Ram and camper blocking Sirius Antenna

[towpro]

truck camper blocks Sirius antenna.

I already figured this out on my 2015 ram. It has Uconnect 5 and only a Sirius Puck on roof, which I just unplug and hook up a mag mount puck that sits on hood.

But looking at buying new truck and getting the Uconnect 8.4. its called option RA3, which is the one without NAV (but I understand for a fee, dealer can turn on NAV)

So this radio has a "fin" type antenna on roof, with 2 wires going to it.
one cable is for Cell phone antenna, the other appears to be a combination Sirius and GPS antenna (both antennas are combined in this shark fin on roof).

I also know the wire comes down the Passenger side A pillar which is where I went to connect my magnetic Sirius antenna in my 2015.

but the 2018 has 1 connector, with 2 coax type fittings in it. Thick wire is for Phone, thin is for Sirius.

I know I can pull the sirius cable out of this connector and plug into it with my magnetic antenna, but my current mag antenna is only Sirius, not dual Sat/NAV.

anybody done this on the Ram 8" radios without NAV? I don't plan on turning on NAV anyway, but I don't want to screw up the radio either.

[towpro]

Travels with Yoly wrote:
I don't think you mention if your Ram is a 1500 or not.

1500 is little light for carrying my Arctic Fox 990 😉

I pulled all the pieces out of my 2015 I used to allow the standard aftermarket magnetite sirus/xm antenna to plugin to the factory harness. I notice the connector behind the pillar on my 2015 even had 2 wire sockets in it (1 for sat/nav antenna and 1 (thicker) for cell phone antenna). According to the drawings I have seen, my 2018 will have this same connector only it will have 2 wires in it. It looks like I can just repeat what I did on my 2015 for the satellite antenna.

On this blue connector is little clips you can remove with a dental pick that allow you to remove the actual wire connector from the blue connector, than I have a short 2' jumper cable that plugs into the factory cable (will not fit in connector, so I wrap a little foam around it to prevent rattles).
I run this cable down to behind the glove box where I connect the end of an aftermarket magnet antenna I mount out on the hood.

the idea was that in winter when camper is off truck, I can plug in factory antenna and hide aftermarket under hood, but in realty I don't drive the truck much in winter so I never switched it.

Some have said the 2.3ghz Sirius/xm antenna will still receive the 1.57ghz signal of the GPS transmitters. It might not be strong enough to use for NAV, but my radio don't have NAV. I think this GPS in receiver is only for the built in emergency service system and stolen vehicle tracking.

[OutdoorAddict]

I bought a sharkfin antenna and longer cable from a mopar dealer online, disconnected the factory sharkfin behind the Apillar and connected the new one. Ran the cable from the A Pillar to the front of my truck and mounted it to a grill guard. Works perfect. You can google ram truck sirus radio antenna and you will find a diagram and parts list by RAM.

[Travels_with_Yo]

I don't think you mention if your Ram is a 1500 or not. The antennas on our Ram 1500s (many of them) all were mounted on the roof towards the rear and completely blocked by the cab over. When we switched to a bigger truck we were delighted to find that the antenna on the 2500s is just behind the windshield line at the front of the roof .... no blockage other than the occasional normal drop out for high trees or steep canyon walls.

[TxGearhead]

billyray50 wrote:
For the most part my TC only causes intermittent signal block and it only happens when I am driving in northerly direction. Any other direction is fine with Sirius. I have not really looked into it yet.

Same here. I have the 8.4 screen with GPS and Sirius. I drove basically due north from Houston area to Tulsa in January, and had only a few short times with no reception.

[towpro]

I have already done these fixes to my Uconnect 5 radio.
My 2015 Ram has a "puck" antenna on roof. one coax cable goes to this antenna as its a Sirius only antenna.

The 2018 I am looking to buy has a Uconnect 8.4 radio that has a "shark fin" antenna on the roof. this shark fin had 2 cables go to it, one is for Cell phone, the other is a shared Sirius and GPS receiver antenna. I can separate the connector the same place I did for the Uconnecct 5 (passenger side A pillar) but I don't think the standard Sirius antenna will work with the GPS system (my radio does not have navigation but I think GPS is built into it for emergency SOS calls).

Hopefully dealer will accept my offer on new truck, than after about a 6-10 week wait (special order) and I will figure it out :).

[mkasner]

This: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00S908VWC/ref=ox_sc_mini_detail?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3EYYKYFTRLN23

Plus this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0083TX86S/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A2VFMZJQPC2QYY

I am not sure if the FAKRA connection is needed for our radios or not

[jat4]

on the Facebook truck campers group there are a lot of threads on this topic with photos of various installations that people have done. A common one is a magnetic Sirius antenna that folks put up on or near the front of the hood, running the cord back through the engine compartment to the Sirius plug in the cab. if you don't have access to FB I could dig out some of the details if that would help.

[billyray50]

For the most part my TC only causes intermittent signal block and it only happens when I am driving in northerly direction. Any other direction is fine with Sirius. I have not really looked into it yet.

[thedavidzoo]

We have tried to figure this out also. No luck so far.

[mkasner]

Funny I was just looking to fix my antenna blockage issue too!