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Old 10-10-2022, 06:56 AM   #1
DutchmenSport
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Question for those with Phone Boosters?

Although we've had very few hick-ups with our Visible phone and internet access, we have landed in a few places were the signal (Verison) was very poor. Our computers worked OK, but streaming over our Roku television buffered so much, it made watching anything horrible.

Sometimes our AT&T phones with internet also had the same problem. Some places just have very poor service.

So, we decided to try a weboost Drive Reach RV Cell Signal Booster. Had it shipped to the house from Best Buy (since we've been on the road for some time now).

We returned home yesterday and after settling down, decided to tackle the weboost. Everything went very well.

Granted at home, we have good cell phone reception, both with our Visible and AT&T, but at least I was able to get it all set up.

Today, we are going on a road trip (Indiana), and taking everything with us to set up in a couple of our favorite state parks that had very poor phone reception and see if it makes any difference. (trailer at home, just a road trip)

OK, so now the question. Yes, we are going to use this thing, that is not the question. The question, for anyone who has added booster to your RVing arsenal, how did you run the antenna wire into the camper?

Here's the problem. First, the outside antenna wire is only 25 feet long. The weboost system is basically designed for the outside antenna to attach to the roof ladder (which we have). The problem is, the roof ladder is in the very rear of the trailer and the living room is all the way in the front. So, it's basically got to come into the camper near the front.

Mounting the antenna will be no problem either. I'm going to build a base that will sit on the roof, heavy enough the wind won't blow it around or blow it over. Then a short pole with the antenna will go in that hole. When traveling, the entire thing will come down.

But, I still have a question on how to get the wire inside the camper.

I watched the video's supplied by weboost and they show sliding the wire between the slide seals and wall. Um .... that just does not look well to me at all. All I can see is a worn spot on the seals from the slides moving in and out over time, or shoving the wire through, potentially tearing up the rubber. Of course, I can always simply put the wire through the window. But then the window would never be completely shut. That's not so good in rain, plus the screen is up slightly letting in bugs.

As a temporary experiment, just to see if everything is working, I slipped the wire though the window. But I don't like it that way.

So, if anyone has run a wire (either an antenna, a booster, or something else), how did you get the wire inside the camper?

Just an FYI, this is the one we got: weboost Drive Reach RV Cell Signal Booster
 
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Old 10-10-2022, 08:56 AM   #2
Hblick48
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I have a Weboost Drive Sleek OTR that we use at home with our Visible phone and portable router. Without the booster, I get -81db. With the booster, -66db.

I take the setup with us, hooked up in the RV. We have the same internet at home, enroute, and at Campground. If cell signal is weak at a campground , I hook up the booster. Antenna is mounted to the rear ladder. I bring in the cable through the stove vent hood opening since it is right next to the booster. Just can't use the vent fan, no big deal for us.

I purchased two 25 foot antenna extensions from Amazon. Use 1 at home, and the other stays in the RV. You need to know what type of connectors your system has.
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Old 10-10-2022, 11:03 AM   #3
DQDick
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When we added the Traveler antenna to all of our Monty's we just drilled a hole thru the roof over a cabinet and then sealed the wire and the hole with self leveling lap sealant.
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Old 10-10-2022, 12:36 PM   #4
Daryles
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We have the WeBoost Destination model.
I mounted the antenna to a Telescoping paint pole.
I have two "flag pole buddy" on the ladder. One for the Dish satellite and one for the WeBoost.
I also bought big spring Clamps to clamp the WeBoost antenna to the edge of any slide in the event the cell tower is in a bad position. The inside antenna must NOT be in-between the cell tower and the outside antenna or you get a feedback loop (red light on the inside amplifier).
At this time we run the cables through the slide window. I will be installing a couple of Furrion coax cable wall fittings on the rear wall behind the ladder.
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Old 10-10-2022, 07:13 PM   #5
DutchmenSport
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Just for a quick follow up... No solution yet on how to run the wire into the camper that I'm comfortable with, but here's a quick report of how the day went.

My wife and I loaded the weboost, extension cords, her laptop computer so she could connect to her work (she works 100% remote), our Visible phone (ZTE), our AT&T phones, and one of our small Roku televisions.

We went to Mississinewa Lake State Recreation first (Northern Indiana), set everything up and everything connected wonderful. Even the Roku television streamed Prime Video, Roku, and Fawesome with no buffering at all. Mississinewa Lake is one of our favorite campgrounds, but we have not been there for the last 4 or 5 years because their phone service is so bad, let alone internet over your phones and forget even thinking about streaming video. So, this was a 100% success. It worked great for everything.

