Satellite Dish

[bankedtime]

Has anyone installed a roof mounted satellite dish, and do you like it? Thinking of installing the Wingard DirecTv model. Did Jayco pre-wire by any chance

[gaserv]

I've been in the DirecTV business since it's conception in 1994 so hopefully you will understand the situation better. First, most of us RV'ers prefer to park under trees for shade which totally kills the roof mounted dish. If that is not a problem for you, and you decide to do the roof mount, make sure you get the SWM model so you are not limited to the model receivers you can use. You didn't state the model of your rig, so to answer your question about pre-wire is not possible. All the TT's, 5th wheels I've seen have not been pre-wired for a roof mount. We've actually taken the Winegard and made it portable so the RV'er has flexibility to park under trees. The SWM model only requires a single coax from the dish so you can usually figure a path of travel for the single coax. My Pinnacle has all the coax in the console cabinet at the TV lift and antenna power supply, so this is where the dish SWM wire needs to get to. I personally mounted my SWM Slimline dish on a 4x4x16 concrete block using a DirecTv stubbie mount mounted to the block using lead tap ins and manually set my dish. I run a HR24 with 2 H25's in the bedroom and underbelly. The Winegard is an awesome system, I have installed several, but always replacing a crank up or older automatic system. Good luck!!

[edatlanta]

I have been using a slimline/swm dish and tripod for the past 5 years full time. I took the dish from my s&b when I moved out of it and mated it to a tripod from tv4rv.com. Works great and I don't care where the trees are.

[Grumpy]

Originally Posted by bankedtime

Has anyone installed a roof mounted satellite dish, and do you like it? Thinking of installing the Wingard DirecTv model. Did Jayco pre-wire by any chance

Only units that have roof prewiring are MHs.

[RVhiker]

Originally Posted by gaserv

... First, most of us RV'ers prefer to park under trees for shade which totally kills the roof mounted dish. ...

I'd like to expand a bit on the very valid point made here by gaserv.

Over the last five years, we've been using DirecTV for our RV. I have set up our portable dish at least a hundred times in that five years. In a few locations - for example west Texas, parts of New Mexico, Oklahoma, Colorado -- line of sight issues caused by trees and other vegetation are not issues. For us, most of the time tree cover causes at least some difficulty finding a line of sight to the satellites. Many times, if my dish had been installed on the roof, we would not have had a signal.

I'm sure folks who have a roof installed dish can also speak to many successes in getting a signal... but be sure that lack of blue sky in the trees at the right inclination and azimuth is a real issue.

[boyzx3iii]

bankedtime.....to your question......Yes, I have installed the DirecTV dish on the roof of my 5ver. I did an extensive amount of research on the product because I didn't want to make any mistakes AND I didn't want to spend the pricey costs to get it installed. Anyway....it was quite easy but a bit time consuming. The installation on the roof was uneventful but I tried to make sure that I covered any entry point for water with Dicor sealant. I ran the cable/s to the rear of the 5ver and made that my entry point. Again....tons of sealant. That was all it took. The satellite receiver did the rest and I have not been disappointed. Yes, you have to be careful of "line of sight" but it beats the dickens out of manual sight-ins. Good luck with your decision.

[Shorty Cox]

BANKEDTIME, When I ordered my RV, I wanted a dish on the roof. The dealer installed a Winegard Trav'ler Dish network dish 1000 on the roof. It is wired separate from the cable wiring. I wanted it wired for three receivers. One it the living room, bed room and bunkhouse.

Thus far, I have not had any problems. Yes, one has to be selective of camp sites to insure a "clear view of the southern sky". However, I've only been to one campground where that was a issue and they offered cable TV.

I chose a self-aligning dish because of witnessing a fellow camper spend the entire weekend trying to find a satellite with one of those you sit on the ground.

With mine, I just take the receivers from my house and when I get to the campsite, push a button and I'm good.

Shorty

[F14man]

I have the portable, trees are not your friend.

[Mustang65]

While we were traveling out west, the big $$$$$ MH's all had roof mount satellite antenna's but were using tri-pod mounted antennas. I have a Dish Tail-gater and I mount it on the top of the ladder with bungee cords and a cable and lock. Works great unless the trees are in the way, then I move it to a position on the ground.

Don

[Timon]

Originally Posted by Mustang65

While we were traveling out west, the big $$$$$ MH's all had roof mount satellite antenna's but were using tri-pod mounted antennas. I have a Dish Tail-gater and I mount it on the top of the ladder with bungee cords and a cable and lock. Works great unless the trees are in the way, then I move it to a position on the ground.

Don

If you have a Travler on the roof so you can normally setup quickly you're still going to have a tripod to cover you when you cannot get a clear view due to the trees. It's the name of the game.

[Shorty Cox]

Post script to my last reply: I go camping to get away from TV. The dish is mainly for grandkids when they go with me. If I can't get TV, NO PROBLEM. Besides, there is nothing on TV now days worth watching, unless it happens in Mayberry.

Shorty

[Wrascal]

I'm in full agreement with that last poster.

[rick danger]

Originally Posted by Shorty Cox

there is nothing on TV now days worth watching,

Turner Classic Movies

[bankedtime]

Thanks for the replys guys, I appreciate it, my plan was to install a Traveler & take along a portable, we bought a Pinnacle 2015, 31RETS, the curve of roof dictates installation in the center of the roof line, probably put it towards the back for ease of wire fishing, it would of been nice for Jayco to pre-wire for $20.00 worth of cable it would be a nice feature. We F/T and move around a far amount it is a pain to find a signal for 1-3 day stop over, in saying that over the air channels are most of the time all we need. I guess it boils down to wanting to spend 2k on a dish.

[edatlanta]

I just relocated yesterday from my home base to Panama City Beach, FL for a hosting position for the summer. When I unhooked my satellite dish Thursday evening all was working fine. Yesterday afternoon when setting it back up I couldn't find the sat. It didn't take me but a couple of minutes searching to realize something was wrong. After a bit of checking the section of coax that I have been using for a while and the one that was working fine Thursday evening was dead. Both end connectors were fine, but there was a break somewhere in the length of coax. So I replaced it with a spare and had a signal in about 30 seconds.

One length of coax in the dumpster and all is well.

[Seann45]

I just had a system installed on the roof of my TT the wiring was no trouble at all. and since I use solar I avoid parking under trees..

[gaserv]

I am going to give some advice on coax cable that should help all RVer's. After being in the satellite TV business for over 30yrs, I have learned the best practices when it comes to cable. Unfortunantly, the people that sell the cable don't know what they are selling most of the time. Knowing how RVer's use their coax, I strongly recommend buying coax that has a solid copper center conductor. Most big box retailers only sell coax that is what we call copper clad (the center conductor is steel with a copper coating). A RVer will have less trouble with solid copper than copper clad because the solid copper is more flexible and won't breakdown as easily from continually rolling up. Any DirecTV retailer will have solid copper coax because they require it, Dish Network doesn't require solid copper.