Are CB Radios Actually Useful In 2023?

I've been driving solo for 5 months and haven't bought a CB radio. During the 2 months I was with a trainer, I pretty much just heard a bunch of garage over his CB radio. Is a CB radio actually worth buying now?

Simple answer, yes.

People will spend up to 7-800 on a GPS that will still get them lost but don't want to pony up $100 on a radio that can potentially save their life.

I actually spent $1K on my GPS, but how can a CB save your life when you can just use a phone? Please explain yourselves if your for CB radios.

Simple answer, yes.

People will spend up to 7-800 on a GPS that will still get them lost but don't want to pony up $100 on a radio that can potentially save their life.

Because a driver on the radio can warn you of potential dangerous situations you can't see ahead. A driver on a radio can give you local directions to a location that your GPS can't find or get you through construction it doesn't pick up on. A driver on a radio can give you real time road conditions, closures and good stopping locations in inclement weather. They aren't the be all end all and yes, there's plenty of crap on there in the bigger cities but it is an important tool.

Many of your massive pileup videos that you see every winter could have been avoided had drivers used a radio, slowed down and taken their feet off the dashboard.

If a driver wants or needs to know what is going on in the general vicinity of his location, a phone won’t do the job. But if I can get on the CB, I can contact another trucker up ahead to get information that may be critical.

A CB is another tool that you may not need on a frequent basis but will be glad it’s there when needed. I carry a cordless drill. Hardly ever need it, but once and awhile I do have a need for it and I’m glad it’s there.

Now that you mention that, I will get one before winter to see if it's useful. And which price range provides adequate utility and durability?

Many of your massive pileup videos that you see every winter could have been avoided had drivers used a radio, slowed down and taken their feet off the dashboard.

Yes they are, I agree 100% with Robert and Bruce. Other than weather and traffic, a driver can alert you to something wrong with your rig.

Many times I've seen a problem with a truck in front of me. Try to contact them on the CB only to get no answer.

You can get a decent one for around $100. My first CB was a Uniden BearCat 880 I used that for 2 years until the display burnt out. Now I have a Cobra 29. You do need to spend 500+ like some guys do so they can talk to the space station, just start off with a basic radio.

Save up your fuel points and use them to get you a CB in the $100 range. Since I didn't know how to add a coax and antenna, I stopped at Grand Island at the Flying J. There's a CB shop up on the second floor. He tuned up my CB, which is a Cobra 25, and found that there was a wire that was not soldered to the motherboard inside. He fixed that, added coax cable and put on an antenna. That ran me $325.

When I left the last company, I didn't take the antenna off. My new truck, which is a Freightliner and supposedly has an antenna somewhere up in the fairing, wouldn't work very well. I basically had to be within 1/8 of a mile to have anyone hear me.

Just recently I went to wash my truck at the Blue Beacon in Cheyenne and there is a mobile CB repair guy on the road leading to the BB. He retuned my CB, added a speaker, new mic and an antenna. Now I can reach out about 2 mi and other drivers can hear me clearly.

Yes a CB is necessary. Yesterday as I was leaving the Port of Oakland, the traffic was backed up for morning rush hour. However traffic usually moves pretty steady and they were just creeping. So I looked at Google maps and it showed an accident on EB I-80 at mm 12. I waited for traffic to thin out some and headed out. As it turned out, the 4-wheeler was on the WB side, on its side in the right lane. Traffic was basically at a standstill for 3 mi. For the next 10 miles I let WB traffic know what was going on. I only had one driver respond to me. Jason came around large cities I turn it down to where I can barely hear it, so I don't have to listen to the junk some guys spew.

Laura

To add to the others, yes it is very useful and I wouldn't want to drive without it now.

In construction or an accident scene, you can learn which lane is open and move into it. I've also tried calling out to a driver who was missing the entire middle tread on a tandem , just a slice on each side was still there. No answer and he took off down the highway like a bat out of hell. Can't imagine how that turned out for him or whatever driver was nearby when it finally had had enough.

I'm currently on a tour hauling concert equipment and we our given our backing instructions at each venue over the CB by the lead driver.