Satellite Pre-Wire Question

[Lash]

I have a 2008 Holiday Rambler Vacationer XL on UFO chassis and am looking to install a Winegard Trav'ler 1000 satellite dish. There is a label to the front of the forward A/C unit which states DSS prewire and the manual says that there are 2 RG6 cables installed above the first light from the front of the coach.

Has anyone installed there own dish using this pre-wire setup and is there some reinforcement in the area? I have patterned the install and the clearances required by Winegard installation manual and there are no problems.

Any input would be appreciated prior to dropping the flourescent fixture to inspect the area.

Best Regards

[The General]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lash I have a 2008 Holiday Rambler Vacationer XL on UFO chassis and am looking to install a Winegard Trav'ler 1000 satellite dish. There is a label to the front of the forward A/C unit which states DSS prewire and the manual says that there are 2 RG6 cables installed above the first light from the front of the coach. Has anyone installed there own dish using this pre-wire setup and is there some reinforcement in the area? I have patterned the install and the clearances required by Winegard installation manual and there are no problems. Any input would be appreciated prior to dropping the flourescent fixture to inspect the area. Best Regards

I have a friend that installed per Winegard on a Monaco roof.
No problems mate and fully reinforced!

Steve

[Diplomat Don]

Lash.....I originally had a dome installed by Camping World when my coach was new. They didn't use the prewire which really pissed me off. Instead, they ran the wire across the roof to the front cap, drilled a hole and dropped the wiring through.

Last year, I bought the Winegard Travler at Quartzsite and installed it when I got home. It requires the two coax cables and a control cable. Your issue may be trying to fish the control cable through to where you need it in the coach. You only need one of the coax cables to run HD. You'll need both if you want to use a DVR. There are also extra coax connections to run a third and fourth cable if necessary.

When installing the sat, outline it with a pencil and then remove. Caulk thoroughly just inside the area that you outlined and then set the sat in place. It will want to walk/move because of the caulking, so be prepared to set a couple of screws right away.

After connecting to the controller, I fired up the sat and it locked on perfectly. You might have to go into the sat receiver settings and make some adjustments, like making sure it's set to an oval dish. DirecTV walked me througfh a couple of configuration issues.

It's really simple to do once you get the wiring through the roof.

[Lash]

Steve/Don

Thanks so much for the quick response and the feedback has been very helpful.

Don-- in regards to mounting the dish, is there an issue with drilling mounting holes, i.e. any reinforcement needed? Seems to be pretty straight for everything else. Have put a 20 in circular pattern on the roof to insure clearance from A/C. This puts the unit right over the spot marked DSS prewire. Looking at the install manual it looks like there is an RG6 feedthru box separate from the Sat unit itself. Is this how you did the install?

Thanks again and best regards

Ron

[ShapeShifter]

Don has a lot of good advice. You mention that you are going for the 1000 model, which is for Dish Network, so there are a few differences from the DirecTV model Don is mentioning. He says that you will need two cables for a DVR, but not if you have a more recent model DVR -- if it is one that has a DPP Separator (looks like a small splitter but isn't) you will be able to run both tuners with a single coax line. Also, the dish model only has three outputs, not four (the fourth connection to the LNB is an input that lets you daisy chain a second dish using the switch that's internal to the LNB.)

But other than that, the installation will be the same. As Don mentioned, you will need to run a control cable to the dish, and that could be quite difficult to do at that location. You might have to resort to running it across the roof to the front cap like on Don's installation.

When I did my install, I already had the factory installed dome using the pre-wire cables. I didn't want to take off the dome, so I installed mine farther back near the middle of the rig. It allowed me to drill straight down through the roof into the bathroom wall where the main control panel is located, which resulted in a very neat installation. But it did mean I needed the extension cable for the control cable, and it meant running new coax lines. It was a significant effort to run all of those cables where they couldn't be seen.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lash Looking at the install manual it looks like there is an RG6 feedthru box separate from the Sat unit itself.

Yes, there is a box on the stationary part of the base where all of the connections are made. The control cable is permanently connected to this box, and it has connectors for the coax cables. You can clearly see that box and the short wires I ran in this picture of my install:



The wires you see that run from the base up to the dish are pre-installed and there is nothing to do there.

To fasten it down, I just used screws to attach it to the fiberglass roof. I didn't use any reinforcement, and have had no issues after a year of use. There are so many screw holes that it seems to do a good job spreading the load.

[Lash]

Shapeshifter:

Thanks so much for the really informative post and the picture makes it crystal clear.

As I am a real fuss budget in having things done to the coach, I prefer to do the install myself and will start figuring out what I have starting tomorrow. The weather here in Houston is like the rest of the country less the ice and snow so it is a good time to work in the RV garage and get things ready for spring trips.

Best regards and thanks so much again for the post

Ron

[Diplomat Don]

RON...The sat comes with self tapping screws. Once the silicon dries, it would probably be tough to pull the thing off the roof. Between the screws and silicon, it's not going anywhere.

Here's one issue that both my brother-in-law and I had. When the sat is stowing, there is a wheel that rolls along the roof as the dish settles. That wheel and two screws that pinch the arm on were quickly rubbing a hole in my roof (aluminum) and my brother-in-laws (fiberglass). I installed a hard rubber pad, about 4" x 8" where the wheel and screws come to rest. This solved the problem.

[Lash]

Don--thanks for the heads up on the friction point issue. I had read that in other places in regards to rubber roofs, but was unaware of the issue with fiberglass as my roof is.

There is an RV show here in Houston the first week of February so will go looking for unit at that time. Otherwise will order off the net.

Thanks to all who have contributed to this thread as it has been most informative.

Regards

Ron

[pipedream2]

Lash
Try Satellite Advantage in Quartzite or Tucson ...good price free shipping and no tax to Texas

[Lash]

Dennis:

Thanks for the heads up and went to their website. Will call on pricing as the taxes on this purchase is enough to pay for receiver.

Regards

Ron