So I finally decided to do a little update since I did something sorta expedition related today. Installed my new CB antenna in a new location. I went with the front of the vehicle on the light bar. For some reason where I had it mounted before must have been a very high turbulence area and it was SO loud above 80km/h. On windy days it was just unbearable. I also ditched the NGP setup because the coax just doesn't hold up to road salt at all and I was sick of replacing and running replacement harnesses that were extremely expensive. At the front it can be easily grounded and is much quieter. It takes some getting used to but it's really not as invasive as you'd think it would be. Now I have a short coax cable going into my engine bay and then another one going through the firewall into the radio. Very easy to replace as it seems to be a yearly thing, unless the firestik NGP cables were made of subpar rubber as none of my light bar wiring has cracked and fallen to pieces like the coax coating did.
I went with a 3' Wilson this time around the quality is every bit as good as firestik.
For the 99% of the time I don't have it mounted I used an old beat-up spare firestik tip to protect the threads for the mount.
I also changed the location of my mic clip which works a heck of a lot better than having it down beside the shift like before. Easy to reach and put back, chord doesn't block the cupholder or even hit my knee. Not sure why I didn't do this before.
Some other non-expedition mods I've done lately have been:
Flowmaster 80 series dual outlet muffler with 3.5" tips. I tucked both the muffler and the tips as far up as I possibly could to maximize clearance.
Custom closed intake system using a BMC canister (retained the downward angle of the stock system to keep water out and also retained the stock snorkel at the top of the hood that has worked very well for me so far), as well as a catch can (I know for this engine it is completely unnecessary, but I did it to learn about catch can systems and see if I could make it work. Had it vented to atmosphere the first time around and the car didn't like the vac leaks so I rerouted it back into the intake and it works perfectly).
And mostly for safety reasons, I ditched the single tone *meep meep* sorry excuse for a horn and installed some dual tone Fiamm Freeway Blasters rated at 130dB.
Not any massive plans for the car this summer other than using it. We did western Canada last summer, and we have a 3 week trip planned for the East Coast this summer. Looking forward to it!
