Thread: HF antenna folding mount

You can actually buy one designed for just that purpose, there are also smaller ones for HF and phone aerials.Aerpro Bullbar Folding Antenna mount
The link is for a UHF one but there are heavier duty ones for HF, I've got one and had it for about 6 or 7 years now.
If you are handy it wouldn't be hard to make one from a couple of bits of square tube.
One addition I made was to make a padded saddle for the top of the antenna to sit in when folded down as it reduces the weight and leverage on the actual mount. I have a Barrett autotune antenna.

Thanks for the link, that looks like not a bad design. I'll certainly be putting a cradle on the other side of the bullbar to carry the top of the antenna base, which means that the folding mount only needs to latch in the vertical position.

This is exactly the solution I was looking for your help with years ago Peter, as trade for the multi-tap! Never got it organised. Perhaps its time! Design once, implement twice?

I have a one of these brackets in hand, and my broad thinking was to have it mounted on the bullbar, with a cradle on the wing that would would be made with an alloy sheet base plate that replaces the existing wing blanking plate. I was think the cradle would have a bungee to hold the antenna horizontally - but I've never really done any thinking about the specific design.

UHF Phone Antenna Bracket – EMIC Industries

In my brainstorming I've been looking at folding it across the bullbar, I'll have a look at the possibility of folding it back onto the wing top. Bit worried about where the cables will end up though.

Edit: Had a look at the possibility of folding it backwards to rest on the top of the guard, or wing. It might depend upon how high the top of your bullbar is, but with my standard ARB bar, this would require the base to be quite high above the bar to get the antenna to lay down horizontally. Also it would end up with the bracket protruding high above the bar when folded, which I think would be a liability. Folding it across the top of the bar, it would lay down in front of the bonnet and a cradle could be mounted to the bullbar; there are two antenna brackets existing on the top of the bullbar, my plan is to add a heavier mounting point to the bullbar above the LH headlight, the UHF antenna is mounted to the existing LH bracket, the autotune will lay down behind the UHF antenna and be cradled at the RH bracket.

If you are going to make a saddle for the antenna to sit in when folded down then the saddle has to be on the same part of the vehicle eg: if the antenna is mounted on the bull bar than the antenna needs to fold sideways along the top of the bullbar.
You can't have the antenna mounted on the bullbar and tha cradle on the mudguard as they move independantly when the vehicle is moving. Destruction of the antenna would result.
The brackets are designed to hold the antenna at either 45 dgrees or horizontal when folded but I found that even with a heavy duty HF designed mount that the weight of the autotune antenna quickly flogged the holes that the hinge and stop located in allowing the antenna to flop around which led to me making a saddle for the top of the antenna to sit in when folded.
The saddle needs to be well padded and also have a velcros strap or similar to keep the antenna in place in rough terrain which these days includes most bitumen roads!

Or consider a Codan 3040

I've strongly considered a 3040, I'm sure it would be a solution for many people but I don't think it would help me, the only place I could mount it would be on the top of the bullbar so I don't think I'd be any better off, looking at a shoebox rather than a telephone pole. If I had a single-cab ute, a 3040 would be able to be mounted on the headboard in front of the camper, but with the dual-cab the camper extends over the rear of the cab. Mounting behind the camper would have no advantage over the 9350.

I just ordered the 'Don't bend em etc' folding bracket; I'll have a fiddle with it when it gets here and see how best to cradle the top of the antenna.