Satellite Domes - Montana Owners Club

RMccord · 10-12-2007, 05:50 PM

I am going to get a satellite dome on our new unit and am considering King of the Road and Winegard. I want an automatic HD one. I have heard so much pro and con on each that I am lost now.
So if you that have them can let me know which one you have, the model# and your impressions I would appreciate it. I was going to order it installed on the trailer from Montana but I have since decided that that is the one item I will wait on and have installed here as it will give me more control on what I get. Of course having Montana do it would probably result in a better routing of the wiring as the 3400's entertainment center is in a slide. So they probably have a cleaner way to route it there than aftermarket. But your thoughts on that are also welcome.
I have Direct TV. I wonder if when Montana installs it if they run a line to the Bedroom as well as the living room.

If you have thiers installed and can answer that, that would be great.

Thanks
Bob

Montana Sky · 10-12-2007, 09:34 PM

Bob,

We have had great success with the KVH TracVision dome dishes on the boats at the river. Have you looked into the KVH lineup? I know they now have their "slim line" dishes with a overall height of 12". Might be worth checking into...

William H. Collier · 10-13-2007, 04:27 PM

If you have Direct TV and want HD you will need a 5 lnb dish to get all the new HD channels, a minimum of a 3 lnb dish to get the few offered on the older satelites. I dont think dome technoligy has progressed far enough to get anything in HD right now on Direct TV. You may be alble to get some if you change to DISH.
Bill

exav8tr · 10-13-2007, 05:09 PM

Bob, I had the RoadTrip SD model # 33313 from Winegard installed at CW. I feel they did a great job and the thing works great when not obstructed by trees. Because of this I also bought a 5 lnb port dish and have only used it once. I bought the DirecTV service and their HDTV Receiver. No HDTV yet but am working on it.....

Hope this helps!!!!

Phil

Blord · 10-13-2007, 08:32 PM

I have the Winegard "Movin View" and have had very good success with it. As someone mentioned, it doesn't like trees. When we head out for winter that isn't usually a problem but in summer I occaisonally can't get reception due to the trees. In summer, I carry one of the old single LNB oval dishes in the back of the truck and have had to use it a couple of times.

The new HD sats are operating on different frequencies than the older ones as well as MPeg 4 versus the existing Mpeg 3. Winegard does sell a converter for the new HD sats. I don't know how you program the system to go to the new sats though.

ScottandBrenda · 10-14-2007, 06:29 AM

Have you folks seen THIS? I bought one yesterday - will test it sometime this week. It's called the VuQube and it solves a LOT of problems concerning set-up. It's PORTABLE and lightweight - and you aim the thing while you're inside the camper. No trees to watch out for when backing in.
It's pretty cool.

http://www.campingworld.com/browse/s...37042:src=ROTF

dsprik · 10-14-2007, 06:35 AM

Scott, my only concern about that - looked at it on CW a couple days ago - it doesn't seem to support multiple LNBs - i.e. not HD capable. Both DishNet and DirecTV require multiple LNB systems for their HD programming.

This seems a great solution for regular standard programming, however. Maybe it can support more than one sat, but I didn't see it...

ScottandBrenda · 10-14-2007, 07:02 AM

I think that's true - it's a single LNB. But the HD thing is not a big issue for us right now. We also bought one of those Winegard digital boxes for off-air HD and "improved reception" (we'll see) but that VuQube is a perfect solution for us in terms of avoiding trees, parking anywhere we fit, and easy set-up. However, another thing is that the dish inside can't be very big so that may be an issue. I'll know more in a few days after I test it out.

Debbie Asher · 10-15-2007, 07:36 AM

My husband and I have DirecTV and we have a Winegard, with automatic find. We had it installed by the dealer after we had the montana about 9 months. We have it were we can watch the same programs in the bedroom and living room. The only draw back is that the directv control is in the living room and when your in the bedroom you can't change the program unless you go to the living room. So normally we find a movie that we both want to watch and snuggle up in bed with the timer on. The only thing that I find wrong is it looks hugh onto of the montana. I'm always wondering when driving under overpasses if it's going to come up missing. So far so good.

Ozz · 10-15-2007, 10:18 AM

Hi Debbie, I have the same unit and the same problems, it sticks wayyy up there. I have a front A/C that is actually about as high. You need to measure your ground to the top of the antenna so you will know your limits. Bridges, gas stations all are dangerous for us. Mine is 13'-5"
Ozz

yvonnenid · 10-15-2007, 10:47 AM

Hi,
We have the king dome. It has been great for us. Even when we are camping with lots of trees around, we have always been able to lock into our Direct tv satellite. We could have had it hooked up so both tvs could get different channels. However we chose to have both get the same program. It was considerably cheaper. We can use the antenae or the cable on the other tv while the main tv is watching satellite. It has worked for us because we only use the monty for vacations and weekends. The king dome is about the same height as our main ac.

You may also like: