Georgetown Rooftop Satellite Cabling

ScottBrownstein · 10-02-2016, 06:51 AM

(This is an existing post, just adding it to the Georgetown Forum for future reference)

If you need to tighten your TV RF connections or route a new satellite dish down from the roof, this should help.

Installing a crank up Wineberg satellite dish on my 335. I knew that there are cables for a rooftop dish already routed to the roof under the "fake sewage vent." Before starting I had seen a lot of traffic about where they go and how they are connected. Fortunately I communicated with JimF since he had a post about accessing the cables from the center overhead cabinet. PM'd him and he told me to pry up the rear lower panel in the center cabinet over the dashboard.

Well...I did just that and it was just as he indicated. Pry off the trim (hot glued to the panel on the right and left and only one or two air nails on the top. The panel itself was not glued in any way but did have two small staples at the top on the right and left side. A couple of screws could have held it into place and made it easily removable and that is the way it is going back in. I can imagine how long it would take me to get an answer on this from the factory!!!!

I didn't make that rough saw cut, the factory did and then covered it with a nice clean panel. Glad I did access this area since the 3 cables ends in the foreground are the cables from the roof and from the TV input switch (black coax) and don't go anywhere anyway useful. Splitter also had some slightly loose F connectors as well.

Now to pull the new cables from the roof and push them into the passenger side compartment.

A picture is worth a thousand words, this forum...millions!!!

Thank you JimF!!!!!

revflyer · 10-02-2016, 09:34 AM

Same guy must have cut the hole in mine. Just a heads up, I had to pull my cables and power cord one at a time. I used the gray wire to pull a 1/4 inch rope that I used to pull in the new cables. This goes a lot easier with 2 people or you will be climbing up and down a lot. Good Luck

georgew48 · 10-02-2016, 10:41 AM

Thanks for posting this. I have looked all summer for this splliter with no luck. I knew I had a loose connection but checked everyone I could find npbut could never find this one. Everyone of the the cables was extremely loose. Someone at Forest River should have their hind end kicked for putting this behind a false panel that is nailed in place with trim pieces. They should have just put a removable panel with screws there.it is in the overhead cabinet where no one would see it anyway. They went to all the trouble to add the trim but just knocked a very ragged hole in the inner panel. Not much pride in workmanship.

Iggy · 10-02-2016, 10:47 AM

Is the splitter 2 Inputs and 3 Outputs?
Hard to see what it says on the splitter picture.

bubbles · 10-02-2016, 11:43 AM

Iggy, I believe yours is the same as mine (that one too). 1 in 4 out. Pull your ant booster panel and AC receptacle in the copilot overhead and that's where it is. You probably already know this though.

Iggy · 10-02-2016, 12:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bubbles

Iggy, I believe yours is the same as mine (that one too). 1 in 4 out. Pull your ant booster panel and AC receptacle in the copilot overhead and that's where it is. You probably already know this though.

I have tried pulling the cables but unable to see any splitter. Coax's won't pull much. I will look closer to the back panel on co-pilots side behind TV amp and outlet.

Are you saying that the back wood in that compartment can come off too see all?

bubbles · 10-02-2016, 12:35 PM

No, I'm saying to pull the booster panel and the AC plug receptacle out of that back panel. I'm assuming your DVD player and booster power panel are in that compartment. I have a 2012 378TS and thought your install would be the same as mine. Once those items are pulled out you should see the splitter with lots of extra coax length attached.

Iggy · 10-02-2016, 12:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bubbles

No, I'm saying to pull the booster panel and the AC plug receptacle out of that back panel. I'm assuming your DVD player and booster power panel are in that compartment. I have a 2012 378TS and thought your install would be the same as mine. Once those items are pulled out you should see the splitter with lots of extra coax length attached.

Thanks
That is what I have tried but unable to see the splitter.
Thanks I may try it again in the future as I have a better splitter ready to install.

georgew48 · 10-02-2016, 01:22 PM

Iggy I tried to get to mine by removing just the antena booster and electrict outlet but could not get the splitter that way so I removed the two side and one top trim pieces in the center cabinet and prayed the cover board off and found the ragged hole like in the picture above. All of my connections were real loose. I threw away the trip pieces because I broke them getting them off and just used screws to put the cover plate back over the ragged hole. Looks fine because you would have to really be looking to see the screws anyway.

Iggy · 10-02-2016, 01:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by georgew48

Iggy I tried to get to mine by removing just the antena booster and electrict outlet but could not get the splitter that way so I removed the two side and one top trim pieces in the center cabinet and prayed the cover board off and found the ragged hole like in the picture above. All of my connections were real loose. I threw away the trip pieces because I broke them getting them off and just used screws to put the cover plate back over the ragged hole. Looks fine because you would have to really be looking to see the screws anyway.

What year is your Georgetown?

bubbles · 10-02-2016, 01:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by georgew48

Iggy I tried to get to mine by removing just the antena booster and electrict outlet but could not get the splitter that way so I removed the two side and one top trim pieces in the center cabinet and prayed the cover board off and found the ragged hole like in the picture above. All of my connections were real loose. I threw away the trip pieces because I broke them getting them off and just used screws to put the cover plate back over the ragged hole. Looks fine because you would have to really be looking to see the screws anyway.

Sounds like you and Iggy had the same installer. I had a coax cable shield to center short for my front TV feed and chased it to the interconnect at the slide coupling in the slide electrical tubing pass thru. Also discovered the production break in the engine compartment where the coax changes from black to grey via an inline coupling and then back to black via inline coupling for the slide. All's good.

georgew48 · 10-02-2016, 02:00 PM

2015

Benny1953 · 10-02-2016, 03:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScottBrownstein

(This is an existing post, just adding it to the Georgetown Forum for future reference)

If you need to tighten your TV RF connections or route a new satellite dish down from the roof, this should help.

