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In Motion Satellite System Quagmire
Howdy!
I read every thread about this topic but the last one is from a while back. So here goes.
Our 2000 H3-45 Featherlite Vantare VIP Conversion shows it came with a KVII Satellite system. According the previous owner’s notes they upgraded the system in 2007 to a Winegard Road Trip 31334 system. They had DirectTV but took their receivers.
We took it to a “certified Featherlite service provider” and they are telling us that our system is outdated and the whole coach is going to have to be rewired. I being the techy that I am just can’t accept this. Our dish receivers at home although are HD still run on coax and our whole house was not rewired when we upgraded.
I can accept the fact that we “might” need to change the dome, but not that we have to rewire the whole coach. I have seen that some of you are using TracStar, whicg is what Featherlite is using on all their new coaches.
I have friends that have motorhomes that are 2007 that are HD so I am having issues believing that when the previous owners did the change to the winegard in 2007 that they didn’t convert it.
I tried to look up TracStar on the internet and I can’t find anything!!! What Am I looking up wrong?
Please guide me, help us, I feel like someone is trying to take advantage of us or atleast our pocket book.
Pics of our roof are below.
Thanks in advance.
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15 Replies
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It’s KVH in Middletown RI who makes the in-motion satellite antenna seen on most coaches. Winegard made the HD satellite antennas that are not in-motion units as well as some in-motion units which are not HD.
I don’t see why any rewiring should be necessary unless you are changing the system to HiDefinition. You should be able to plug in the Directv receivers and if the antenna is working, they should work.
However, if you are attempting to install HD DVR receivers where they were standard definition previously and you want HD reception, then a new HD antenna installation and some wiring will be necessary. Otherwise, the HD DVR receivers will work with the older antenna, but will not produce a HD picture.
That’s been my experience. Like you, the previous owner of my coach took the HD DVR boxes and the HD antenna. I simply installed new HD DVR boxes and had standard definition Directv service with the old in-motion KVH antenna.
The HD antenna is seen in the photo. The in-motion is hidden in the depression at the rear of the roof.
Only recently has there been an in-motion HD antenna, but it’s too tall for most installations on an H3 and in some parts of the country and at some elevations it doesn’t work very well.
We now have both on our coach. While moving we use the KVH standard definition antenna so Sandy can watch her shows, and when parked raise the Winegard HD antenna. We have switches that change the coax from one antenna to the other.
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Butch,
I have an R-6 Tracvision about the same vintage as your Wineguard and I could not use a standard digital Direct receiver either. Marathon had new receivers that mated to my vintage Tracvision and it works very well. Don’t know the technical reason why the newer receivers wouldn’t work, but they said this happens all the time and the only other option is to replace the sat dish. You may have a similar situation with your Wineguard.
If I recall, Tracstar is history.
2025 Marathon H3 / 4th Prevost
21 Ram 1500 EcoDiesel 4x4 -
Our coach has a Trackstar 360, the previous owner installed in 2009. It is HD in motion with Dish. It will get Direct SD or HD with an additional box (not sure that HD is in motion or only stationary). When I purchased the coach Tracstar sent a box with the latest software which was downloaded to the indoor box.
We have Dish and it does take a specific model receiver to be a ble to switch between all three birds as the dome only has a single LNB. The switching is clunky and does not work all that well but it does work. While the PO installed HD TV, I ultimately had to install HDMI cables the length of the coach to get an HD signal in the living area as my dome and receiver are in the bedroom.
Like Tom I understand Tracstar is no longer in the RV sat business. I expect some limited parts are still around but for how long is the question.
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Joe,
When I had the Liberty, I switched over to Dish because I wanted an HD dome and had the same cable issue. I went with a Wireless HDMI and it worked great. Just passing along some info..
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When upgrading to HD, don’t rip out your old Coax cable. Another way to get HDMI (high def) to the front of the bus is to use an HDMI over Coax adapter. That lets you reuse the existing coax cable to the front of the bus. The adapter also works as a multiplexer so you can send output of different devices to the front. E.g. someone can watch TV in the back while someone else watches a DVD movie in front or vice versa.
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I have an old number on Tracstar 407 650 9054.
They have been great to work with.
Pres
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We are not unfamiliar with satellite dishes. We had a 5 foot aluminum one on the roof of our first coach in 1990. We had to raise it, and then use a compass to point it at the general direction of the signal and then play with it to tune it in.
The next dishes were KVH and I was very happy when they worked, but it soon developed they were not reliable, and worse, the technical support was sporadic at best. When I gave up on KVH I replaced the dish with a TracStar. I am not going to spend a lot of time in the bus watching TV so I am not that concerned about HD, but I make extensive use of in motion to listen to all of the various music channels available via Direct TV. When I had my TracStar for several years I realized it was a winner with the only service issue I ever had related to a faulty coax connector.
