Has anyone installed their own roof satellite dish?

[Doug427]

We're at the campground today and my wife is looking at at the satellite dishes around us, and wishing we had one. I was holding out waiting for Starlink so we can just stream, but it appears more and more like she doesn't want to wait. We're Dish customers at home, so for $7 a month extra that's what we'd get here in the coach.

I'm very do it yourself at home, however the RV is new to me. My 2005 coach has the old 2005 era dish on the roof, which I am told is useless. We'd be going with either a Winegard SK-1000 Trav'ler or a RF Mogul. My question is about the actual physical installation. My coach has a fiberglass roof. Am I correct in asuming that the fiberglass is an overlay over a wood roof, and the dish is simply screwed through the fiberglass and into the wood below to secure it, with Dicor sealing the screws, brackets etc? The cables concern me. My old dish, which is still in place but unused, has a power switch in the AV cabinet, and a coax cable in the cabinet as well. That's it. Do the Winegard and/or RFMogul dishes use these same cables or do I have to run any new cables? I have no idea how the cables would be run if that's needed. Any basic info on how the install is physically done would be appreciated. If needed I'd pay someone to do it, but I would of course prefer to save that money if possibe. I believe it would be fairly easy if I can use the cables that are already run. Thanks.

[Spk64]

I did my own install replacing the dome with a Travler. It will require new cables, I just ran same as the old wires. Was able to access above ceiling through a speaker opening.
You will also have some roof trusses of some sort supporting the roof. Getting a few screws in this adds plenty of strength.
My installation process.
https://www.irv2.com/forums/f103/win...ll-286525.html

[Lt Dan]

Same as Steve, I installed my Winegard Trav'ler but didn't have to run wires as I had the coach pre-wired for it. You will have to pull a new control cable but you may be able to reuse the coax. If you have a cabinet up front or somewhere you can run a direct wire from the roof that's generally the best bet. If you have to run wires over the roof, some generous globs of Dicor over the cable will lock it in place.

[bizzerbiz]

Use the baseplate from your existing one for the new one, traveler will fit right on it. That's what I did. I used a 1inch hole saw bit to run the cable and power cord back filled it with dicor and the cable plate that comes with traveler covers the hole. Main bolts for traveler, dicor those. Took me about and hour to install. Works great.

[Newps]

Just installed the Travel'r on my Tiffin 32SA, it's located in the front. The 32SA has all its A/V stuff in the closet in the bedroom. We reused the coax from the previous dish. The control cable we ran to one of the front storage cabinets over the passenger seat by using a fish tape. You'll need 120 volts AC wherever you have the control box so keep that in mind.

[SteveNSue]

We use a Winegard dish and found you can get local channels if you call the Dish 800 phone number and give them a temporary zip code to use for where you are staying. When you return home you can repeat the request and return the "local" stations with your home zip code.



We stayed at a job site for six months and got the local stations during our stay.

[Billett Bee]

We have ful timed for 5 yrs and my instal has worked great for us. I have 2 king playmaker domes. I have the tpo rubber roof and absolutely did not want to drill them into the roof because the last thing i wanted to worry about was more points for a possible future leak. I bought the holder that mounts to your roof that holds down the dome and locks it in so nobody can steel it. Instead of screwing the dome holder to the roof, I took metal plumbers tape and went from under the a/c unit at mounting bolts to fantastic vent cover bolts. This metal tape with holes gave me something to bolt my dome mount to and no drilling of any new holes was done.
I then ran the 2 cables across roof and taped neatly with a small piece every 4' or so. I then ran both cables into rubber tube slide seal down the side of rv in to storage door where master cable tv connections are.
I know it sounds backwoods engineered but I assure you it looks pretty descent.

[taylorbob1]

I’ll only add to this conversation that I DIY installed a Hybrid Trav’ler for DISHnet.
I used the SKA-008 roof support mounting plate.

With my non-Newmar, lower-end RV with TPO roof, the mounting plate gives the entire unit a more secure & solid feel.

[Derr]

I will have to replace a Direct TV Winegard antenna on the roof of RV and was wondering if there are any happy owners of the Winegard Playmaker dish setup with a Wally receiver?

[bhammond1980]

I have added the travler to both motorhomes we've had. The first had a fiberglass roof so I opted to buy the steel mounting plate offered as an option. I ran all new coax cables and rerouted the entry over the entertainment equipment cabinet. I also replaced the tv's, surround system, blu ray and of course the dish receiver. It isn't complicated but does take time to do a neat job. Attached are a few shots

[Derr]

Well I took the plunge and bought the Winegard PL8035R Dish Playmaker, and the Wally receiver.
Since I am old and arthritic it took me a couple of hours to take the direct tv off the roof. It was pretty light and I have the help of a forklift (I don't do ladders well).
As for the cables, I did remove a ceiling speaker, and that gave me access to space between ceiling and roof.
I have a metal roof and I just used residential roof screws with plenty of Dicor to secure the Winegard dome. Dome is pretty thin, and the 2 cables went through a 1 1/4 hole just ahead of the dome. A cable plate and Dicor sealed that.
I went around the roof and sealed all the holes from the direct tv dome.
It rained hard the next day and there were no leaks.
So if an old guy that is hampered by Arthritis can do it, most anybody can.

[Rob_M]

I have a working Dish Winegard Travler 1000 setup on my Class A that needs a new home.

[Bigd9]

We like to camp where there are plenty of trees, so a roof mounted dish is not good for us. I use a Winegard Pathway X2 plus over 100 feet of cable and we can usually find a hole to be able to see those satellites that are 55,000 miles up there.