My radio antenna scrapes the top of my garage door everytime I drive in/out. These 4x4 ORP's are just too high I guess.

Has anyone come up with a good, not-to-unsightly fix for this? I've thought of several things I can put on the door where the antenna hits it, but nothing that has passed my wife's "ugly" test.

I know someone out there has come up with a great idea!

Thanks!

 

Yeah, I had the same problem. I just took the stock antenna off and replaced it with one about half as tall from a local auto parts shop. The new one is solid black (plastic?). It looks just fine to me. Reception does suffer some, but it works well enough for me, and no more garage problems.

 

If you like your factory one, the easiest thing to do is pull the ball off of the end and shorten desired amount. Then reinstall the ball. This is a good time to Accetone the antena also. I did this to my Dad's and it worked great. If you don't want to try this you can always buy a billet antena.

 

Its not just the 4x4's. I've got a 2 wheel drive and mine does the same. When it hits, I always think I've run into something, since its such a tight fit to get the truck into the garage anyway. I'll probably get around to replacing it with a short one one of these days, or maybe I'll just have a new house built with a taller garage door opening......NOT!

 

Some good ideas guys.....

Thanks!

 

TBBR, you say putting in the shorter antenna hurt your radio reception? How was it with the stock antenna? One of the little things that bugs me about my SuperCrew is the lousy radio reception. I talked to the dealer about it at the 5000 mile service and, of course, he said that it was "normal". Just wondering if I should go back and be a little more forceful about this normal problem.

 

I have a great solution. Ford sells a "limited clearance height" antenna for f-150. It cost arount $30.00. It installs in about 2 min.

 

can you give us the factory ford part#, I know when I go to the local dealer it makes it a great deal less painful if I have the part number.

thanx

 

My neighbor and I had the same problem. Don't do what he did.
He used a reciprocating saw to take a chunk out on the rightside of his garage. A few weeks later he was at it again, taking a chunk out of the left side. I asked him why and he said he had decided to start backing in and the antenna was scraping again.

I wished he had just asked me. I solved this problem a long time ago simply and easily. I took 25 lbs of pressure off each of the tires and the antenna clears just fine.

(my gas mileage sucks though... )

 

Raoul,

The neighbor: what a moron! That is if you're serious.

The Tires: That's not funny! Again, if you're serious.

 

I think of it as a "roof feeler", sort of like curb feelers, but for lifted trucks!

 

Mine just barely hits the garage door too and I've thought about cutting it down or getting a shorter style.

However, since I frequently have to park in parking garages that can have limited clearance, my antenna works as a perfect gauge to let me know if my truck won't fit.

 

I know, I use it in parking garages to know when I don't have enough clearence.

 

I went with one of these, a 15" in flat black. Looks good.http://www.shortyantennas.com/main.html

 

speedy,

Raoul is very rarely (if EVER) serious!