I bought a cobra cb and can't figure out how to install.

the radio has red lead, orange lead, and black ground.

the truck has one cb power, one negative wire?

the manual says red is for 12 volt fuse. orange is for "constant" 12v fuse.

any help?

 

Hook it to the red post with the red wire. It is so that you can have constant power to the CB. Many truck systems provide constant power through the red (positive) post. The black wire is your negative.

The CB just has 2 positives and one negative.

 

thanks,

 

You have a Fire Extinguisher handy, right? :wink:

 

The orange wire has to be hooked up to a source of power that is "on" even when the truck key switch is off. That is because the orange wire is for the memory circuit in the CB radio.

If you just hook the orange wire to a source that shuts off when the key switch is off, the CB will revert to (on most CBs) it's default channel 9.

Not the end of the world, you just have to re tune the CB to the desired channel every time in that case, but it's a lot nicer to hook it up the right way.

 

I don't remember if Fruitshakers have constant CB power. Now that I think about it, I don't think they do. My Peterbilt has constant power through the red post. I think Kenworth is the same way.

Digital CB's suck anyway. Get one with an actual dial that you have to turn.

 

Ya Rev, if the red post turns off with the key, then you gotta find an "unswitched" power source for the orange wire, we just go into the circuit breaker panel and tie into the hot wire that feeds it (with an in line circuit breaker at the point of attachment of course).

 

Just run the wire directly to the battery. No fuse necessary. That's safe, right? :lol:

 

:lol:

 

He was hooking it to a regular powered post, Not hooking it to the generator.