Forum Discussion

Tinstar's avatar
Tinstar
Explorer
May 23, 2016

Winegard Trav'ler question

I bought a used RV and it has a Winegard Trav'ler mounted on the roof. Right now it's set up for Direct TV. I'm a Dish Network subscriber so if I can make this thing work, I'll get a Dish dish and mount it.

A couple of questions:

1. I'm assuming that installing the Dish network dish/antenna is all that is necessary as far as hardware goes. Is that correct?

2. On the back of the Winegard Power Box, there are a few inputs. DC In, DC Out/Ant.Comm., Customer Interface and Factory Use Only. So far, other than the coaxal cables, I have only found the DC Out/Ant.Comm cable. I know I have to have the DC In cable to send power to the antenna and it may be in all the stuff that's in the motorhome now. I'm guessing I will be able to buy another power input. What I'm wondering about is the Customer Interface input. When searching, I haven't found anything that needs to be plugged in that port. Is that correct or is there something else that needs to be plugged in there to make it work?

I'm sure I will be able to find instructions on-line to program it to work with Dish Network.

Any other tips or tricks you have will be helpful

Thanks.

  • Bill_Satellite's avatar
    Bill_Satellite
    Explorer II
    May 23, 2016
    I did not follow the link, but you can't use the Trav'ler for DirecTV to receive Dish. However, there is a kit available which costs around $300 that will let you replace the dish, arm and LNB and provide the instructions on reprogramming the controller inside the coach. Call Winegard and let them know what you want to do and they will sell you the necessary package. If you don't think you can do the changeover yourself you should not have to pay for more than about an hours labor to have a dealer do it for you.
  • Tinstar's avatar
    Tinstar
    Explorer
    May 24, 2016
    I'm not sure what you mean can't use the Trav'ler for DirectTV to receive Dish. I don't want to set the Trav'ler up to receive Dish from DirectTV. I want to remove the DirectTV dish and replace it with a Dish dish. I think that's what you are saying and their web site says the Trav'ler will work for both Direct TV and Dish,,, in addition to a couple of others.

    I am guessing that my first assumption in my original post is correct from what I'm reading here. Does anyone have an answer to my second question.
  • Bill_Satellite's avatar
    Bill_Satellite
    Explorer II
    May 24, 2016
    You must buy the antenna, arm and LNB from Winegard to convert your DirecTV Trav'ler to a Dish Network Trav'ler and you must reprogram the controller for Dish rather than it's current programming for DirecTV. It is an easy do-it-yourself job assuming you are at little bit handy and don't mind going up on the roof. Do not worry about the factory and customer interface slots, you don't need anything plugged in there. You will need the Winegard Power supply which supplies 48VDC to the antenna and you will need to plug in the 6-wire square plug that runs from the antenna to the controller.
  • Dutch_12078's avatar
    Dutch_12078
    Explorer II
    May 24, 2016
    Bill.Satellite wrote:
    You must buy the antenna, arm and LNB from Winegard to convert your DirecTV Trav'ler to a Dish Network Trav'ler and you must reprogram the controller for Dish rather than it's current programming for DirecTV. It is an easy do-it-yourself job assuming you are at little bit handy and don't mind going up on the roof. Do not worry about the factory and customer interface slots, you don't need anything plugged in there. You will need the Winegard Power supply which supplies 48VDC to the antenna and you will need to plug in the 6-wire square plug that runs from the antenna to the controller.

    Bill, that's pretty much what you said about the conversion in the thread I linked too... :B
  • Bill_Satellite's avatar
    Bill_Satellite
    Explorer II
    May 24, 2016
    My bad, should have followed the link. Not sure how I did not make it clear in my first post but I tried to repeat it above with as much clarity as possible.
  • Tinstar's avatar
    Tinstar
    Explorer
    May 26, 2016
    Bill.Satellite wrote:
    You must buy the antenna, arm and LNB from Winegard to convert your DirecTV Trav'ler to a Dish Network Trav'ler and you must reprogram the controller for Dish rather than it's current programming for DirecTV. It is an easy do-it-yourself job assuming you are at little bit handy and don't mind going up on the roof. Do not worry about the factory and customer interface slots, you don't need anything plugged in there. You will need the Winegard Power supply which supplies 48VDC to the antenna and you will need to plug in the 6-wire square plug that runs from the antenna to the controller.


    Bill and others, just FYI. Thanks, I didn't realize the power supply was 48 volts. I thought it was 12 volts. Since I never did find a power supply in the m/h, I didn't have information on it and just make an assumption (yeah, I know what happens when I do that). Anyway, I went by a RV Tech's business today and he had an old power supply laying around with a used Trav'ler. He let me borrow it to see if mine would power up and go through the process. I plugged it in, hit power and within about 6 or 8 minutes, it locked on the three Direct TV satellites. I came back inside and ordered the Dish dish, power supply and LNB arm (about $350 total). Installation looks like a pretty straight forward simple job. I should have the new stuff in 4 or 5 days. I'll let ya'll know how it turns out after I get it installed.


    Thanks again for all your help.

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