Information about the Springer aerial
The Springer is the most popular aerial available, largely due to its toughness, flexibility and economy of price.
The large version is 155cm / 61 inches long, the small version is 89cm / 34 inches.
As with most aerials, bigger is better and the larger version works quite a bit better than the smaller one.
The coil is tighter on the small aerial so it's a bit less flexible and when it swings it returns to vertical very quickly - the large aerial is very flexible and the aerial can be bouncing around for a while after you've stopped moving.
This flexibility is sometimes a downfall - care has to be taken to make sure the aerial is not in a position to hit the body of the vehicle when it's flexing (you'll soon get fed up with the clanging!) and these aerials should not be mounted any lower than bullbar height otherwise they could become a danger to pedestrians etc (pull up quickly in front of a marshall at an offroad course, and your aerial flexes forward and whips him in the face! - don't laugh, it's happened).
If this is the case where you are thinking of mounting an aerial, you could look at our alternative aerials.