By Jorge P. Gutierrez, Jr. (Jpg2esq) on Wednesday, June 06, 2001 - 05:00 pm: Edit

I am thinking about buying a CB for my Disco for use at Rallys/Trail Rides etc. Can I get away with buying a Handheld? Not too much use for one here in Miami on a regular basis, so I would rather not install one. Any advice/recommendations?

By Ho Chung (Ho) on Wednesday, June 06, 2001 - 06:10 pm: Edit

i have a
http://www.cobraelec.com/new/gif/46wx_prod.gif
it's pretty decent.

By Nathan Hindman (Nathanh) on Wednesday, June 06, 2001 - 08:41 pm: Edit

Does anybody have any pics of where they mounted CBs in their Discos?

Thanks,

Nathan Hindman

By Ho Chung (Ho) on Thursday, June 07, 2001 - 01:59 am: Edit

http://www.discoweb.org/discus/messages/9/521.jpg

By B Kingston on Thursday, June 07, 2001 - 06:12 am: Edit

I mounted my GME unit on the back of the centre console, using a piece of sheetmetal connected via the screws in the cubby lid hinge and folded to grab the bottom of the plastic ( just above the ashtray ).Everyone in the car can use it.Also no holes to drill, and it is transferable to a DII.

By Axel Haakonsen (Axel) on Thursday, June 07, 2001 - 08:13 am: Edit

Jorge:

When used inside the car, you won't get much of a range with a handheld by itself. If you don't want to mount a CB permanently, get a handheld and an external, magnet mounted antenna. That should work well for your intended use.

By Mike B. on Thursday, June 07, 2001 - 08:35 am: Edit

I agree with the earlier posts - if you want to get decent reception, you need to go with an externally mounted antenna. In my experience, Handheld CBs are more trouble than they are worth. Range is limited and the durability sucks. I have permanently mounted my CB antenna to my roof rack and install and remove a cheapie Radio Shack CB as needed. The quality of the CB antenna is more important than the quality of the CB.

LoL,
Mike B.

By Ron on Sunday, June 10, 2001 - 06:53 am: Edit

I mounted my GME on top of the dash of my 1998 disco with no hassles, I used two self tapper screws that went into the plastic grill thing.
Mine is a GME and I wouldn't reccommend them to anyone. GME has one advantage in that it has a built in speaker. I use a bull bar mounted 3db aerial that seem to work OK.

By Roverine on Sunday, June 10, 2001 - 06:50 pm: Edit

Jorge,
We didn't want to start drilling or do any hard wiring on the new Disco, so we bought a Cobra 75WXST, and a K40 magnet mounted antenna. Among a lot of our friends, (a lot of pilots & engineers) that one came highly recommended. It worked very well - Great reception, no problems. (Just make sure you continually check to make sure the antenna is screwed in tight to the magnet mount, etc. while offroad.) In our case, we use the rear aux. power socket (as opposed to one on the dash) to plug the CB into. We then run the wires under back seat and the rear floor mats and use Velcro to mount the small box on the rear/back of front console. We then run the handheld part of the unit up to front from there - The controls are all inside the handheld unit. We attached a loop to it and just hung it on the built in hook that's on the left of leg area on the passenger side (This built in hook is on our new Disco II, ... Is it really a hook for purses??). Anyway, it was VERY functional, and all neat and tidy - No drilling, no mess, no fuss. Hope this helps.

Kim

By Gil Stevens (Gil) on Sunday, June 10, 2001 - 07:54 pm: Edit

not that this has anything to do with the subject, but the "hook" is for some kind of crazy take out food they have in England. It comes in bags that fit perfectly on the hook. at least this is what i heard from LR UK.

By Axel Haakonsen (Axel) on Sunday, June 10, 2001 - 08:18 pm: Edit

I have heard that story, too. The hook is called a Curry Hook, curry being some kind of indian take out food poular in the UK. Supposedly LR polled their workers when developing the DII, asking them what should be in the new Disco. The Curry Hook was apparently high up on the list. I heard that story while visiting a dealer in PA two years ago.....

By Roverine on Sunday, June 10, 2001 - 11:52 pm: Edit

Yeah, when I went to 'eyeball' the Disco in person, and had my sales guy (bless his sweet heart) immediately show ME the "purse hook", I had to smile ... "That's it!!, My mind's made up, this vehicle has a purse hook!!". Little did I know, that thing is darn handy!

Kim

By Jorge P. Gutierrez, Jr. (Jpg2esq) on Monday, June 11, 2001 - 03:45 pm: Edit

Roverine:

That looks like a great set-up and unit for that matter. Where is the rear aux power socket? I don't know if my 95 Disco has one.

By Chris Merritt (Smokinbro) on Monday, June 11, 2001 - 05:56 pm: Edit

Me too;

My '98 doesn't appear to have a rear aux power socket. Does anyone know if there is wiring back there somewhere to install one?

By Roverine on Monday, June 11, 2001 - 06:40 pm: Edit

I don't know about that, but as far as the CB set up I described above: It's probably just as simple and clean, if not more so, to just plug the unit into your dash cigarette lighter/outlet. The only reason we used the rear aux. outlet was because (for certain portion of a trip) I wanted to keep my little hands free cell phone gizmo plugged in up front as well (... got it at "The Sharper Image" - it works just as good as my old hard wired hands free phone kit!). Anyway, it shouldn't be that much of a problem, you can pick up those adaptors that allow you to make two or more outlets from one almost anywhere. Best wishes

Kim

By Gil Stevens (Gil) on Monday, June 11, 2001 - 08:03 pm: Edit

...the rear power outlet is only on D2s. Im sure something can be rigged up on a D1...

By Chris Merritt (Smokinbro) on Monday, June 11, 2001 - 08:49 pm: Edit

thx Gil

By Ross on Tuesday, June 12, 2001 - 12:11 pm: Edit

I found some 12V outlets at Wally World (Wal-Mart) that are made to install in the back of a pickup bed but they'd be easy to hookup in the back of the Disco. I bought one of the outlets and am planning on wiring it to the cargo area somewhere. I think they were $5 or $6 bucks.

By Chris Merritt (Smokinbro) on Tuesday, June 12, 2001 - 01:40 pm: Edit

Ross;

If you do wire the thing in, be sure and get a few photos of the install. I bet that Ho would post them in the tech section with a little write-up. I, for one, would be really interested in seeing how it turns out. Typical project though! 5 bucks for the part, 15 hours installing!!!

By Mike B. on Tuesday, June 12, 2001 - 08:23 pm: Edit

If you are looking for a way cool antenna mount, check out Jerry Crawford's Antenna in the Disco Web Tech section. Drop me an email if anyone is interested and I will email pictures of mine!

Thanks,
Mike Bauer
pf1software@mindspring.com

By RVR OVR (Tom) on Tuesday, June 12, 2001 - 08:54 pm: Edit

With full knowledge that I can get flamed for having a "junkyard disco", here is how I mounted mine. It was meant to be temporary, but I like where it is so much, it has stayed. I will probably properly wire it, but the Y-adapter for the cigarette lighter has suited me fine to use my cell and CB at the same time. I stuffed all the wires down out of view under the seat and in the little edge that goes around the console.



Tom

By al hang on Tuesday, June 12, 2001 - 10:46 pm: Edit

why??? why god why?...
do you have fuzzy dice too?

By RVR OVR (Tom) on Tuesday, June 12, 2001 - 11:11 pm: Edit

Hah...knew it was coming...personally, i think it looks much better there. People typically don't even notice it. Do you think it looks better with a big dangly cord hanging down from the overhead console?

By RVR OVR (Tom) on Tuesday, June 12, 2001 - 11:16 pm: Edit

Wait, aren't you the one with all the dead bugs in your bumper?

By Chris Merritt (Smokinbro) on Tuesday, June 12, 2001 - 11:19 pm: Edit

Is the CB Actually strapped to the handbrake?????

By RVR OVR (Tom) on Tuesday, June 12, 2001 - 11:22 pm: Edit

You bet!

Tom

By garrett on Wednesday, June 13, 2001 - 08:58 am: Edit

I bolted mine to the right side of the console. Making sure there is enough room for the passenger seat to move up far enough. Good place to store the wires and cable to. Looks pretty decent and I am still able to use my handbrake quite easily.

By Jorge P. Gutierrez, Jr. (Jpg2esq) on Wednesday, June 13, 2001 - 10:11 am: Edit

You know the more I look at this set-up, the more I like it. My wife usually drives my Disco except for weekends (I am looking to get one of my own soon). Anyways, here in Miami, CB radios are useless. So it makes sense to just use some tie wraps to mount it for a rally/event, then take it off the rest of the time.

By Jeff Bieler (Mrbieler) on Wednesday, June 13, 2001 - 10:42 am: Edit

I'm getting the Cobra 75. Pop the box under the drivers seat. All the controls are in the handset. The handset has a QD so you can remove it from the box and then it's hidden and forgetten. Throw a Firestick or a K40 on the rear tire mount with a QD and that can go away too when you don't need it. Price of the radio online is about $95.

By RVR OVR (Tom) on Wednesday, June 13, 2001 - 11:06 am: Edit

Jorge - Give it a try. It is totally non-intrusive. And, yes, you can still use your hand break just fine. It just moves up and down with it.

By Discosaurus on Wednesday, June 13, 2001 - 11:37 am: Edit

Man, strapped to the handbrake !

Good thing you have one of those sissy auto boxes
in there.

keith
discosaurus

By Simon on Wednesday, June 13, 2001 - 11:51 am: Edit

CB's useless in Miami? why? you too good to talk to truckers?

just mount the CB braket on top of the dash board right where the ruber matt is... by the time you need to return the disco you just cover the 2 very small holes with the rubber matt...

my cables are hidden well behind the dash and the antenna cables go all the way back like PK did. and there is a way to do it without drilling anything...

Simon

By Roverine on Wednesday, June 13, 2001 - 01:10 pm: Edit

We love that Cobra 75! If you can, you really should check it out. (I sold our old CB with my other 4X4 - it was mounted and hard wired in along with a permanent antenna mount. The kid who bought it was thrilled.)

Kim

By Ross on Wednesday, June 13, 2001 - 08:23 pm: Edit

I was going to buy the Cobra 75 but my cheapness took hold of my wallet. I found a Maxon MCB-30 at a local Wal-Mart that was less than half price. I paid $15 bucks for it(regularly $39). It is tiny, and looks quite nice. I was going to use the Cobra to switch between cars but now I'm just going to buy two more of these $15 dollar Maxon's.

By Jerry Crawford, 98 D-I on Sunday, June 17, 2001 - 02:28 pm: Edit

I also mounted my CB on the back of the cubby and created a nice antenna bracket on the rear door that holds the antenna for both the CB and GPS. The initial article on that antenna bracket is in the tech section and I'm putting together some more photo's and verbage about adding the 35Db Trimble GPS remote antenna I picked up on e-bay for $25. I had an electronic tech tune my system a couple of weeks ago before a road trip to Indiana and I'm using a 2' Firestick and got acceptable (couple of miles) highway reception.

Mounting the radio on the back of the cubby was a royal PITA but once put together it is handy and out of the way.