satellite dishes

[Meandering Retiree]

We now have a dome dish and have updated our receiver to HD, so now I want to change the dish...I am looking at a Traveler SK 1000 Dish since we use the Dish Network....any comments good or bad about that as a choice?

Thank you in advance.

[UFO Pilot]

I have 3 friends who have the Trav-ler and they swear by it. I am having my dome replaced with the Trav-ler next week at the Indio FMCA Rally.

[kjburns]

We upgraded from a dome to the Trav'ler earlier this year. It's an excellent piece of hardware. Just park, and press a button...done. It works well with the Dish dual tuner receivers for feeding two TVs or recording while watching live shows.

[ShapeShifter]

Another vote of confidence for the SK-1000. I had a KingDome that gave me no end of trouble. I put on the Trav'ler this spring, and it's been absolutely flawless. It is the latest Dish Pro Plus technology, so it has no trouble driving a dual tuner receiver or DVR through a single cable. It has three outputs, so you can run three receivers off of it (and if they are dual tuner, that's actually 6 tuners!)

My only regret with the Trav'ler was not getting it sooner.

[TechWriter]

It's the bee's knees. Installed one on my last RV, a gasser, and will install it on my new (used) DP.

[Vegasdan]

It's a great system. We have the Dish network and use 2 recievers. I worried at first about wind and possible damage but it has proved itself prety much indestructable. I had a Dish network dish on my sticks and bricks before we started fulltiming and it would lose signal when the wind blew, no such problem with the Traveler.

[lllkrob]

My question is what was wrong with your dome, many domes can receive Dish HD and some can even feed two tv's at a time with a minor reflash or upgrade??

[UFO Pilot]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lllkrob My question is what was wrong with your dome, many domes can receive Dish HD and some can even feed two tv's at a time with a minor reflash or upgrade??

Domes (at least the one I have) have difficulty obtaining and keeping a signal in bad weather. If is damp, even a little bit, my satellite will not lock on the 2 DISH satellites. If it starts to rain, I lose the signal. The friends I know who have the Trav-ler have no trouble obtaining and keeping a signal in bad weather the way I do. My dome can feed 2 TV's but you have to watch the same satellite on each receiver.

[Bugzme]

Where is the cheapest place to buy this dish and could I install it myself?

[UFO Pilot]

Camping World usually has a good price. I don't know how hard it is to install yourself. I am having mine done at an FMCA Rally by Bill Adams Mobile Satellite Internet.

[Meandering Retiree]

I have the same problem with my dome as WThomas1. We all had to watch the same satellite, which does not always work with DW.

I checked prices on the net and Camping World has the cheapest price $1199.99 with the Presidential club discount. They also have a discount on installation, saving $62.40. They are charging me for removing the old dome and for wiring a second receiver. All told it is going to be expensive, but since the dome has not worked correctly since we bought the coach, DW is buying this for my Christmas, birthday, and anniversary presents. The fact that she will be able to watch her shows while I watch my sports does not enter into the equation. :-)

From what my neighbors in the park here tell me, one could install it if he wanted to do so. DW does not want me to climb around on the top of the coach so she says to pay someone else to do it. I reluctantly agreed. :-)

[Meandering Retiree]

Thank you to all of you who responded. I appreciate your help.

[kjburns]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lllkrob My question is what was wrong with your dome, many domes can receive Dish HD and some can even feed two tv's at a time with a minor reflash or upgrade??

Domes don't handle dual tuner receivers well. We have a 722 in RV and the Trav'ler works just like the dish at home. When we want to watch two shows, it isn't a problem. The domes can only look at one satellite at a time.

[ShapeShifter]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vegasdan I had a Dish network dish on my sticks and bricks before we started fulltiming and it would lose signal when the wind blew, no such problem with the Traveler.

My guess is you either had a loose mount that allowed the dish to move in the wind, or perhaps you had some nearby trees that would move in the wind and block the dish? Either way, losing signal in wind is not normal with any dish, there was something wrong there. Heavy rain and snow: yes, but not wind.

I was also concerned about wind with the Trav'ler, as there seems to be a bit of play in some of the linkages. But I've had no issues with wind, even really strong gusts that tried to move the whole MH.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bugzme Where is the cheapest place to buy this dish and could I install it myself?

I don't know your abilities, but I had no issues installing it myself. The actual installation of the unit on the roof took half a day, and that was working slowly and carefully. It then took me the next day and a half to run the wires up front to the receiver location. Part of that was my own doing, as I installed it in the middle of the coach, and had to run the wires down through a wall, under the bathroom cabinets, through the basement, over the fuel tank, into a wiring compartment, up into the cab area, up the windshield A pillar, and finally into the entertainment cabinet. If I installed it up front, and could drill down through the front cap directly into the entertainment cabinet, it would've been much simpler.

You can read the installation manual *HERE* and make your own decision. There is also a installation video *HERE*

Other than running the wires, the hardest part was getting the unit up on the roof. I leaned an extension ladder on the back cap next to the regular ladder. I had a neighbor climb half-way up the ladder, and I handed him the unit. Then I climbed up on the roof using the regular ladder, and he handed the unit up to me. That way, nobody had to try to actually climb a ladder while holding onto the bulky unit. It worked well.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kjburns Domes don't handle dual tuner receivers well. We have a 722 in RV and the Trav'ler works just like the dish at home. When we want to watch two shows, it isn't a problem. The domes can only look at one satellite at a time.

Very well? My personal experience is that they don't handle them at all. I never could get my dome to work reliably with my 722. I had a lot of help from the folks at KingDome trying to get mine to work right, and they were very responsive and helpful up until the moment that they realized I was using a 722 with the dome. Once they learned that, they said to forget it because they don't support dual tuner receivers, and the help stopped.

I finally fixed all of my dome problems and frustrations by getting the Trav'ler SK-1000. Since then, I haven't turned on the dome so it hasn't given me any issues.