The Jeep Wrangler is used for off-highway driving with groups so in addition to installation of an amateur radio I installed a CB radio. With the help of a good friend, Bob Evans, I created an aluminum bracket to hold two CB radios. Right now one of them is a "hot spare". The plan is to have a second CB antenna allowing me to monitor the frequency used by the group I am with and also monitor the frequency posted for truck traffic on roads with active truck traffic such as in areas where logging is taking place. The CB radios are mounted on the floor between passenger and driver. A microphone clip is on the dash allowing the microphone to be placed there when the radio is in use.

The amateur radio installed is a Kenwood TM-V7 dual band radio. I used the remote mounting kit to allow the control head to be mounted in a Tuffy console and the radio itself to be placed in a Tuffy locking box in the back. A simpler and less expensive way to go for an off road vehicle would be to use a small VHF only radio. Here is a photo of the control head.

This is a typical drivers view of the radio.

And when you lock up the Tuffy center console you have a nice secure package like so.

The actual radio is bolted in the forward section of this Tuffy box in the place that a speaker was intended to be mounted. I have a metal plate mounted after the radio so items placed in the box cannot slide into the radio.

I mounted two small speakers on the "sound bar" between passenger and driver. One is for CB, the other for amateur radio. After the first time hitting my head on a sharp corner I padded them with some foam. This is a pretty noisy vehicle when driving with any reasonable speed on the road and these speakers are about the smallest I would want to use.

Placement of the amateur radio antenna presented a challenge as the antenna I am using requires a ground plane in order to operate. This means that the vertical antenna is really only one half of what creates the radio antenna, the sheet metal of the vehicle acts as a "ground plane", electrically the other half of the antenna. I did not want to mount the antenna in the middle of the hood, so made a compromise and used a fender. Ideally I should have 18 inches of metal in all directions from the antenna and I do not. In situations like this it is often helpful to remember just how well a compromise installation will work compared to the "rubber duck" antenna on a hand held.

One reason for choosing this antenna is that it is very flexible allowing driving through brush without damage.

The CB antenna is mounted to the bracket that would normally stop the tail gate from swinging open.

Here is a close up of the mount.