Cummins Dog
Senior Member
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2016
- Posts
- 156
- Reaction score
- 66
- Ram Year
- 2016
- Engine
- 6.7 Cummins
My truck is a 2016 2500 4X4 CTD Tradesman but I have the 8.4 radio with nav I upgraded from Infotainment. A short time back, while driving along all of a sudden my AM radio reception went to about zero. Just static and scratchiness. After fooling with the radio and not being able to improve it I just lived with it for a few days and just listened to the FM or Satellite radio as those two weren't affected at all. So, one day, walking by the truck I noticed that the antenna on the right fender was gone. As they say..."There's yer problem"! Just the most obvious thing and I didn't think to even look at that. ANYWAY...I look at it and it's all rusted inside where the antenna screws in. I didn't want to tear the dash apart to install a new antenna so I tried to jerry-rig something that would work and look halfway decent but gave that up after a few tries. I then went to Youtube to see if I could find a procedure to change out the antenna base in the fender. Another I-should-have-looked-here-first mistake as I found a good video on the procedure AND found out that you don't have to tear the dash apart to replace the fender antenna mount (here's the link to that video in case someone needs it...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OBtbh7uZts
...Actually not too hard to do. So, I replace the antenna base with no problem and screw in a new antenna, and although I can hear a couple AM stations the reception is crap, all staticy and I'm only getting like the two strongest channels in the area. I should note here that I have tried two different stubby antennas I got off Amazon and they both sound lousy. The antenna that fell off the rusted base was a stubby also but that one had great reception. Of course, I don't remember where I got that one or what brand or anything it was. And, another of course, I have no idea where I put the original factory antenna to try and see if it's really the antenna. I'm suspecting it is an issue with the antenna and not the new base as when I hold on to the antenna it seems to have fairly good reception, but only as long as I hold it. Has anybody had problems with stubby antennas and if so did you find one that actually works well? I really want to stay with a stubby antenna so I hate to go out and buy a $25-30 OEM factory antenna just to see if it works right although if I can't find a stubby that works right I may go back to the factory one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OBtbh7uZts
...Actually not too hard to do. So, I replace the antenna base with no problem and screw in a new antenna, and although I can hear a couple AM stations the reception is crap, all staticy and I'm only getting like the two strongest channels in the area. I should note here that I have tried two different stubby antennas I got off Amazon and they both sound lousy. The antenna that fell off the rusted base was a stubby also but that one had great reception. Of course, I don't remember where I got that one or what brand or anything it was. And, another of course, I have no idea where I put the original factory antenna to try and see if it's really the antenna. I'm suspecting it is an issue with the antenna and not the new base as when I hold on to the antenna it seems to have fairly good reception, but only as long as I hold it. Has anybody had problems with stubby antennas and if so did you find one that actually works well? I really want to stay with a stubby antenna so I hate to go out and buy a $25-30 OEM factory antenna just to see if it works right although if I can't find a stubby that works right I may go back to the factory one.
