I'm trying to hook up my Cobra 29 LX today. From what I've read so far I just need to hook it up to a 12V source and ground it to the chassis.

I wire tapped to the 12V line that goes to the radio but I keep blowing fuses for some reason. Any ideas?

Probably because you're drawing too much amperage for the radio circuit you tapped into. You likely need to find a different circuit to tap into or run a new circuit with a relay for switching on with the key.

What circuit would be a good one to tap into?

Depends on what the amperage draw of the CB is. The 12 volt plug may work but then you'd have to be careful with what you plugged into it also. If you can remember to turn it off each time, you could wire it direct to the battery with an in line fuse. Make sure the wire in the engine bay is protected though.

The power cable for it has a 2 Amp fuse on it.

Is the 2 amp the one that is blowing or your radio fuse?

The 2 amp that's on the power cord.

Does it blow as soon as you turn it on?

Yea. The first time it did it, I stayed on for two seconds then blew the fuse.

I ran straight to the battery, and grounded it inside the tub and I recommend you d the same.

I would verify good connection points with a multimeter. Sounds like a weak connection causing amperage fluctuation. Or your power is shorting to ground somehow.

Ok, I'll run it right to the battery. Just need to get some wire and connectors.

x2

Where is a good spot to ground it at? Anywhere already bare of will I need to brush some away?

I ran my positive right to the battery and there is a ground with two other small wires down to the left of your feet when your driving. That's where I grounded mine.

Yep and a grommet on the firewall to run the positive through.

Another option if your '00 has them, my '01 had 2 spare circuits behind the glove box. They were like 8" wires with tags on them, one switched with the ignition, one constant hot. Also, there are at least 2 good ground locations under the dash panel below the steering wheel. You should be able to see a ground strap up high, to the right of the steering column.

I have the hot connected to the battery and its grounded to a spot below the steering. Worked for a couple minutes, then blew a fuse again.

It does it whenever I try to transmit out. I'm not sure if has to deal with the grounding of the antenna or not.

I think this is your problem if your antenna is not grounded properly. And adjusted properly. The impedence can be to high and the power you send out to your antenna can't flow through the antenna properly and actually basically bounces back into your stereo. I'd get a multimeter check that your antenna is properly grounded. And check the antenna with an SWR meter. Everything I know I learned studying for my HAM Liscense I'm by no means an expert. But I think this is your problem.

I may have to grind some more. I have the teraflex mount for the light and may not have taken enough off. And I'm going to a Cb shop here to get it adjusted.

I took my dremel and ground a little for one of the bolts into the tailgate. And ground some off the underside where the cable attached. Then attached everything and touched up any bare metal with some paint. I got good readings without having to run a ground wire back to the tub.

I fought with terrible readings (meter pegged) trying to tune my set up, and I had great bare metal contact from my mount to the body panel. Someone suggested adding a ground cable back to a substantial part of the vehicle. I was 8" away from the roll cage bolts at the rear of the tub, so that's where I went. Tuning was a breeze after that.

Would it be easier to run a grounding cable to a roll bar bolt?

That's exactly what I'm saying.

I wouldn't run it direct to the battery unless you want a dead battery because you forgot to turn it off. I ran mine to the radio power right behind the glove box and no problem with power usage. I too have a Cobra 29 ltd-bt hooked up and i also have a radar detector hooked up to the same curcuit.Good luck with it!!!

Do you have pics of yours?

It's always best to power a 2-way radio directly from the battery which gives clean noise-free power. Modern CB radios draw so little power when not transmitting that it would take weeks without starting the engine for a CB to drain the battery if it was left on.

x2, left my cobra 29lx on for 4 days by accident before I left for a trip. Came home and she started up like nothing had happened.

Coy,

If I read your posts correctly, your radio blows a 2A fuse that is in the radio's power cord shortly after you turn on the radio. Not the Jeep fuse or some other inline fuse you installed but the fuse in the Cobra power cord. If this is correct, most likely you have a defective radio. While good grounding is important as are antenna tuning and antenna mounts for proper operation, none of these will cause a fuse failure. Fuse's blow from over current and your radio is in receive mode when the fuse blows, so it should be using just a small amount of current, probably a 100 milliamps or so. (100 milliamps = 1/10 of an Amp.)

Bob