From there we traveled over to Salamonie State Park and then we remembered why we quit camping there. Their sites are are just too small for our 41 foot fifth wheel. We didn't even try the weboost there.

We then traveled on over to Oubache State park at Bluffton, Indiana (pronounced Wabash, that spelling is old English for Wabash)

Now, granted we had a couple bars on our AT&T without the booster, Visible showed only 1 bar. Streaming on the Roku resulted in buffering every 5 seconds. BUT when we flipped on the weboost, we had 3 bars on the Visible, our AT&T's had 5 bars and everything worked flawless, all devices.

In in our opinion, the weboost is a keeper! Time will tell as we travel around. We're home for 2 weeks and then on the road again. We'll see.

Meanwhile, I'm still debating how to get that wire inside!

Here's a photo of my antenna stand I whipped up this morning. That bottom board is 2 inch treated lumber. The two uprights are boards from a 100 year old barn floor. I got that wood about 10 years ago. I experimented with a couple prototypes to make a stand, and they failed the test. This worked. I can simply pull the PVC pipe out and stow everything away.





Our set up on the picnic table, site 10 at Oubache and my blushing bride (of 37 years now)



Next step is to paint that block of wood so it's not so unsightly and get the wire to the inside.
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Old 10-10-2022, 07:45 PM   #6
Lee-CI
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Suction Cup Mount

Dutchman - not sure if you would be comfortable with running the coax for the WeBoost through a slide seal or not, but here are a couple of photos for reference. We don't have a WeBoost setup ourselves. Sorta wishing we did for our current campsite.
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Old 10-11-2022, 05:12 AM   #7
RMcNeal
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I did the same suction cup mount for a long time and it worked fine. I only put the cable through the slide seals for the las few inches of running out the slide. Removed it when the slide comes in.
Another option I was considering is drilling a hole in the side of the slide and adding a weatherproof entry for the wire. It is basically a recessed connector that won't interfere with the slide seals, but when the slides are closed, it is on the inside of the rig. I felt better about that than drilling a hole in the roof.
Something similar to this...
https://www.amazon.com/RecPro-Coaxia...ps%2C94&sr=8-1
but they make a recessed one that would go into the sidewall of the slide, so as to be flush with the wall and not interfere with the slide seals.
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Old 10-18-2022, 03:50 PM   #8
ShaneGreen
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We first got our WeBoost when staying near Foley, AL at the Escapees park right after they were hit by the hurricane. There was a lot of cell tower issues as you can imagine. We didn't know which towers would be working on any given day. And three bars of signal might still drop your connection every few minutes, so it was a constant challenge. A couple of us found that if we used our campers as a shield we could block signal from whatever tower was causing trouble that day. I didn't want to drill a hole when I was moving the antenna so often, so I ran it through my slide seals when I could. As long as you take the cable out before moving your slides, it won't hurt anything. There were a lot of people in the park that told me they had been doing it that way for years.

Ours is mounted now on a 20ft flag pole on the back ladder and run through a hole in the floor. When signal is bad, raising it can make a huge difference in reception.
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Old 10-19-2022, 07:35 AM   #9
DutchmenSport
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I'd like to thank everyone who responded and gave me your experiences and thoughts. I think I have come to the conclusion to slip the wire through the slide out seal and simply remove it before extending or retracting the slide.

I do not want to drill or cut new holes in the side of the camper. And the window option is simply not good, especially if we want to make sure the camper is locked when we are away.

As mentioned above (and thank-you for this) ... we are not seasonal or stationary campers. We travel and everywhere we go the logistics of the campsite is different. That does mean moving the booster around so it's not in-line .... causing the red light! If there was only 1 entry point for the wire, that would limit the location of the booster. But, being 3 feet higher than the roof, I don't think is much cause for alarm either. Still, with technology ... anything is possible to cause a failure.

So the slide seal makes the most logical sense and simply remove it when repositioning the slide. I have 4 slides and each slide has two sides. Any one of them can be used as an entry point ... again ... depending on the logistics of the campsite.

Thank-you everyone. Your suggestions and comments are truly appreciated, helping me think this through and with a bit of trail and error on my part too!
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Old 10-28-2022, 11:52 AM   #10
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We have one of these and I just used the satellite port on the outside rear of the trailer to pass the signal to the coax port behind the TV. The connection outside went to the cell antenna and inside went to the booster. We don't use our TV antenna or a satellite dish, so this was an easy route for us. No need to run the cable through a slide seal or window, etc.

Worked great when we used it. We had the external antenna up on a 25' pole attached to the ladder to get it high enough. We were seasonal at a site and down in a hole where the cell signal was passing a bit higher than the ground level.
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