Salelite Dish won't work in 5th wheel

Question

I have a Wingard Carryout G2+ that doesn't want to fire up when hooked up to my new Jayco 5th wheel. If I run the cable directly to the Direct TV box through the door or window, it fires up, searches and finds a satelite no problem. Hooked up to the cable connection on the outside of the trailer it won't work. I checked the cable from the side of the trailer to where it comes out near the Direct TV equipment, and it tests ok. I checked it with an ohm meter and there were no opens or shorts in the cable. It should work...but won't. Any ideas? Doesn't the coax cable also carry 12 volts to power the dish motor? Is there a way to test for 12V at the cable wired through the trailer? When it's working, you can hear the motor moving the dish in search of a satelite. The trailer is new and still under warranty but it's a hassle to take it in. I'd rather fix it myself if it's a problem that I can deal with at my limited skill level.

joebedford · Answer

Cable input does not equal sat. input. There's probably a splitter inline somewhere. Run a separate coax.

lantley · Answer

Do you have a satellite input as well as a cable input or is there just 1 input? There is a difference.

bb_tx · Answer

If you only have one coax input then it probably goes thru the switch for selecting between cable and antenna. Not good for sat reception.

You may find a dual coax wall plate somewhere with a short coax jumper between the two. If so, you may be able to remove the jumper and connect a coax cable from your sat receiver to one or the other of the wall plate connectors (one that connects to the outside connector). That worked with mine. I later added a new external coax connector and ran a new cable from there to a new inside coax wall plate to connect to my sat box.

enblethen · Answer

Yes, you should be able to test for 12 volts. Turn on isolator, use volt meter between core and shield. (center of the connector is core, shield is the larger male thread)
Just because you have 12 volts doesn't mean you will get the digital satellite signal.

ibcarguy · Answer

There are 3 cable input connectors. One is for cable TV, one for Sat input and the other for Sat aux input. I tried both of the Sat connections.
Btw, a month ago the system worked fine. I don't think anything has changed but it won't work now unless I bypass the trailer wiring. We called Wingard support and they think there is something wrong with the trailer wiring if it functions by plugging the dish in direct. Makes sense, but the cables check good, no shorts or opens. They did mention to make sure there was 12volts.

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Salelite Dish won't work in 5th wheel

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