Traveler 1000

[vrodrider]

Have any of you installed this type of a dish on your RV ? I have recently purchased a 2013 38RE and want to have a Satellite dish on it.

I see where it says it is sat ready and wondered if I should have one installed or do it myself. (I know what kind of work I do )

So if you can give any advise I appreciate it greatly.

Thanks in advance
V

[0nTheRoad]

We had ours installed by the dealer as part of the purchase. There are several others on the forum who installed their own, I'm sure you will hear from them.

My only complaint is where the dish is installed but understand why. The dish is mounted near the rear of the coach so it is more easily blocked when parking under trees. Many RV's, especially motorhomes, mount the dish in the front of the coach so you can usually poke the front out from the tree cover and still get a beam on the sats. I would not be feasible to put a dish near the front of the RW, the things are already very close to 13' 6", putting a sat antenna near the front would take these things close to 14'.

Having said that, when you do link up its awesome!!! And for those times when I'm under trees I got a Pathway X2 [carryout] so I can generally find a signal with that.

[homeguy]

So here is a question that has ben rolling around in my head. We currently have a dish that you have to manually point at the satellites. With all the concern about trees blocking the signal, I have been thinking about mounting the Trav'ler 1000 to a flat top tri-pod made by winegard. That way I have the option of moving the dish to a clear path and have it automatically find the signal. Thoughts?

[vrodrider]

Originally Posted by homeguy

So here is a question that has ben rolling around in my head. We currently have a dish that you have to manually point at the satellites. With all the concern about trees blocking the signal, I have been thinking about mounting the Trav'ler 1000 to a flat top tri-pod made by winegard. That way I have the option of moving the dish to a clear path and have it automatically find the signal. Thoughts?

Sounds good but I have storage issues to start with. We spend 6 months in Fl during the winter and being gone that long need lots of stuff (Like my wife's 132 pairs of shoes LOL). Not really but we do pack a lot of stuff the bed of my truck is also tied up with a 60 gal Aux tank. But this is a thought I will have to look into that.
Thanks
V

[vrodrider]

Originally Posted by 0nTheRoad

We had ours installed by the dealer as part of the purchase. There are several others on the forum who installed their own, I'm sure you will hear from them.

My only complaint is where the dish is installed but understand why. The dish is mounted near the rear of the coach so it is more easily blocked when parking under trees. Many RV's, especially motorhomes, mount the dish in the front of the coach so you can usually poke the front out from the tree cover and still get a beam on the sats. I would not be feasible to put a dish near the front of the RW, the things are already very close to 13' 6", putting a sat antenna near the front would take these things close to 14'.

Having said that, when you do link up its awesome!!! And for those times when I'm under trees I got a Pathway X2 [carryout] so I can generally find a signal with that.

Trees are not much of an issue with me. We usually camp in a spot that has very few trees. Even though we are smack in the middle of Ocala Nat Forest. Other places are on the coast close the ocean (Myrtle Beach and the Outer Banks of NC. But point well taken on the height of these units.

[atom ant]

I did mine myself - surprisingly simple. The hardest part was drilling the first hole in the roof of a coach that still had temporary license plates

I installed mine in the back between the two ACs near the prep. There are two coax cables and one has the Winegard control cable taped to it under the roof.



The antenna install was as simple as setting it down, checking your clearances, drawing a line around it, laying a bead of non-leveling lap sealant (Alpha) on the line, then setting the antenna in the bead and drilling it in. A coat of leveling lap sealant over the top of the mounting plate to cover the screws.



The cables are too short to reach the antenna (typically). I laid new cable across the roof, connected barrel connectors to the existing and tucked them down in the ceiling. I also cut and spliced the winegard control cable that came with my antenna to the prep control wire, and tucked it down in the ceiling as well and buttoned it all up using the cover plate from the antenna. (I didn't want to use the factory barrel plates because the coax would have formed a loop on the roof catching branches, so I abandoned theirs).



If you are using the Hopper-Joey system, you will need to add a solo-node as shown in the attachment. I upgraded mine later, but if you are doing it from scratch the solo-node will actually fit through the hole in one of the ceiling puck lights near the prep penetration through the roof and the node can all be tucked up in the ceiling rather than showing on the roof like mine.



Fire it up - all done! I would say it took me 4 hrs.

[vrodrider]

Does the control box have a connection inside the coach I thought I recall seeing something like a telephone connection where the receiver goes. But I am old and forgetful. LOL

[atom ant]

I can't say on yours, but on mine, the other end of the control cable was coiled on the shelf in the cupboard next to the bedroom TV. It was a direct run, no jack. It's like a small square 4 prong end if I remember.

[0nTheRoad]

The control box has a direct connection to the antenna, there are three cables on the receiver [see pics above], one for the LR. one for the BR and the control cable.

[vrodrider]

Thanks to all of you for the information it is very valued by me. I also hope I can be of some help to the folks on here at some point but I am still learning about these Redwoods. But I can say me and the wife love ours so far.

[lwg]

What's interesting about the hopper connection for the SK-1000 is that for the standalone dish you only connect a single coax to the line in for that box and then output two coax cables to the client and host (1 each).

[arcticman1957]

I installed my traveler in one night after work about an hour worth of time. Atom Ant pictures were very helpful and with just a couple of PM's I have to said this was one of the easiest installation I have done to my Redwood. The location I chose was close enough that I did not have splice the control cable.


So happy when I powered up and in less than ten minutes all the satellites' were located.


Thanks Atom Ant.

[atom ant]

AWESOME! I'm glad it worked for you without any cable troubles. I plugged mine in and it worked first time as well!

Now grab a lawn chair and a cold one and just watch in awe how that thing finds three satellites Right after the autolevel does its thing My setup ritual!