This is more money.

Ya All keep it between the ditches out there and drive safe. This here is iron mike and we're gone...bye bye.

Hey there Jarod, I was shut down in well below zero once in Montana. I was a little worried about the motor and the air lines freezing while I slept. I called a night time dm and he said to try just releasing the tractor break but of course keep the trailer break applied so you won't roll away. I guess this makes the truck think it is going to move and drive because in this particular 2012 Cascadia it worked great and it idled as long as I wanted it to. In calling I was covering myself by getting permission to idle documented that way I believe it didn't go on my percent idle so as not to get dinged for it later. By the way, the bunk heaters work great... Mike

Shirley, if you can drive a super ten then you can drive a regular ten speed and probably any thing else there is. But the 5 speed mustang and the truck are completely different. I learned on a super ten and when I got in a 9 speed, a 13 speed and an 18 speed they were both a cinch and really easier than the super ten.