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Bluesman
02-18-2014, 04:03 PM
Hi guys. I have an Astro Conversion van with a 102' whip on the back bumper...Not working out at all. I need to mount something close to the top. It has a fiberglass roof and I was told that I need a NGP antenna and others say I don't. What do you guys recommend?

JesseJamesDallas
02-18-2014, 08:28 PM
Front fender mounted antenna...That's the way I had to go with my route van, for the same reason, plus the back of the van is too tall to mount a antenna on top...

In my case the fender mount worked out allot better than I would have ever imagined...I have no problems talking all over the Country when DX is around.

http://imageshack.com/a/img12/9757/van3a.jpghttp://imageshack.com/a/img45/1863/10kmount5iy.jpghttp://imageshack.com/a/img45/5910/10kmount26oc.jpg

222DBFL
02-18-2014, 08:37 PM
Listen to JJD, he really knows his stuff when it comes to antennas and how to set them up on different vehicles.

Bluesman
02-18-2014, 08:45 PM
Thanks guys. That Is a hoss of an antenna. The nose of
my van is more angled towards the ground than yours. It looks good. What kind of antenna is that?

mjd420nova
03-03-2014, 01:57 PM
Hustler makes a line of rigid mast with oversize loads for those fiberglass roof units. One trick I've used if it's your wheels is to embed (epoxy) some wire mesh screen (copper) into the roof where the antenna will mount in the middle. Ground the screen for a ground plane. Some tricks can be done the same way with strip material and switch to turn it into a directional plane.

Bluesman
03-03-2014, 11:13 PM
Cool. Thank you. I'm going to check that out. Thanks for the info.

Bluesman
03-03-2014, 11:16 PM
I've got an old Wilson 1000 I've been sticking on the hood. Better than the back bumper mount, but still not too good.

JesseJamesDallas
03-04-2014, 12:10 AM
That is a Predator 30K...It has a aluminum rod instead of a stinger...I switch around with antenna's on that van, right now it has a regular Predator 10K on it.

As for what you were saying about the nose of your van pointing downwards more...that shouldn't make a difference with the fender bracket itself...What you would do to get the antenna to stick up straight, is use a ball mount. A ball mount will allow you to angle the antenna any way you like...That's what I use now on the van. I replaced that stud mount with a ball mount so I could angle the antenna better. (just don't have a picture of it with the ball mount)

This is the ball mounts I use...Made by Hank Breedlove's Machine shop. (he has a web site, just Google it)
http://imageshack.com/a/img80/3043/img86.gif

As for as the bracket itself go's...I fab'ed up the one i have out of scrap metal I had lying around the house. But they make fender mounts to fit allot of vehicles if you check around you may find one made just for your van.

richardk734
03-22-2014, 07:42 PM
Cool rig man