Loose TV Antenna

[gator67]

I hesitate to experiment so I'm asking the question.

My TV antenna rotates very easily, to the point where a decent wind causes it to turn. Is it possible to adjust the tension? If so, how?

[troth]

There's a coil spring near the crank handle that may have broken or become dislodged...

Look here:

Winegard Batwing

[Wil Rathke]

I had this happen recently. The threaded shaft that goes through the roof has a large nylon nut on it that may have backed off. It is about 1" and requires a very long deep wall socket. You have to remove the crank, spring, direction turning wheel, and plate attached to the ceiling. I found that the large splice end of a 3/4" PVC pipe would just go over the large nylon nut and provide enough friction to tighten the nut to take up the slack.

[Jim A]

Forgive me for asking, but doesn't the indexing on the direction turning wheel stop the antenna from turning?

[gator67]

Quote:

Forgive me for asking, but doesn't the indexing on the direction turning wheel stop the antenna from turning?

Very observant... I forgot about that! My original turning wheel assembly had the notches to lock in, but the old unit would no longer turn the antenna (it wore down) and I had to replace it with another one. The one that Winegard sent me didn't have the same notches. It didn't even have the "up" and "down" pointers... I had to write them in myself!

[Jim A]

I would guess they sent you the wrong one. On my '04 the antenna was not properly mounted. The turning wheel was too short for the thickness of the Alpine roof. If you pulled down the knob to turn it, it would disengage and not turn the antenna. Winegard makes an extension for lengthening that wheel. An easy install, once I figured out that WRV had mounted the ceiling plate backwards. (The pointer is supposed to face the rear of the coach, not the front, per the Winegard installation manual.) Since then the antenna turns fine.

The installation manual is available online if you want it.

[Snuggery]

Hey, we had the same problem on our '05 Alpine. We got the longer part directly from Winegard's web site - it was pretty cheap. Also found it to be an easy repair from inside the coach and we fixed the backwards mounted ceiling plate also at the same time! They must have had a crosseyed installer putting in the antennaes for a year or so back then.

[Jim A]

I have seen at least 3 other coaches other than mine with the pointer aimed the wrong direction, so the installer definitely had a problem. But hey, at least he was consistent!

That longer extension is indexed, and will only fit one direction. So the pointer needs to go to the back. The only reason it fit backwards from the factory is because it was too short and barely engaged.