Cb radios not compatible with throttle booster

[RLee276]

I couldn’t find much information about this when it happened to me so I wanted to put this on here for anyone else who may have this issue searching the web.

I’ve had a a cheap no name throttle booster for the past 3 years that I really loved. For 40 bucks it worked great.
But after installing a cab radio, it worked for a couple weeks. And now every time I key the mic the truck instantly throws a throttle control CEL and puts the tru k in limp mode and the engine surges until I can turn tru k off then back on.
I replaced coax and shielded all wires including the throttle booster and nothing helps.
I finally removed the throttle booster. So I could transmit on my cb.

The throttle booster I have gets power through the gas pedal wires.
I have ordered a banks pedal monster that gets power from the obd2 port to see if it will work with my cb. But it won’t be here for another week.

 

[Lysergic]

Tell us a little more about the CB installation. DC power setup? Rig type/brand? Antenna setup?

Sounds like a common mode current issue. Ferrite on the throttle booster wiring (and the radio, coax and power leads) may be your friend.

Here's a very good resource: http://k0bg.com/rfi.html

Geared towards amateur radio installations, same rules apply to 11 meter (CB) operation.

All things ferrite:https://palomar-engineers.com/rfiemi-solutions/Portable-and-Mobile-Radio-RFI-Solutions-c21444148

 

[zrock]

Routing of your wires and placement of your antenna is key. Make sure nothing is running beside or near your computers and power wires. Had this issue years ago where when i keyed my mike it fried my Amp for my subs. Had to reroute everything and move the antenna to cure the issue.

 

[Mlarv5]

With out knowing much about the throttle booster, I will add a few things learned the hard way over the years.

1 Keep all ground wires as short as possible
2 Use a ferrite core around the the power wires
3 Never run power lines from any radio (CB, Ham etc..) by any other power lines.
4 Ground antenna as close as possible
5 Keep antenna coax as short as possible
6 Don't run the antenna coax by any other wires. They can interfere with CanBus or any other electronics.

Just my unsolicited two bits

 

[Gregory McKinley]

Some of those unshielded devices do not like RFI!!!!! I have a Cobra Dash Cam that totally resets when I key down on my radio. Running a 6 gage cable with circuit breaker to power my radio, cases strap grounded. I am using a mag mount Stryker SR A10. I am going to experiment with a Stainless whip mounted toward the rear of the truck. It may or may not work either because I am also running an amp. Lots of RFI floating around everywhere. Running my base station (60' tower with Colossal 10K antenna pushing 3K) causes it to reset also. Just tons of RFI Power hitting it. Good luck.

 

[bm02tj]

Power radio directly from battery including ground and donot run close to other wires

 

[Tominator223]

Great tech we have now. lol . Reminds me of the 1st fuel infected Chrysler (50’s), when they’d drive by a neon sign the car would shut off. Because the components didn’t have good insulation. Electronic EFI. I wonder if a CB did the same to em then.

 

[craigsez]

Run power direct to battery with a heavier ga wireing and a fuseable link..Coax length doesnt reallt matter but dont buy prefab truck atop crap..
Someone mentioned useing the shorted way to ground the antenna,it is and isnt correct..

What needs to be done is the pick up needs to be bonded....K0bg.com and look under the bonding category..Lotsa other good info there as well....

Moveing the ant more to one side or fjrther back or flward only changes the radiation pattern..Your signal basically uses the metal mass under as 3 things....A jump off point during tx and a bigger ear for rec and its also the imaginary other half of the antenna..Its what its referred to as ground plain..

The bond process i mentioned is gonna be basically a race track sorta speak for rf travel...Rf always comes back to the source and if it cant find it one way it tries another way and there you have issues with it intrudeing into other electronics...

So basicallly you want as high of a strand count you can find wide as you can find braid straps...Start conntecting the metal parts of your truck such as door side of door hinge to cab side...Both side of hood hinge to fender mounts..Both box sides to frame,ex to frame in a cpl spots....
Head over to youtube and look up bbi bonding,he does has some vids on what you use and bonding ect..He also has gone through adding other electronics....

 

[bm02tj]

40 plus years ago I had a customer with "Green Lantern" as his handle
He would disconnect positive cable and hook his Ohm meter to neg terminal and strap anything with resistance then Zinc mate to seal Truckers loved him with their CB radios

 

[Lysergic]

Power radio directly from battery including ground and donot run close to other wires

On modern vehicles you should not run negative back to the battery, but to the battery negative chassis connection point, which will bypass the Battery Management System.

The reasons why are explained in detail here: http://k0bg.com/wiring.html

In other words, don't follow the method outlined in the radio manuals. It might have been fine for mid 1990's and older vehicles, but not for modern ones.

 

[bm02tj]

I have learned something new today thanks
My 2002 Jeep TJ has my ham radio and CB wired direct to battery will double check but has not caused me any trouble so far

 

[Mlarv5]

I have learned something new today thanks
My 2002 Jeep TJ has my ham radio and CB wired direct to battery will double check but has not caused me any trouble so far

Your 2002 Jeep most likely doesn't have a BMS (Battery Management System) like the current vehicles have. I still wouldn't run any device straight off the battery. I have winches on a few of my off road RTV's and use a relay to power it. I run radios to a fuse block for power. You can install a secondary fuse block from the battery then power it with a relay.

 

[GTyankee]

Get a descent CB, run power straight from the battery, use a fusible link,
Most of all, Use a SWR Meter to get a near perfect antenna match.

I ran a CB Radio in a Chevy, then a RAM from October 2003 - November 2014
I ran a business during those years.
I either lead Semi Trucks or Followed them.

We communicated only by CB Radio, many times, the State Police were also on the same job.

 

[RLee276]

On modern vehicles you should not run negative back to the battery, but to the battery negative chassis connection point, which will bypass the Battery Management System.

The reasons why are explained in detail here: http://k0bg.com/wiring.html

In other words, don't follow the method outlined in the radio manuals. It might have been fine for mid 1990's and older vehicles, but not for modern ones.

View attachment 567584

Thanks. This is how my radio and amp is wired. Ground to same post the negative battery post is grounded too. Everything grounded well on the radio as well as the antenna. The truck RF grounded panel to panel 100% with 1” tinned copper flat braid
And the radio and amp power leads are short with no connectors in the lines . Radio has little if any noise and swr is 1.2 -1.5 on all channels with or with out the amp on.

 

[RLee276]

Tell us a little more about the CB installation. DC power setup? Rig type/brand? Antenna setup?

Sounds like a common mode current issue. Ferrite on the throttle booster wiring (and the radio, coax and power leads) may be your friend.

Here's a very good resource: http://k0bg.com/rfi.html

Geared towards amateur radio installations, same rules apply to 11 meter (CB) operation.

All things ferrite:https://palomar-engineers.com/rfiemi-solutions/Portable-and-Mobile-Radio-RFI-Solutions-c21444148

Late reply but I’ll post pics of my set up tomorrow. I’ve did a lot of work to. My set and radio is sounding and working the best I’ve had it so far. But I still can’t tx with throttle booster installed or I go into limp mode.