Wingard Trav'ler installation

We had one installed after market by our RV manufacturer. They had to take a ceiling panel down for something else and ran the wiring through the ceiling to the wire track, through the kitchen sink cabinet to the basement area. We opted to have our control box in the basement. Once you deploy the dish, you do not need the control box nor anything else. The back cap would have had to come off if we were not having another issue that required the ceiling panel to be taken off.

turbopilot51 wrote:
I am looking to add a Winegard Trav'ler satellite system to my Alpine 3500RE. Has anyone added one of these to their fiver? My entertainment center is in the rear and wonder how to route wiring and power source?
:@

I've mounted two of these dishes recently. On one of them I had a cable run from the back of the coach where this dish is mounted up to the middle where the TV and DVR are housed. I used the A/C plenum to run the cables (coax and control cables) forward to the middle of the coach. I was able to fish the cables from the sides of the coach (roof entry point and A/V cabinet) to the center where the plenum is located. It worked out very well. On my toy hauler I was luckier. I had some flexibility on where to mount the dish so I placed it right above the TV enclosure which is a floor to ceiling cabinet. No cable runs required.

As far as power goes, in both installations my dish control box resided in the same cabinet as the TV and DVR so power was not a problem. Measure your run and determine whether the standard control cable length is sufficient. If it isn't, order the optional extension.

I suggest using the optional dish mounting plate if you have a rubber roof.

Good luck!

I have installed two different Trav'lers. I was lucky that in both occasions I was able to mount them directly above the entertainment center. if that is not feasible in your case then srosa's method sounds pretty good.
You will find that the installation is very straight forward but I strongly suggest that you have help getting the base unit onto the roof. That is by far the hardest part.

fpresto wrote:
I have installed two different Trav'lers. I was lucky that in both occasions I was able to mount them directly above the entertainment center. if that is not feasible in your case then srosa's method sounds pretty good.
You will find that the installation is very straight forward but I strongly suggest that you have help getting the base unit onto the roof. That is by far the hardest part.

+1 The installation itself was very straight forward in both cases. I can also confirm that the hardest part for me was getting the dish on to the roof by myself. If there is a next time, I will get some help with that part. Winegard builds these dishes to last and they're pretty heavy.

One more suggestion for the OP would be to check with the trailer manufacturer (or a brand specific forum for orphans) to find the recommended dish/dome location. My Excel has a reinforced section of the roof for this purpose.

Question: Is your 5er "pre-wired for a satellite mount on the roof? Mine was and I had the 3005SK Hi-Def Trav'ler put on about 10 months ago...I did have to route to my bedroom, but wiring already existed to route cabling to my livingroom. Might check to see if you have that particular prep package. It did come in handy and as in post above, that part of the roof was reinforced to hold the weight of a satellite...

I installed the SK-1000 Travler - but our trailer manufacturer provides prep wiring. They provided cable from the roof to each TV, and the winegaurd control cable to the roof. That made it so easy I had it done in about 4 hrs while at a campground!

NC Hauler wrote:
Question: Is your 5er "pre-wired for a satellite mount on the roof? Mine was and I had the 3005SK Hi-Def Trav'ler put on about 10 months ago...I did have to route to my bedroom, but wiring already existed to route cabling to my livingroom. Might check to see if you have that particular prep package. It did come in handy and as in post above, that part of the roof was reinforced to hold the weight of a satellite...

Does anyone know if Keystone prewires their fivers for satellite? I have the coax connections for satellite hookup in the water works area and the entertainment center.

In 2008, Montana had a satellite "prep" option. I'm not sure about the rest of Keystone.

Our NuWa was prepped for satellite installation but only for a dome. More wiring is required for the Traveller.