Installing a Sat Antenna- Lessons Learned

[Belgique]

This is just a lessons learned on the installation of a manual Winegard sat antenna on a Winnie. It is not a difficult task but I made some mistakes that one could learn from. I was able to recover from the mistakes and only I know I did them. I offer this only so it can be here if someone searches in the future.

Winnie has a label on the roof that essentially says drill here because the coax (and elevation wiring) are near here. Winegard gives you a template on where to drill. I'm a dummy and thought these were one in the same and drilled here all the way into the cabin.

Ooops. The Winnie label is intended to only drill through the fiberglass and NOT through the cabin ceiling. The coax and elevation wiring are there. The intent is that you put the 3x3 cover over that hole and feed the wiring to the dish installation.

My second mistake was not moving the second hole further back because the cable cover needs space or else the antenna base plate sits on it.

I covered my first hole inside the cabin with the elevation sensor panel so no harm...I would have had to do a hole anyway. Self leveling caulk stuff covered up the exterior screw-up so no foul there either.

I was able to use the Winnie installed coax to pull in a second coax so that we can use a dual LNB with DVR.

Bottom line is that this is not a difficult task. All you need is a drill with a 1.75 hole saw and a lot of the self leveling caulk (Winnie uses huge amounts of this on all roof holes). It took me several hours but could easily be done in an hour if you read more carefully than me!

Ask or PM me if you have questions. Steve

[Belgique]

This is just a lessons learned on the installation of a manual Winegard sat antenna on a Winnie. It is not a difficult task but I made some mistakes that one could learn from. I was able to recover from the mistakes and only I know I did them. I offer this only so it can be here if someone searches in the future.

Winnie has a label on the roof that essentially says drill here because the coax (and elevation wiring) are near here. Winegard gives you a template on where to drill. I'm a dummy and thought these were one in the same and drilled here all the way into the cabin.

Ooops. The Winnie label is intended to only drill through the fiberglass and NOT through the cabin ceiling. The coax and elevation wiring are there. The intent is that you put the 3x3 cover over that hole and feed the wiring to the dish installation.

My second mistake was not moving the second hole further back because the cable cover needs space or else the antenna base plate sits on it.

I covered my first hole inside the cabin with the elevation sensor panel so no harm...I would have had to do a hole anyway. Self leveling caulk stuff covered up the exterior screw-up so no foul there either.

I was able to use the Winnie installed coax to pull in a second coax so that we can use a dual LNB with DVR.

Bottom line is that this is not a difficult task. All you need is a drill with a 1.75 hole saw and a lot of the self leveling caulk (Winnie uses huge amounts of this on all roof holes). It took me several hours but could easily be done in an hour if you read more carefully than me!

Ask or PM me if you have questions. Steve

[oldpa]

Wow it's a small world; I'm about ready to install a Winegard crank up dish in our '03 30-B Sightseer. Did you use a gasket under the base plate or just use the self-leveling caulk over the screws and the lip of the base?

The extra hole you made is just part of the "fun" of DIY projects.

Greg
Homestead,FL

[Belgique]

Gregg, mine didn't come with a gasket but if it had, I would have used it. The heaping amount of that self leveling caulk should take care of it. Winnie really uses a lot of it on their installs so I did the same.

Something else I did while I was at it and had a big hole to work with was put my XM antenna up their too and ran the wiring with the coax. It was working ok in the forward compartment put I had drop outs....this should take care of that.

Holler if you have questions during the process. Steve

[locoengr]

I take it, that the hole going inside, is smaller.
Did you by chance, save the measurements for the
hole on the roof. My label is not on the roof.

Thanks, Jim

[Belgique]

Jim, I used 1.75 for both and don't think I'd go smaller on either because you need to fish the coax out without bending it too much (and I ran 2 RG6's for the dual LNB).

Be careful: Don't mix the holes up. You kind of need to know where the Winnie decal was so that you can find the coax they ran...That is what the Winne decal is for. If you can't find it, you'll have to fish the coax to the compartment. This is not a big deal...some folks ignore that decal and just run the coax on the exterior directly over the compartment where the receiver is located...think I would do that before fishing the coax. The coax cover plate on the roof easily covers up 1.75.

The Winegard instructions say 1.75 and that is the hole that goes into the cabin. Make sure you put it back far enough so that the coax cover plate has room to sit flat...mine does not because I screwed up. Their instructions give you directions on clearance from other objects etc. You can put the dish anywhere it has room to rotate. They recommend on the center line and make sure you don't have an interior ceiling light fixture in the way.

By the way, it doesn't take much to drill through the fiberglass so don't get aggressive. I used a normal drill hole saw.

[locoengr]

What I was looking for, is the measurement along the center line, from the front crown.

Thanks, Jim

[Belgique]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by locoengr:
What I was looking for, is the measurement along the center line, from the front crown.Thanks, Jim </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

We have gale force winds here on the Outer Banks right now...if it clears in the AM, I'll go measure. Steve

[Belgique]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by locoengr:
What I was looking for, is the measurement along the center line, from the front crown.Thanks, Jim </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Jim, the winds finally abated. On mine the center point of the decal would be approx 9.5" from the seam where the nose cap joins the body.

A suggestion. Scroll through the schematics in the sticky section here and look for the one for your coach that covers coax routing. I think it will give the exact dimensions for your coach. Steve

[locoengr]

Thank you very much. I have looked at the
coax run for my Sunova 27C, I have not been able to find any measurements.

Thanks again, Jim