Winegard Cell Booster Installation

I just wrapped up installing a Winegard cell booster to this 20 foot camper. And here's the deal, as much as we like to get away, we also often need to stay in touch for a variety of reasons, kids, pets, all sorts of other obligations. So as we get away, sometimes you get out of the normal range of a cell phone tower, that's where stuff like this comes into play and the Winegard cell booster, just what it sounds like, it's going to boost the signal to give you a better opportunity to stay in touch when you need to stay in touch. Let's have a look at what it took to get this baby, the booster in here, the antenna on the outside, and it's cable, installed in this unit. Let's talk through the components of the cell booster so that you know what's cooking here as I start to use them on the camper.

There's an outdoor antenna that's omni directional. Of course it gets mounted outside of your camper someplace. And you've got options for that. It does come with a mount that would allow you to just simply clamp this to a ladder. That would be very, very simple.

Alternatively, my approach is going to be, you can mount it out to the roof of the camper. I don't have a ladder, so I'm going to go with the roof. That's our outside stuff. Inside stuff, there is a booster. The booster is going to get it's own little whip antenna on it.

The booster needs to be at least 15 feet away from the outdoor antenna. So as you're planning through this process keep that in mind. What that means for me is my outdoor antenna is going to be at the back of the camper, my booster inside is going to be at the front of the camper. The booster needs 120 volt or 12 volt power. So as you're thinking about where you're going to locate the booster keep that in mind, you need those power sources.

I do think it's cool that it'll run off 12 volts. So even if I'm not connected to conventional power, I can drive this just off the battery system on the camper. So, between the outdoor antenna and the indoor booster, we are going to route some co-ax cable. The directions that come with this unit are really good, simple to understand, easy to follow. They tell you everything you need to know in addition to what you're going to see here, which is going to tell you what you need to know.

So let's look at getting this baby onto the camper. I'm taking my job to new heights. I'm up here by the roof of the camper, and I've marked out the center of the roof. Read the instructions that come with the cell booster. Always a good idea to read the instructions.

And we want to make sure that the antenna is in a spot where it's clear of other obstructions. There are some parameters there. In addition to that aspect we talked about earlier of distance from this to the booster. So with the center marked out, I've got the antenna just temporarily on here. And then all we need to do is fasten this down.

What I'm going to do is get a couple screws in place. And by a couple, I mean opposite corners. Then get these two in. What I'm looking for is, what I'm doing here, is I'm establishing the hole locations. Then, disassemble.

This is after all our roof. So now I know I've got those distinct hole locations. A little RV caulk and a little RV caulk in each hole. And then I'm actually going to lay a bead that creates kind of a gasket around the perimeter. Second burst same as the first.

Right back into that same spot. Lovely little caulk squeeze out there. Nice. And I'm going to come back, I'll wipe that excess off before we're all done here. We can get the antenna on.

And I'll show you something cool in case you're not already familiar with this tool. I'm going to tighten this up with what's called a gear wrench and these are really cool. It's a box wrench basically. But on this end it's got a ratchet mechanism built in. So when I get on the head of that bolt with the right end.

When you're in tight quarters, like I am underneath the antenna here, these gear wrenches are really, really handy. All right, got them all started, got to see which way is lefty loosey, righty tighty. Here we go. Then for our cable, what I'm going to do with this install is I'm going to route the cable underneath here and hook that up. And then I'm going to come off the back of the camper, go around the outside, up the side.

You'll see that happen as I get into it. But if I tighten this, then we're done with this work on the roof and I can go after getting the cable mounted. There we go. So now I'll show you how I intend to go around the side. I'm running the co-ax on this side of the camper, under the gutter here, in order to get to the front of the camper.

And I'm doing that by holding it in place with these little co-ax cable clip. Found these at a home center. Now, when I got them, when they come out of their package, instead of a screw right there, there's a nail, and that doesn't do us any good on this aluminum camper. So the first thing I did, back at the workbench, was I pulled the nail out, substituted the screw in there. It's a sheet metal screw and that sheet metal screw is going to do a really good job of getting a good bite into this aluminum skin on the camper.

