Bounder: Sirius antenna 33c

[MDPD]

I have been having trouble with the Sirius radio cutting out in my early 2016 33C when traveling and after checking the connection at the radio and speaking to Fleetwood Customer Service believe the antenna may have come loose. Fleetwood sent me the production schematic that shows the installation location under the front cap by the center clearance light. It is not there. Anybody have an idea where it could be or should I just get a new one and abandon the lost one? Thanks

[Dale & Mark Bruss]

My antenna didn't work when I took delivery of my Bounder. Apparently many of the installations have the antenna bound up in the wiring in the cap making the antenna useless.

The dealer installed a new antenna using magnetic attachment to a screw on the forward part of the dash. The antenna location turned out to be useless especially heading North.

I installed my own antenna. I have a front TV and put the antenna behind it in the cap space. I cut a hole in the right cabinet over the windshield to get access to the cabling running down the right windshield post. If you don't have a front TV, the hole would be a good place to stick the antenna. I followed the AC wiring down the windshield post by loosing the cover over the post. Ran the antenna wire to the right of the dash, under the dash and over to the radio.

The right place for the antenna is in the top of the front cap, it works well there.

[computerguy]

Originally Posted by MDPD

I have been having trouble with the Sirius radio cutting out in my early 2016 33C when traveling and after checking the connection at the radio and speaking to Fleetwood Customer Service believe the antenna may have come loose. Fleetwood sent me the production schematic that shows the installation location under the front cap by the center clearance light. It is not there. Anybody have an idea where it could be or should I just get a new one and abandon the lost one? Thanks

Definitely a known problem.
Mine is being repaired under warranty as we speak (ok, well, it's been there since the beginning of March. Different story for another thread). First check if the antenna is connected to the Sirius adapter. Sometimes they come loose. This should be fairly easy.
The antenna will then go up one of the pillar posts. Follow it from the radi and see which way it goes. Mine was the drivers side. The pillar post covering comes off easy enough but probably won't help much. I don't have the front TV as I have the drop down bed. From there it goes behind the cabinets in the front and kind of disappears.
Turns out mine was wrapped in tape and wouldn't work very well when headed north.
I didn't see what it took to get get behind that cabinet to get to the cap so can't help much there.
It's one of the 2 issues above most likely. Let us know what it turns out to be.

[MDPD]

Found it!!!!! Taped to the back of a bundle of wires on the far left side of the cap. To get to it I had to remove the back of the cabinet above the drivers seat where I found the antenna wire bundled and follow the wire to the antenna itself that could not be seen, only felt with a contorted hand. It appears that the antenna would have been on the back side of the wires if headed north or east. I will make a bracket and place it in the center of the cap, away from the metal frame that holds up the cabinets and hope for the best.

Just for curiosity, how did you get the A pillar cover off as now is a good time to move the GPS antenna to the same location as the Sirius antenna and get it off the dash where the lazy dealer installed it. Thanks for the assistance, I can always depend on responses from others on this forum.

[computerguy]

Originally Posted by MDPD

Found it!!!!! Taped to the back of a bundle of wires ...
Just for curiosity, how did you get the A pillar cover off as now is a good time to move the GPS antenna to the same location as the Sirius antenna and get it off the dash where the lazy dealer installed it. Thanks for the assistance, I can always depend on responses from others on this forum.

Awesome. I didn't have the patience to actually find it up there.
My pillar had a couple of screws. I think they were around the front towards the window.There are little covers on the screw heads that match in color. They simply pop off with a flat head screw driver.

[Ajayabb]

I too had terrible signal strength due to poor location of the original antenna. I abandoned the installed antenna and attached the new antenna on the roof and ran the wire through one of the holes for the clearance lights and sealed everything up and ran the wire down the left A pillar trim to under the dash. Works much better now

[Amgage]

Ours is the opposite. Very light wind and it retracts.

[Medic57]

You may not have any equipment problems. I have three vehicles with Sirius XM and they all cut out, and it seems to be getting worse. I plan on calling tech support to see if they are having satellite problems. A year ago everything was fine.