Satellite antenna

[Joe Arruda]

Hey everyone. So I bought a 2018 ram 1500 sport package with crew cab and when I went to park it in the garage it didn't fit because the satellite antenna is a lot higher then the 2017 and earlier. 2017 and earlier were flat antennas and the 2018 are like a fish tail. I went to chrysler and they say that they can't put a flat one cause it's different connectors and its not compatible with the new technology in the 2018. So I am kinda stuck here parking in a mall across the street and it sucks. Is there a anyone that can help me out with this issue. Mass electronics came in for chrysler and said they can put one in that is separate but it only works for satellite but not for or anything else. The guy told me to cut it and use epoxy to cover the hole that is cut out. Not sure if that's a good idea cause when you take the cap of the antenna it a metal fish tail underneath. Help please.

 

[kad]

IIRC, the flat antennas are satellite/gps only. The shark fin style are satellite/gps/cellphone(uconnect). If you replaced the shark fin with the flat you would loose the unconnect cellular ability and your radio would have an error on it regarding being unable to connect to the cellular network. If you don't mind loosing the uconnect abilities, I believe you could replace the antenna with a flat style (you'd leave one of the connectors unconnected) and then get one of the cell bypass cables that are used to add the 8.4" radios to trucks without the uconnect cell phone equipment to deal with the error. That would need to be attached to the rear of your radio. I see that you're in Canada though and I thought that the Canadian trucks did not have the cellular connection option or the shark fin antennas... Is it a US truck?

-K

 

[Joe Arruda]

IIRC, the flat antennas are satellite/gps only. The shark fin style are satellite/gps/cellphone(uconnect). If you replaced the shark fin with the flat you would loose the unconnect cellular ability and your radio would have an error on it regarding being unable to connect to the cellular network. If you don't mind loosing the uconnect abilities, I believe you could replace the antenna with a flat style (you'd leave one of the connectors unconnected) and then get one of the cell bypass cables that are used to add the 8.4" radios to trucks without the uconnect cell phone equipment to deal with the error. That would need to be attached to the rear of your radio. I see that you're in Canada though and I thought that the Canadian trucks did not have the cellular connection option or the shark fin antennas... Is it a US truck?

-K

 

[Joe Arruda]

Well that sounds great if I don't lose the cell uconnect part. I will look into that. It is a Canadian truck and someone told me that the connectors in the flat antennas are different to the one with the fish tail. That's what my concern is. Thank you for your help again.

 

[rwreuter]

You could try different tires......

 

[Podcast]

You could try different tires......

Just let the air out of the tires every time you pull in the garage.........lol

What was said above is true. The 8.4 Uconnect system uses the fish tail style antenna whereas the 5.0 uses the flat antenna. I recently noticed this after my father and brother purchased Express models and both of theirs are flat.

One thing I had to do at my old house was calibrate the garage door to open another 2" which brought it up high enough to allow for the clearance. I learned the hard way on that door and tore off the antenna before calibrating it. If it's the garage door that hangs down too far this can be fixed, if it's the actual frame of the door your're in a hard spot.

Might be shaving the floor.......lol

 

[DavidN]

I changed out my puck style antenna with a shark fin a few months back.
It’s true, the flat antenna has just one connector (satellite) whereas the shark fin has an additional one. I have the smaller UConnect (no nav) and just used the one connector I needed.
Mounting hole size is exactly the same.

 

[Joe Arruda]

So if I replace it with a flat antenna I can still use the GPS and satellite and then get a bypass cable to hook up the Uconnect part for the cell phone that attaches to the back of the radio as the German side in the in the first reply. I'm just worried that the flat antenna has different connectors than the shark fin antenna

 

[Joe Arruda]

Gentlemen not german

 

[kad]

Gentlemen not german

Well, my mother's family is German, so you're good.

-K

 

[Podcast]

So if I replace it with a flat antenna I can still use the GPS and satellite and then get a bypass cable to hook up the Uconnect part for the cell phone that attaches to the back of the radio as the German side in the in the first reply. I'm just worried that the flat antenna has different connectors than the shark fin antenna

I don't believe so. I believe that you would loose the functionality of your GPS system NOT your phone or satellite radio. The fishtail antenna adds the GPS capability for the navigation on the 8.4 radios.

 

[kad]

So if I replace it with a flat antenna I can still use the GPS and satellite and then get a bypass cable to hook up the Uconnect part for the cell phone that attaches to the back of the radio as the German side in the in the first reply. I'm just worried that the flat antenna has different connectors than the shark fin antenna

It's not so much that they are different as that there is a different number of them. The flat style has one connector. The sharkfin has that same connector, plus an additional connector. The additional connector is the cell phone connector. The bypass cable is a short (4-5" cable that connects to the back of the radio and gives it just enough signal to avoid the errors. I've seen some say that they still get all the other functionality with it, but I would not count on it away from strong signal bases (large cities, sitting under a cell tower, etc).

-K

 

[kad]

I don't believe so. I believe that you would loose the functionality of your GPS system NOT your phone or satellite radio. The fishtail antenna adds the GPS capability for the navigation on the 8.4 radios.

I'm pretty certain that is not correct. The raised "fin" is the cell antenna. My flat antenna provides both XM radio and GPS (which is another satellite signal). If you go through the thread on upgrading from the 5" to the 8.4" radio you'll see that you do not need to change the antenna for both XM and GPS to work.

-K

 

[Podcast]

I'm pretty certain that is not correct. The raised "fin" is the cell antenna. My flat antenna provides both XM radio and GPS (which is another satellite signal). If you go through the thread on upgrading from the 5" to the 8.4" radio you'll see that you do not need to change the antenna for both XM and GPS to work.

-K

Then why do the flat antennas work with your cell phone? What features of the cell phone does the fishtail antenna add???

 

[kad]

Then why do the flat antennas work with your cell phone? What features of the cell phone does the fishtail antenna add???

There are two different aspects of Uconnect to the radios. There is the part that connects to your phone via Bluetooth and lets you make hands free calls, reads incoming TXT messages, etc. That part uses your phone's connection to the cellular network and is unaffected by the roof antenna. The bluetooth antenna is inside the radio itself.

The second aspect is the part of it that only some trucks have which lets you make 911 and "OnStar" type calls from a button on the rearview mirror without having to have a phone connected via Bluetooth and also receives the over-the-air updates for the radio software.

The second part is what uses the cell portion of the shark fin antenna and is what you loose if you switch to a flat type antenna.

-K

 

[Podcast]

There are two different aspects of Uconnect to the radios. There is the part that connects to your phone via Bluetooth and lets you make hands free calls, reads incoming TXT messages, etc. That part uses your phone's connection to the cellular network and is unaffected by the roof antenna. The bluetooth antenna is inside the radio itself.

The second aspect is the part of it that only some trucks have which lets you make 911 and "OnStar" type calls from a button on the rearview mirror without having to have a phone connected via Bluetooth and also receives the over-the-air updates for the radio software.

The second part is what uses the cell portion of the shark fin antenna and is what you loose if you switch to a flat type antenna.

-K

Gotcha, that makes sense.

 

[adrianp89]

Upgrade to a model with air suspension lol

 

[DavidN]

Well, my mother's family is German, so you're good.

-K

And so am I. Hahaha...