Your input on solar gear/ and dish

[Don and Judith]

Your wisdom and experience is needed
Our 38RL will be here mid March. We're getting vinyl plank flooring put in throughout the unit when it gets to the dealer, they will also be installing solar and dish.(Redwood would not do any of this)
Early-bird RV show is in about 10 days. We're planning on getting the scoop on solar and TV dishes at the show. Quite possibly buying them there as well
What brands are everyone using here? We'll be touring Canada and the territories for the next 5-10 years. Then we'll head south and explore
Anything to stay away from?
Any extras or upgrades I should be getting or thinking about?
Thanks
Don and Judith

[atom ant]

The Redwood pre-wire for satellite is mostly tailored around the Trav'ler by Winegard

[ksaltman]

What does that mean "mostly tailored around the Trav'ler by Winegard". Are there special cables that the Winegard uses that others don't? What would I need to do to use another dish?

Also, any experience doing satellite internet?

Thanks in advance for help, so much to think about.....

Ken

[atom ant]

Redwood installs the Winegard multiconductor control cable to the roof in addition to the coax. For us, it just plugged into the Trav'ler and into a control box to turn it on, unlike some of the other antennas such as Roadtrip that do not use the same cable.

The Trav'ler is a series of retractable antennas that support Dish or Directv (but not both).

[Oriana]

Don/Judith,

You mentioned the Early Bird RV Show, so I am guessing you refer to the show at Tradex in Abbotsford, which is at the end of February this year. Therefore your dealer is probably be Fraserway.

We bought the very first Redwood from Fraserway just over a year ago. At the Early Bird Show last year we bought a solar system from "GO Power". We got 1 x 160W panel and a 1500W pure sine wave invertor. I believe it is called the weekender package. Fraserway installed the entire package.

For TV dishes, we had asked Linda in stores to price a Dish Network Winegard system. We didn't want a Shaw system, as their new bird only broadcasts into Canada. When the 2 older birds are replaced it is a fair bet the new ones will also only broadcast into Canada. She advised that they couldn't offer any discounts nor could they provide service. Basically she would sell us one, but really didn't want to, as they value us as good customers and don't want to jeopardise the relationship. Therefor, we went with a portable Shaw dish, which I can't get initialised in the US, as Shaw will not provide service if you are in the US. We are planning to get a Dish network system installed later this year while we are in the US.

The RV show is the best place to buy these things, as larger discounts are available.

When we bought the coach we also got the interior and exterior protection package at a substantial discount. We also bought the First Canadian extended warranty, again at a substantial discount.

[Don and Judith]

Andy and Judi
You're correct about Fraserway. We are dealing with Jag. He's been very good to us. First met him at the show two years ago. We liked the Redwood they had there and he's been trying to sell us one since. As for the protection packages, got them. And the extended warranty as well. Reading a lot here about the heating (or lack of)in the basements so we're probably going to get the tanks heated as well. The unit we have now has heated tanks. Thanks for the info on the dish, guess it will be Shaw. We're staying in Canada for the next few years as we have an awful big back yard up here. Want to see it all before going to play in the neighbours yard. By then, we'll be old enough that the warmer weather will be more comfortable. Who knows... Shaw might be down there as well by then. When will you be close to home? Maybe we can meet for coffee. We'll be heading out north full timing hopefully by June. We'll be wintering in the lower mainland area or the Island every year.

[Oriana]

Originally Posted by Don and Judith

Andy and Judi
You're correct about Fraserway. We are dealing with Jag. He's been very good to us. First met him at the show two years ago. We liked the Redwood they had there and he's been trying to sell us one since. As for the protection packages, got them. And the extended warranty as well. Reading a lot here about the heating (or lack of)in the basements so we're probably going to get the tanks heated as well. The unit we have now has heated tanks. Thanks for the info on the dish, guess it will be Shaw. We're staying in Canada for the next few years as we have an awful big back yard up here. Want to see it all before going to play in the neighbours yard. By then, we'll be old enough that the warmer weather will be more comfortable. Who knows... Shaw might be down there as well by then. When will you be close to home? Maybe we can meet for coffee. We'll be heading out north full timing hopefully by June. We'll be wintering in the lower mainland area or the Island every year.

Yes we know Jag and he has been very helpful since our salesman Ryan was reassigned to Motorhomes.

We will be home about early March, but only until Mar 27th when we fly down to Ft Lauderdale for a cruise and onward travel to Dubai & UK. Home again July 1st, but only for a week. Would love to meet up for a chat. We live in Maple Ridge.

Another consideration is medical insurance - which gets considerably more expensive as we get older. This is the reason we plan to winter down South and then travel Canada in the summers. We are also limited on the number of days we can be in the US and also out of BC.

Send me a PM in late February and we can set up a meeting.