anybody ever have to run new satellite cable from UDC to rear entertainment area?

[teasac69]

Just wondering if anyone has ever done that not so small task? I'm not looking forward to it but with this class coach I'm not about to hang a coax out the back window to get to watch satellite. Tailgater is working great, DISH has good low cost option and I can't use it because apparently the cable is bad. changed out the ends, used a toner to make sure the continuity was good but won't carry the signal necessary to fire the receiver. very sad to me.

BTW, does anyone know if this coax is a "homerun" or does it have connections in the middle? Might be worth the effort to locate and replace the middle connectors if there are any vrs replacing the entire coax. I'm not looking forward to this process.

Anyone know if that would be covered under extended warranty? I know the chore of replacing this coax is going to be expensive so the $100 deductible would be easily justified.

frustrating is a mild description of my emotions right now with this coach.

 

[danemayer]

Hi Tim,

I ran coax from the UDC to the rear entertainment center a few years ago. Nothing was wrong with the factory coax, but at the time I needed a 2nd coax line for the DVR. And of course, I applied the rule of twos - if you have to run one wire, it's just as easy to run two and have a spare.

On our rear entertainment Rushmore, there's a cabinet under the counter on the off-door-side. I pulled the outlet away from the wall inside the cabinet and snaked the coax to the back lower corner of the rear cap. Then ran it along the frame and up into the plumbing area behind the UDC. The hard part was snaking it out the corner and a 2nd person helped.

Of course I later switched to a SWM dish and now only need one coax line to the entertainment center, so I have 2 spares.

If you're having trouble with the factory coax, first thing to do is make sure you're on the right cable - it's easy for the factory to mix up the connections. Also, inspect the connectors. I just went ahead and replaced every coax connector in the entire trailer. Once you have the tools, it doesn't take very long and it eliminates lots of problems.

 

[cookie]

As I said in a post a while back, I have run new coax from the UDC back to the entertainment center on two coaches. It is not difficult.
I suggest that you take that length of coax that you were given and hook one end to the barrel connector at the slide and the other end to your dish.
This will at least tell you whether or not the problem is in the run from the UDC or in the slide. I suspect it is in the long run from the UDC.

Peace
Dave

 

[Garypowell]

Don't know your model but both of mine (first 3055 and now 3010) ran from the UDC to behind the basement wall near the door side. In these coaches there was an outlet in that basement wall and that's why it split there.

I had no use for a basement cable outlet so simply took it out and did a direct connect with the feed and resultant cable headed towards the rear of the coach. Can't guarantee that it improved my signal but it did seem a bar stronger with the one splitter out of the way.

I too have run a cable from the UDC area for a DVR before I went SWM. Others seem to have been more elegant as all I did was bore a hole through the floor in a cabinet and fished it from there. But a few nylon ties underneath and your good to go.

If you want to see how good your extended warranty contract is you can try but you'll be out more money than it would cost to do it with the deductible.

 

[bdb2047]

BTW, does anyone know if this coax is a "homerun" or does it have connections in the middle? Might be worth the effort to locate and replace the middle connectors if there are any vrs replacing the entire coax. I'm not looking forward to this process.


I found that in our coach the coax that go to slides are spliced. Mine are just inside the frame where coax goes out to slide.Only have 1 TV in slide had to repair the connection in coax. I believe slide rooms are wired before installation in coach requiring splices.

 

[lynndiwagoner]

On a different brand I just drilled through the outside wall of the rig and installed a nice weatherproof box with weatherproof cover for my coax. It wouldn't be quite as convenient as the UDC but it worked great. I was tracing a 12VDC wire for the fridge that was in the entertainment slide and found all of the coax routing. All of the wiring came out bottom corner of the slide, went through some tubing and the bayonet thing into the bottom of the rig. It would be a PIA to run a new one IMO. I would use an ohm meter to make sure you're looking at the right cable. Good luck.

 

[avvidclif]

On mine the first thing behind the UDC was a splitter made for cable TV which won't pass Satellite. Go figure.

 

[Roller4tan]

Another thing I learned when I had trouble with my Directv Genie Mini, the barrel connectors on the wall plates can "burn out" on the higher frequencies required for satellite connections. The satellite guy replaced all the connectors used for the satellite and the mini receiver problem was fixed.The barrel connectors he used had an orange insert. The originals were white or black. Blue or orange inserts will work for SD satellite

 

[cookie]

BTW, does anyone know if this coax is a "homerun" or does it have connections in the middle? Might be worth the effort to locate and replace the middle connectors if there are any vrs replacing the entire coax. I'm not looking forward to this process.

I for one do not know if there are any connections or splitters in the home run coax.
That is why I recommend just running a new coax. It would be a lot less work than trying to track down a splitter.

Peace
Dave

 

[teasac69]

Well I know you guys have been watching anxiously for the results of my adventure !!!!

I put the coach in the driveway to tackle this homerun job. Before I started I wanted to try to trace out the wiring where it travels through the interduct out with the slide in case there might be a hidden pinch point, etc. I pulled on the coax to pull as much as I could through the grommet in the frame and discovered a barrel connector there. Guess they didn't plan for a homerun or maybe ran out of coax in the middle of the run and spliced in a new roll???? who knows.

Anyway, I discovered that barrel connector was not snugly tightened so I put on two new gold plated ends and used a new high end barrel connector and BOOM!!! Got my satellite signal first hook up. whew, didn't have to tackle that monster job after all.

thanks for all the tips and suggestions.

 

[cookie]

Awesome!

Peace
Dave