395AMP Rooftop Satellite

[RemStur]

The wife was kind enough to get us a new King Satellite antenna for our 2015 395AMP. I was pretty sure I had taken a couple of photos of the mark on the roof that showed the location of the cabling. Unfortunately I cannot find the photos and the mark on the roof has long since faded. Does anyone with a similar trailer know roughly where the cabling in the roof is?

[Karl4Cat]

Bob, you have the same trailer as us and did the exact same thing I did. I took a picture where there was a circle with an X through it in magic marker and promptly deleted the pics off my phone. Now it's long gone. Ugh. On mine it was right in front of the solar panel by about 6". Do you have the factory solar option? The bad news is we lost the spot. The good news is we have the coax there if we go looking. XLR stopped installing them as no one was utilizing them.

On a side note, did you order your rig with no decals or remove them? I'm looking at your avatar picture and it looks all white.

[RemStur]

Hi Karl,

We did not order the solar. I believe I have seen pics of the panel sitting in front of the main AC, correct? That would put it roughly in line with the rear wall of the bathroom which would make sense. Hopefully BulletBob will chime in, although I have not seen much of him lately.

I have mixed feelings on the solar as I have friends with built in systems that have issues with the batteries going dry in storage. Not sure if that affects all systems, but since wee keep the trailer in the back yard power is not an issue unless we are boondocking in which case we use the generator.

We ordered the trailer sans stickers, except for the tailgate. We end up spending quite a bit of time in the desert so the stickers are only good for a few years, and removing them at that point leaves a ghost fade. I really do like the full body paint, but could not get past the sticker shock. That is about the only thing that we don't have that I would seriously consider if we were to do it all over again, especially the paint to match like you have done.

[Karl4Cat]

I have two 6V AGM batteries and the OEM solar has a smart control panel to avoid overcharging. I really like it as I never have to disconnect the batteries and unless there is snow on the roof, I never have to worry about maintenance charging them in the off season.

As to the location, yes the solar panel is right in front of the LR AC and my circle was about 6" in front of that. I did ask Bob about it and he confirmed that's where it was. He told me if I drilled dead center in that location, the coax would be under the insulation in that general area. The problem is, even if I'm a little off, I'd have to have a hole big enough for my arm to get in there and feel around. I'm thinking that if I do a Sat dish, I'm just going to make my own hole directly above the TV and run my coax direct there. We are lucky in that with our floorplan and our TV being where it is, we can hide wiring behind it up through the roof and all the way down through the floor. I was able to add a LR stereo as well as wire an inverter for my TV and BD player easily because of this floor to ceiling easy access...

On the paint, I agree it was big money but has turned into our favorite option on the camper. It is so easy to keep clean and we love being set apart from the sea of grey and white in the campgrounds. It's actually really cheap relative to the cost of painting a car. It was about $6500 more on ours. I bet you couldn't get a Honda Civic painted for that in an auto body shop. I understand about the no decals thing too. We considered that for a while for a different reason. I just really dislike the look. If XLR would have let me I would have painted mine like a two tone truck with all the upper fiberglass being silver and the lower skirting being grey to avoid the busy look again but they told me the swirls and swooshes were required.

[tmilicia]

I believe I still have the satellite marking on the roof of my 395AMP. I'll climb up there tomorrow and let you know.

[Karl4Cat]

They must have used better marker on yours Tony! LOL. You need to update your sig line by the way...

[tmilicia]

We'll find out for sure tomorrow. I know I saw it when I crawled up there last month.

I know my signature is way outdated, I can't change it through tapatalk though. Lol

[Karl4Cat]

So that's why you haven't accepted my friend request yet. I thought you didn't like me anymore...

[tmilicia]

Lol. I guess I need to actually log into the FRF site once in awhile. I'm surprised that tapatalk wouldn't let me know about a pending friend request though.

[RemStur]

I appreciate the help guys. I took a look at a picture Karl posted of his roof in a former life and see that the solar panel is further back than I recalled. The good news is that you can actually see the mark in this pic.

If Tony's mark is in the same location I'll take the plunge and drill a hole.

[Karl4Cat]

Well, I'll be. That does look strikingly like my rig. Good research Bob....

[tmilicia]

I can confirm my mark is in the same place. It was barely visible, but I measured it at 34 inches off the rear of the main ac unit. My neighbors probably think I'm nuts for crawling around on the RV roof in the rain. Lol. I hope this helps.

[Karl4Cat]

Thanks Tony. I'll keep your measurement and that rogue pic for reference....

[RemStur]

Thanks Tony. Now I just need to work up the nerve to cut a hole in the roof!

[bulletbob]

Playing catch up here. We have on the print, that the wires should be around 8" in front of the loft vent. Once you cut the hole you will need to fish around for the wires.

[Karl4Cat]

Look where mine is and where Tony's was marked Bob. It's more like parallel with the kitchen vent.