Bottom line is for me anyway that the ability to get HD is significantly less important than having a system that works reliably. With TracStar leaving the market I have no clue who will fill the void. Until proven to me otherwise I would do whatever was necessary to get a TracStar and not even worry or think about HD.
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I checked my music channels and did not see a Lawrence Welk channel but did see the bubbles. Beats me how they do that.
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To clarify my previous comments: DirecTv does not work in HD with any in-motion dome. (Only DIshNetwork will with some dome antennas, but is restricted to one receiver.) If you want DirecTv in HD, you will need a dish type antenna as shown in my photo posted previously and you must be stationary when it’s set up.
However, you can run a HD DirecTv receiver in SD when using an In-motion dome, but there is no way to get a HD picture on your TV (DirecTv) with the HD receiver without a seperate HD antenna. I.e: A Winegard HD dish.
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Howdy,
Y’all are so full of experience and knowledge. Well I was able to get a hold of a wonderful technical support person at Winegard. (I realize that’s an oxymoron) Anyway, I was able to send her the pictures that I posted on this post and she was able to identify the dome and tell me how to test it out. As I figured, it is not out of date and has actually been update to receive HD. She sent me the manual for the dome and the setup instructions for Butch and I to attempt.
So off we went today with 2 dish network receivers in tow and we drove our Ford Dually with our X-Tra Lift to access the roof. Quite the scene! How do y’all access your roof? This was our best solution. Can you say, REDNECK!
Well we successfully got the switches changed from DirectTV to Dish Satellite. I found the power switch for the dome. All was good until we realized our receivers were NO BUENO! We haven’t used them in over a year. They upstairs in our guest bedrooms. We didn’t know we had to reactivate them. Yuck.
So off we go tomorrow with the one out of our bedroom. Round 2!
I am curious about the wireless HDMI. Is something that would work for me to be able to put a TV in our bay since we currently have no outside entertainment?
PS. If I got this to work by doing a little research and saved us 1,000s of bucks, I am not sure what I should do about the servicer who qouted us the astronomical amount of money to rewire our coach to get it up to date. Super disappointed.
Here are some pics of our “Southern Engineering” today. TeHe.
Thanks!
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Some of the information carried over the HDMI cable controls the aspect ratio and definition of the picture and switches it in the TV automatically based on what was transmitted in the broadcast. Without the HDMI connection it is necessary to select the aspect ratio and definition manually when you setup the receiver box and TV(s).
There are a lot of older coaches on the road that do not
have HDMI ready TVs. HDMI will improve the receiver to TV experience, but a HDMI
connection is not required to get a HD picture on a HDTV – a component cable
will carry the HD picture just as well. Even the simple yellow, red, white RCA cable will carry HD, but with a slight loss in quality. Depending on the TV itself you probably would not notice the difference. Coax will also carry HD, but like the component cable it won’t carry the digital information to control the TV. The original system in your coach was probably connected using coax so unless you have the latest TVs in your coach and you have to have all the bells and whistles they’re capable of, you can use the original connections.To completely setup a coach with HDMI cables and connections from the receivers to all the TVs is a major job. My coach was completely redone with 4 new Smart TVs and HDMI cables throughout – inside and in the bays. I don’t know what the previous owner paid, but it wasn’t cheap and it was all done by Marathon Coach in Florida. I don’t care much for TV, so no way would I have spent the money to do that.
BTW: Amazon has a bunch of wireless HDMI transmitters available.
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B & D,
I used Iogear for my wireless HDMI and it worked well.
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Butch & Dawn, there are plenty of collapsible aluminum ladders available. most of us carry one with us. You need a 12′ for an XL or a 14′ for an H. Ours folds down to about 32″X12″ and can be used as a step ladder or an extension ladder. Grizz is right…..depends how much HD you want and what you’re willing to spend. On our last coach we updated the tv’s and used HD receivers which gave a slight picture improvement, but mainly for the functions ie. pause,DVR etc and ran everything from the in-motion sat. This time around we went with the Direct TV Traveler dish and true HD. Got sick of having it in our homes and not the bus. We watch alot of sports though. You will only have HD when parked but will have SD when moving. The cost to us for 3 tvs (22,42&46″) LED Smart tvs, 3 Blue Ray dvds, 3 Direct TV receivers and the Wineguard Traveler along with audio upgrades incl dash radio, new 10″ monitor and passenger Nav screen and sound bar and bass unit for outside tv was about 12K. We spend about 65% of our time in the bus so to us it was $ well spent. Geo.
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The only thing mising from that service would be cowboy boots right off the ranch.. Horse shit and all!
I like the pickup truck/lift approach!
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Butch, Dawn & everyone else w/ Tracstar issues. We still have access to Tracstar parts and complete new (rebuilt) systems. If anyone needs parts from a simple LNB to a complete new system & everything in between let us know. We would love to help in anyway we can!
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