Add TV cable and exterior gas connection.

[Cyride]

Getting ready to order a new 381TH but have asked the dealer to check and see if we could add a TV cable to the buffet in the kitchen and one to the rear basement storage area. I don't believe there is a place to connect a grill outside the camper so have asked if that could be added also. As far as power for an outside TV it looks like that will be easy since there is an outlet for the garage area that I believe I could modify to get an outlet in the storage bay.

If Keystone won't make those additions is anyone familiar with fishing cable through the underbelly of the 5th wheel?

Thought it would be nice to watch a smaller TV in the kitchen and at times a TV while outside the camper. I also thought it would be nice to run a small gas grill when set up.

Has anyone added any of these additions or have any knowledge on if Keystone would add them when the camper is being build?

Thanks for your input!

Jon

[Montana Man]

Fish your own coax it isn't too difficult. Keystone can't wire tvs as it is, let alone anything custom. Actually, before accepting the unit ensure all tv cabling works even if you have to buy/borrow a satellite unit to test it.

[Cyride]

I was wondering how easy it would be to fish my own coax. I'm a licensed master electrician and have fished more walls in buildings than I would like to admit. Just didn't know how accessible everything would be on a 381TH.

[darmock667]

It is not too bad for it. I rewired mine with better quality quad shield and used a home run methodology to ensure the minimum number of splitters. Unfortunately, in my 2018 they used cheap coax and did not use enough RG6 and substituted RG59 for one of the satellite runs. Keystone also used the cheapest splitters they could find. I removed all of their stuff and replaced it. Easier than trying to get the service center to actually fix something in a timely fashion. I guess I should be grateful they did not use twinlead.

I used fish tape and rods for most of the runs. I did use a magnetic tool for one run 8^) PITA that was. On our rig my concern is for the living room slideout as the coax to the tv flexes when the slide goes in and out thus shortening the service life of the cable. I may end up adding some connectors so the flex part of the cable can be changed out when the signal degrades.

I would take the opportunity to replace all of the splitters with high quality BiDi ones also especially if you are adding an extra TV. My rig came with 4 flipping tv's! I counted 5 splitters! I now have a single multiport splitter in the basement that feeds all of the rig. Any of the unused ports have terminators on them.


Tom

[RoadRunnerTR21]

Originally Posted by darmock667

It is not too bad for it. I rewired mine with better quality quad shield and used a home run methodology to ensure the minimum number of splitters. Unfortunately, in my 2018 they used cheap coax and did not use enough RG6 and substituted RG59 for one of the satellite runs. Keystone also used the cheapest splitters they could find. I removed all of their stuff and replaced it. Easier than trying to get the service center to actually fix something in a timely fashion. I guess I should be grateful they did not use twinlead.

I used fish tape and rods for most of the runs. I did use a magnetic tool for one run 8^) PITA that was. On our rig my concern is for the living room slideout as the coax to the tv flexes when the slide goes in and out thus shortening the service life of the cable. I may end up adding some connectors so the flex part of the cable can be changed out when the signal degrades.

I would take the opportunity to replace all of the splitters with high quality BiDi ones also especially if you are adding an extra TV. My rig came with 4 flipping tv's! I counted 5 splitters! I now have a single multiport splitter in the basement that feeds all of the rig. Any of the unused ports have terminators on them.


Tom

Can you give us the specific multi port splitter you used?

[darmock667]

Originally I used a couple of 5Mhz to 3Ghz 4 port splitters I had laying around from another project. These were no name splitters and the seemed to do an adequate job. I noticed they had fairly high DB loss and bought some others to substitute. There are only two paths for satellite signals in my rig so no splitters there.

For the OTA (Over the air) I dropped in a balanced 4 way balanced splitter rated from 4mhz to 1Ghz. Since terrestrial signals do not go above 1Ghz this was acceptable.

For the CATV/Digital signal I dropped in a 6 way BiDi 4Mhz to 3Ghz splitter. 4 TVs and one cable modem. The spare port is capped with a terminating cap.

I also ran a CAT6 cable to my tech closet from outside in case we stay somewhere that only has DSL. Terminated that with a weatherproof RJ11

I had most of this stuff laying around in my garage so did not have to buy anything per say. Amazon or ebay are good sources I just tend to stay away from anything branded RS/Tandy.


Tom