I have a cell signal booster on the roof rack of my truck. Sometimes when you’re barely out of cell range, it’s great at boosting that into quite usable signal. I don’t always use it, so its normal state should be folded up. Here’s where I complain about something particular: All of the products for folding antenna mounts seem to mount ON TOP OF roof rack crossbars, none of them mount to the SIDE of the crossbar. This means if I want to have a folding antenna period, I would need to give up a significant portion of my roof rack.

Antenna Unfolded

So, I designed and machined a lower profile antenna mount. It mounts to the side of the normal T-Slot extrusion used on roof racks, and locks into either the upright or folded down position using a massively overkill push-button pin. The result is a very solid antenna mount that isn’t there until you want it to be. No more hanging stuff off the top of a perfectly good roof rack.

Antenna Folded

The pictured antenna length is much shorter than the one I use on the truck. To stop the longer one from rattling around, I added edge trim to a bent aluminum part, and use a polyurethane strap to hold the antenna down when not in use.

Antenna Long Bracket