Installing a crank up Wineberg satellite dish on my 335. I knew that there are cables for a rooftop dish already routed to the roof under the "fake sewage vent." Before starting I had seen a lot of traffic about where they go and how they are connected. Fortunately I communicated with JimF since he had a post about accessing the cables from the center overhead cabinet. PM'd him and he told me to pry up the rear lower panel in the center cabinet over the dashboard.

Well...I did just that and it was just as he indicated. Pry off the trim (hot glued to the panel on the right and left and only one or two air nails on the top. The panel itself was not glued in any way but did have two small staples at the top on the right and left side. A couple of screws could have held it into place and made it easily removable and that is the way it is going back in. I can imagine how long it would take me to get an answer on this from the factory!!!!

I didn't make that rough saw cut, the factory did and then covered it with a nice clean panel. Glad I did access this area since the 3 cables ends in the foreground are the cables from the roof and from the TV input switch (black coax) and don't go anywhere anyway useful. Splitter also had some slightly loose F connectors as well.

Now to pull the new cables from the roof and push them into the passenger side compartment.

A picture is worth a thousand words, this forum...millions!!!

Thank you JimF!!!!!

Scott
I have the same Motor Home and will be installing a Satellite Dish soon I have look on top of the roof and all I have found is one coax is that all yours had. Did you hook up more than one TV. I have Directv and would like to use the two TVs inside and may be the outside TV. I will see if I can get my cover off like you have in the pic. Thanks for your post

Birdman76 · 10-03-2016, 07:11 PM

This thread is great. Have a GT 329DS and looking at mounting a tailgater on the rook. Question is where do I come in from the roof. With all the connections looking like they are ready I am confused. Know I need to have a connection from the tailgater to the Wally before I go to the TV.

Any help would be appreciated.

JimF · 10-04-2016, 10:59 AM

Noticed that one person said they used direct tv, which is what we use. I had noticed that using the A-B box to switch from satellite to over the air antenna disconnected the satellite antenna from the received so that when switching back the system had to reboot. So I took a different tact than anyone else I have heard about.

I ran a dedicated satellite cable from the roof down through the wiring harness out the bottom of the MH, followed the original wiring to the slide. Ran new cable into the slide putting a splitter in the compartment under the slide (side note: use one outlet out off the splitter for outside tv). Ran the cable into the compartment under the tv. That is where I put our DVR and the power inserter. At the splitter under the slide I took another cable and ran it the length of the motorhome underneath and into the compartment under the bedroom (very rear compartment passenger side of coach). Put in another splitter and ran one side through the floor and closet up into the cabinet over the closet. That is were I put our other satellite set top box, in this case a Genie. The feed from both satellite boxes to the tv's is HDMI. Now I have satellite programming front and rear and also I can use the very rear splitter to run satellite in in the even we are under trees and the roof top antenna is blocked. I leave the roof top antenna off and put up a tripod mount antenna.

Additionally I hooked up the park cable input into the back of the over the air booster. This way I have totally eliminated the A-B box. To use park cable just turn off the booster. We can run Over the Air, Park Cable and Satellite without the signals stepping on each other. We have a standalone satellite system.

Hope you folks and understand my explanation. Was a worthwhile upgrade and only took me a few hours to do it.

JimF

ScottBrownstein · 10-07-2016, 08:48 AM

I installed a crank up winegard on the roof. Found one coax and a telephone flat wire in the "vent." Put a coax connector (nice screw on from Lowes) and manually spliced the elevation sensor to the flat cable. Inside in the center cabinet, rerouted the white and black coax to the right compartment where the switch is. Put connectors on both. Black cable from the switch goes to the "TV out" connection on the receiver, white cable from the roof goes to the "sat in" on the receiver.

Find the direction and altitude where I am, set the elevation and turn the dish to the approximate compass direction...within a minute I have a connection.

Easy, fast...priceless.

Switching the tv switch from cable to ant to satellite doesn't disconnect the receiver from the dish, so all is well.

Birdman76 · 10-07-2016, 06:52 PM

For those who have installed the King Tailgater on the roof what type of fasteners did you utilize?

Going to try tomorrow if the rain from Matthew stays away.

Also received update wiring diagrams from FR and am making an attempt to attach.

GHrv · 10-09-2016, 02:26 PM

Have a 2016 329DS. Had Camping World install a Direct TV satellite dish on roof. They ran a cable from the dish across the roof to the rear bedroom TV cutting a hole in the roof on the bedroom and punching anchors through the fiberglass roof. I thought the motorhome was was satellite ready and the cables were in place. Did Camping World miss something?

ScottBrownstein · 10-09-2016, 07:23 PM

Birdman76 has a schematic of pretty much what is there. I installed a crank up winegard which needed a coax and 3 wires for the elevation sensor. Used what was behind the panel in the center compartment over the dash. Couldn't feel where the cables emerged in the front area and they didn't feel loose enough to use as pullers for the new cables that came with the antenna. Spliced in the elevation sensor using the "phone cable" and just used the coax as is. Worked well. Thought about using well nut but merely relied on the screws that came with the unit. There is a pad on the roof to attach to but my rig has a drop down bunk and the Windgard needs a 1-3/4" hole for the controls so I had to move it aft. Screws bit well and I have little concern about how secure it is.

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