Winegard Roadtrip Minimax Satellite Dome

[camphennessy]

Hi Folks!! I was hoping someone has some experience with the rooftop Satellite Dome from Winegard. I recently purchased this for our 2011 Jayflight 28BHS. My wife and I camp with three little ones who, as you can imagine, have different tastes in programming. Yes, of course we enjoy the outdoors, yet it is nice to fall asleep with a bit of the comforts back home. I have installed two small 19" flatscreen tv's (One in the "master bedroom"-I know not exactly a master bedroom, and one in the bunk area) While we have been using DVD players to date, I wanted to have Directv as well. Here's the question: Camping World and others have given me quotes of $325 to install the first tv/receiver connection and another $140 to run a seperate line to the second tv/receiver in the "master bedroom". Given that above the dinette where the coax connections gather, couldn't I use a small multiswith to connect the "master bedroom" tv instead of running an additional line? The dome allows two connections. One comes in to the tv/reciver to the bunk area and the second incoming line should be able to easily connect the 2nd tv in "master" since a cable is already run. I can use an RF remote to switch channels on the second receiver. This would allow me to keep both receivers in one cabinet right by the incoming cables. Has anyone installed this dome before? Am I missing anything? I would do the install myself yet the wife would kill me if I made the roof leak etc. Thoughts??

[OkieCamperFisherman]

Are you totally set on using the roof mounted minimax? I think I am going to look into the winegard carryout. If you are not familiar with it, it is a portable automatic dish that you place in an open area and run coax to your camper. It will work with Dish Network or DirecTV. That is the way I am leaning. I just wander how you keep dishonest hands from picking it up and walking away with it!!

[camphennessy]

Hey Okie -
I thought of the portable unit just as you have. I am ok with chaining up my generators to the TT as they are close to the rig. Yet, I was concerned with running out a line to the portable 50' t0 100' if necessary and having it walk away. My brother has a roof mounted satellite and he gets reception 99% of the time no matter where he camps. I guess, an option could be to simply get the portable and place it on top of the TT and take it down upon leaving.

[OkieCamperFisherman]

Yeah, I don't know which is the way to go. I like the idea of the carryout since you could usually find somewhere to get a view of the southern sky. What I don't like is the potential for thieves. Losing an $800 piece of equipment would make for a very bad day! Wonder how you could make it thief proof? Ideas?

[camphennessy]

Strap it to the back of a Rottweiler. All kidding asisde, while I would like to trust everyone around me while camping - $800 sitting out in the middle unprotected is tempting to those in need. Maybe you can chain it to a table leg that you bring camping, fold up industrial picnic table at Sams Club this week for $120.

Today I actually went to down to Camping world and has an appointment to have the Minimax installed. Thank ggodness for an honest installer. He basically said our domes were problematic. He said he gets quite a few complaints from folks after he installs it and the customer realizes the problems in getting two tv's to watch two separate shows on two spearate receivers. Something about the dome for Directv has only two satellites to choose from, when you watch say any of the first two hundred channels that are on Sat #1 and your kids want to watch one of the channels on Sat#2, you are screwed. While it will work fine if you only had one tv. For us, it wouldn't work. So..... I returned it and will be waiting for the Winegard Traveler to go on sale at some point. The traveler is similar to what we have at home wher you can watch different programming up to 3 tvs.

[camphennessy]

By the way, I looked at how they installed the stellite dishes at Camping World. Therte was no fishing the cables through the walls for a clean install. They basically went into the cabinet, looked for a place in the ceiling which couldn't be seen when you opened the cabinet, cut a hole with a hole saw, fished the cables up through the roof. They simply screwed the units on to the roof after applying plenty of roof sealant and placing the unit over the front and center of the TT. The ran the cables from the dish along the top of the TT down the hole that you made with your hole saw. Used roof sealant to block out leaks. Once the cables are down into the cabinet they connected the coax to the receivers and tapped into the power outlet via a converter. I figure, if I take it slow, I can do the install as good as they do it and save the $4-500.

[bounder]

I use a satellite dish & a winegard tripod. We can watch 2 seperate channels on 2 different tv's at the same time. If it gets stolen I am only out 100 bucks.