XM shark fin radio antenna and camper

[Doc Foster]

If I put on a Fleet or Eagle FWC on my Tacoma, obviously the cabover will covering up the XM shark fin radio antenna. I believe there will be enough clearance, but what about my XM radio reception? Will I still be able to obtain an XM signal. I doubt that it will get a decent, if any signal, but was wondering if anyone else has experience with this.
It would be nice to still be able to listen to XM with the camper on the truck, for those long trips. Has anyone relocated these antennas? If so, how easy/difficult.

Attached photo is not my truck, just an image I found on Google.

 

[Mark W. Ingalls]

If I put on a Fleet or Eagle FWC on my Tacoma, obviously the cabover will covering up the XM shark fin radio antenna. I believe there will be enough clearance, but what about my XM radio reception? Will I still be able to obtain an XM signal. I doubt that it will get a decent, if any signal, but was wondering if anyone else has experience with this.
It would be nice to still be able to listen to XM with the camper on the truck, for those long trips. Has anyone relocated these antennas? If so, how easy/difficult.

Attached photo is not my truck, just an image I found on Google.


Before I relocated it, I would probably think to just get a replacement. The answer to your question is, "It will absolutely not work with a camper over it."

 

[BobM]

Only when the truck is laying on it's side

 

[White Dog]

The XM on my Tundra works in the garage but it is wood. You could do a little experiment. Take a couple of aluminum baking pans and put them over the antenna then see if you get reception. My guess is not but you might get lucky.

I wonder why Toyota but the antenna on the back of the Taco and the front on the Tundra?

 

[BobM]

As soon as I put my new Raven on my 2011 Dodge Ram, the signal was gone. It will fade in and out base on your direction but is off most of the time. There are posts that talk about tapping into the circuit and putting an antenna on top of the camper.

 

[DirtyDog]

The antennas that aren't factory stock are flat and stick to the roof magnetically. I would imagine that it wouldn't be too hard to wire one to the stock antenna and position it at the front of the cab. A local car stereo store could tell you for sure.

 

[White Dog]

Largely irrelevant to Doc's original question but pertinent to the discussion of antenna sensitivity, I bought a little cheap (<$50) GPS receiver from GlobalSat to plug into my computer. The idea is to use a Notebook PC to run OziExplorer with the GlobalSat supplying the NEMA position data. This cheap little receiver can read signals from up to 10 satellites sitting on my desk in the middle of the house! It's not even near a window. Amazing!

By the way, if any of you are coming to Canada, Natural Resources Canada has all the 1:250,000 and 1:50,000 Canadian Topo series online for downloading for free (still can't believe they give them away). Go to Canadian Topo Maps

These are GeoTiffs which means they are georeferenced. A program like OziExplorer will read them in an automatically know where the latitude and longitude are.

Sorry for the highjack Doc. Back to your question.

 

[RJones]

I get good reception with my antenna in this location.

 

[Doc Foster]

Thanks for all the replies and confirming what I thought is that it would not work with the camper on. Will definitely relocate another antenna before putting on the camper, which is still in the planning phase.