Fitting HF antenna to ute

Hi Dave

Plenty written on HF mountings recently. If you atre in NSW it is legal to fit it to your bullbar, providing you meet the requirements in Vehicle Inspection Bulletin 5.

I've posted on this previously, post number 24103.

Regards

Went thru this on the truck, ended up on the back, but I have side doors on the aluminium canopy.

If your canopy is fibreglass, you can actually fit it inside, as long as the necessary clearances from metalwork is obtained, and you'll need to have some sort of coax going from the antenna tip to a remotely mounted whip. Electric Bug in Adelaide have done this.

Other Alternatives:
- Swing out bracket coming off side of vehicle at rear of cab - OK with traytops, might be a problem with your ute.
- custom made swing away bracket at rear.
- swing down bracket between bullbar and grille - swing it down around town, swing it up on out in the bush.

No matter where you fit it, for good performance, you need 160mm clearance at the join of the top cover of the autotune, then ideally, you need a 45 degree clearance from metal from this point upwards - this may be achieved by having the autotune lean away a bit. And don't forget you'll need a very solid earth lead from the antenna base to a big bolt on the vehicle's body.

Cheers
Phil

I have seen the most professional looking mini swing away on th eback bumper bar of a duel cab ute. It is just like a tiny version of the rear wheel mounted swing away. It was a home made job and it basically was a hinge with a pole for the HF antenna and a lock down clip the same as a spare wheel swing away clip. I reckon it would be about a 4 stubbie job at home or a couple of hours max at a steel fabricator. The one that I saw looked like an ARB bought one and was color matched to the car.

G'day
We have a dual cab Rodeo- have fitted a swing away spare tyre carrier for the extra spare and adapted the Autotune to that.
pic available if required.