Okay, I know what you are thinking: “we don’t take our toy haulers out to watch TV.” I must agree playing with the toys is a lot more fun. However, I must confess there is the little voice inside my head that says it is okay to want to kick back and watch TV after a hard day of riding and having fun. The problem is the voice also shared with me that it would be ideal to be able to watch ESPN, SPEED, and the movie channels which you can’t get with the TV antennae on top of the toy hauler. So satellite TV is the only way to go.
For an extra five dollars a month on my home service I purchased an additional satellite receiver to leave in the coach. Then I used an extra TV satellite dish that I had lying around and mounted it to a piece of plywood to take in my toy hauler. When I get to the riding spot I unload the dish, point it in the right direction and then I can watch my favorite stations. This works just fine, except the dish takes a lot of room in the trailer and the hassle of setting it up every time. Also, with the dish on the ground, it can get moved by a dog, kid, wind, or many other things. So, the bottom line is, I wanted an automatic satellite dish to make my life easier.
I started doing some research and found Rick Golden, a neighbor of one of my friends, who works for A-1 Satellite Television. A-1 Satellite retails a wide variety of satellite systems that are available on the market. They also do custom installs on everything, including toy haulers.
After talking to Rick for a while about the many features that each system offers and milling over the many models to choose from which included; Motosat, Kingdome, KVH Industries, and Winegard satellites, I was ready to make my decision. I decided on a Motosat T2 Automation system. I felt good about the advice I had received, since it was given to me by a technician not a salesman, and allowed for me to choose a satellite that best suited my needs. The T2 automation system will provide satellite programming while traveling down the road (I hooked it to my tow vehicles). It can also be used when stopped at camp. It is universally compatible with any satellite receiver. Simple push button controls gains access to most of the TV satellite services such as DirecTV, Dish Network and Bell ExpresVU. The T2 dome is only 12.5 inches tall which is just about even with my A/C units - so height is not a problem. Rick installed the satellite for me. It is an installation that I could have done myself but Rick knew all the tricks and did a way cleaner job then I would have. Thanks Rick!! The first thing we did was climb on the roof and look for a nice level spot to mount the dish close to where the TV is located. My trailer was prewired for satellite, so when we were on the roof we found a plate that said “satellite cable here.” Much to my surprise when we pulled the plate off the only thing I saw was the roof. Rick knew just what to do, he broke out his hole saw and drilled a 7/8 inch hole in the roof and stuck a tool down the hole to search for the coax cable that ran to the entertainment center. On a rig that wasn’t prewired he would have found a spot in the trailer near the TV and drilled up through the roof. Next, he unboxed the T2 which was fully assembled, removed the shipping screws and then carried it on his head to the roof. The dome had one coax connecter and it was important that you make sure it is pointing towards the rear of the coach.
He put a bunch of the non-hardening roof silicone under the mounting hardware of the dome then sat the dome down and screwed it to the roof putting more silicone on top of the screws. Next, he hooked the cable from dome to the cable we had pulled out of the roof earlier. Rick stapled the cable to the roof and siliconed the staples so they wouldn’t come loose later. The hole in the roof was filled with silicone and a cover placed over it that was also sealed with the silicone. He was now done on the roof and the T2 Automation dish was sitting there all proud.
We now moved to the inside of the toyhauler and hooked the coax cable from the dish to the T2 control unit which also supplies power to the dish through the coax cable. On this system we had to hook it to a stacker then to the satellite receiver and finally to the television!!! There is one more thing that we came across when we were almost done; we had to have an electrical outlet for the TV, control unit, stacker, receiver, and the surround sound. It wasn’t a big problem but I did have to go buy a power strip to hook everything to.
Rick told me that every system hooked up a little different but the philosophy was the same, get the cables from the roof to the entertainment center and follow the installation directions. Like I said earlier, there are a variety of satellite systems and dishes to choose from. Prices will vary from low to high just depending on what options you want. Have a question about satellites in mind? Give A-1 Satellite Television a call 626-332-6363. They have been in business since 1980 and were very helpful with all my questions. They also have a lot of experience in mobile audio, video, and internet services and will ship equipment nationwide. Here are websites for some of the different equipment manufacturers www.motosat.com, www.kvh.com www.winegard.com and www.kingcontrols.com. You will be surprised how many different kinds are available. For those of you that don’t have satellite television, A-1 Satellite can also activate a service for you for as little as $20.00 dollars a month.
-THM
