Jeepin.com

After playing around with the Cobra 75WXST in a friend’s Jeep, I knew it would be the next CB to go in each of our Jeeps. The biggest thing I liked about it was everything is built into the handset, which really simplifies installation because the only thing you really have to worry about finding space for is the handset. The 75 features Cobra’s SoundTracker technology, 10 weather band channels, a handy dual-channel monitor feature, 4 channel presets, and of course complete access to all 40 CB channels. It doesn’t have a PA jack, but you can hook up an external speaker to it, which can come in handy in noisy open-top Jeeps. The handset can also be quickly detached from the base (or “brain”) for easy stowing. And, at just under $90, it won’t break the bank either. In our XJ I mounted the “brain” behind the knee bolster under the dash, it fit perfectly between two of the electrical modules. I tied the power wire into an existing wire that was hot all the time (so I could use the CB even with the ignition off) and ran the ground wire to the lower mounting screw for the knee bolster directly above the hood release latch.

The handset sits on the side of the center console using a stick-on mic hanger that I picked up at a truck stock. You could just as easily bolt or screw the supplied mic hanger to the console though. This puts the handset within quick and easy reach and keeps it out of the way of my feet and knees.

In our TJ, the control base is simply ziptied up behind the glove box, an idea I got from 4x4xplor.com (a very good site by the way). In fact, I pretty much used the whole article on 4x4xplor.com for reference on our TJ install. The base’s housing doesn’t need to be grounded itself, so you really can mount it just about anywhere you can fit it.

As in the XJ, our TJ’s CB is wired to have constant power. The Jeep engineers made wiring like this pretty easy on TJ’s though, with two unterminated accessory wires behind the glove box — a blue wire (switched/ignition) and a red wire (unswitched/constant). The CB’s power lead is spliced to the red wire for constant power, while the ground lead runs down to the existing stereo grounding bolt on the passenger-side fender below the dash.

looking up at the coax connection from under the dash

Right now the handset’s cord hangs down from below the dash on the passenger side and drapes over the top of the center console in front of the gear shift. It’s not in the way at all, but eventually we may reroute it under the center console for a cleaner look. The handset hanger is screwed to the dash directly to the right of the steering column. It’s an extremely convenient place to have the handset, but I’ve noticed that every now and then I tap it with my knuckles when starting the engine. It’s no big deal though, certainly not enough for us to move the handset.

Both Jeeps have fiberglass K40 tunable whip antennas mounted with Firestik Mini-Kits (MK-174 on the XJ and MK-J4R on the TJ). The mini-kits include FireStik fender mounts and an 18′ FireFlex FireRing coax cable. The FireRing cable is low profile, but you have to assemble the connector for the CB yourself, so there’s a bit of soldering involved there. The nice thing about this is that it allows you to run the coax cable into the cab much easier than if you had to find a hole large enough to fit the whole connector through (you just have to remember to run the cable before you assemble the connector). The cable comes with instructions on how to assemble the connector and it’s not hard to do.

With the exception of the K40 antennas, everything was purchased through ValcoElectronics.com. Valco has great prices shipped everything very quickly, and I’d highly recommend them if you’re looking to buy CB equipment online.

For more information, contact:

Valco Electronics
2450 West Laurel Ave
Eunice, LA 70535
http://www.valcoelectronics.com/
1-800-673-2244