Okay, so we recently went full-time an purchased our dream coach, a 2018 Newmar Dutch Star 4018. It came with the Winegard Trav'ler for DirecTV. We have Dish.
Dealer said they would have to replace the entire unit with a new Dishnet Trav'ler unit... The price for the DirecTV Trav'ler on the "OPTIONS" list for what was installed in my MH is about $2100... The price for the Dishnet Trav'ler is about $1700... I was not going for that. I would have wasted $2100 bucks already spent, and spent an additional $1700 or more for the Dishnet set-up... Plain crazy.
So here is what I learned, and just did yesterday. First off consulted a couple of good friends in the know... Don Wells & Tom Scales... Thanks guys! Owe ya big time!
They referred me to a company here is Las Vegas that does nothing but RV Satellite installations... Gave them a call, explained my situation. The owner was very knowledgeable, asked me a few questions about my coach, and right away told me he had all the parts in stock (Winegard has conversion kits).
The installers showed up around 4:30 PM, had my Dishnet up and running by 7:30 PM, and did a fantastic job...
So here is the info: You can convert a Winegard DirecTV Trav'ler to Dishnet, but you cannot convert a Dishnet Trav'ler to DirecTV. The base, gears, motors, and armatures are more robust for the DirecTV because it is a heavier unit. The Dishnet Trav'ler has lighter duty components and cannot support the weight of the heavier duty DirecTV unit.
Apparently all new Newmar coaches now come wired for both DirecTV and Dishnet so there was not a need to run coax anywhere... It was already there. All the techs had to do was swap out the reflector, the LNB, and the LNB arm. There is a series of metal plate adapters in the kit that allows the exchange of these mounting parts.
We hooked up my receiver and contacted Dishnet to reactivate it. The techs still had a series of installer type set-up steps to do to pair the now converted Winegard Trav'ler to my Dishnet Wally receiver, but after that it was smooth sailing... Got all my channels and the DVR works flawlessly... The conversion kit ran about $400, and it took both techs a couple of hours from start to finish... Total bill... $800 out the door... Including tips.
In conclusion, this conversion cost me half of what the dealer would have had me pay for a new Dishnet Trav'ler, and I did not waste my initial investment of $2100 - plus, if I ever sell the MH the Trav'ler can easily be reconfigured back to DirecTV.
I have the highest regard for the company that did the work. The install was top-notch and came in well below below the initial estimate of $960. Satellite World of Las Vegas... You guys Rock!
Linear Mode