Now, as you come along and you're ready to put one in, it's going to go like this. But the life is going to be easier if that screw has a place to start. So a scratch awl is going to do this for you. You really don't need to go so far as to pre-drill. So once you know where you're going, scratch awl and just a little, and that's got just a little bit of a detent right there.

Then your RV caulk goes there. And with the clip, I put that screw in just with my fingers. It's going to be easier, the next step, if the screw is sticking out just a little bit, because then it can find right there, the detent that I just created. Snug that up. There we go.

About every six to eight inches along there, it's going to hold that in place. I'm going to keep working my way toward the front of the camper. And I am going to go back and put a drop of caulk and a drop of caulk on each of my screw heads in order to make sure the system is completely water tight. I've got the cable strung outside and it's not finished because to finish putting it in place, I need to know what place it's going to be. It's going to terminate inside this cabinet.

So rather than like take a guess from the outside where this cabinet is, I'm going to drill from the inside out. And I'm going to do the final drilling, one inch hole, with a hole saw, but it's going to be easier if I start with just a twist bit and this is going to run all the way through from inside to outside. And then I can follow this work with a hole saw. Okay, next step one inch hole saw per the manufacturer's instructions. I'm really, really close to being able to bring the cable in from the outside.

Here's how I got to this point. From the inside of the building I drilled out and the outside of the building I drilled in and I did that using a hole saw. And the reason I went with a hole saw, couple of things, the bit here, in the center of the hole saw, is a quarter inch diameter bit. That's the same as the diameter of the drill bit that I drove all the way through with. So this center is going to follow the work that I already did when I did that preliminary hole.

Additionally, hole saws are really good for coming through that aluminum skin on the outside. It would be a really bad choice to use something like a paddle bit for that, it's really going to tear up the aluminum. So hole saw is a great choice. And again, it wasn't a case of just starting on one face and going all the way through. I drove from the inside out to get through the inside skin and then the outside in to get through the outer skin.

Next thing I did is I put a grommet in the hole and this is especially important on the outside. It's aluminum, and we're going to run cable through that hole. So if all I did was leave the aluminum, there's a chance that the aluminum could abrase the sheathing, the installation on that cable, and wear it away, it's going to be really bad. So put a grommet in there to protect the cable. On the inside here, this is a wooden surface, so the grommet isn't as imperative on the inside, but it does neaten up the look so it just looks classier on the inside of your camper.

With the grommets I used the RV caulk in order to put those in and make sure the grommet itself, especially on the outside, is sealed against the aluminum. And that's going to come into play, the caulk is going to come into play again, once we have the wiring. So, next step, I can go outside and start threading that cable through. Look at this, the cable's in and I've left enough out here, this is important, that we want to create what's called a drip loop. So it's just what it sounds like.

If water gets on this, we want this portion to be below the entry point rather than somewhere up here, where it would encourage the water to follow the cable and go into the camper. So that's going to end up like that. Before I do this, I want to take advantage of this being loose so that I can come under here and we need to get a sealant in there, around there. And it's just a little easier before the retainers go in to make sure I get good coverage here. Cause I can wiggle the cable right now.

And I'm going to leave it a little bit of caulk on top, I'll wipe that once I have this seated. And then from there it's stuff you've already seen. We'll end up with a retainer down there ish. That takes care of this outside work. Next thing, we can head for the inside and just wrap up things in there.

The unit is set up inside the camper. Here's the deal, we've got the booster here. The booster has its own antenna on it. It's currently plugged into the wall outlet. And lights tell us go, or no-go you just read the owner's manual and you get an indicator on what those lights tell you.

If we need to run on 12 volt power, that's not a problem because we also have this adapter, and in this cabinet, the cigarette style adapter, the cigarette style plug, is going to get installed over here. So that's going to let me run that when we don't have regular 120 volt power. Now from a housekeeping perspective, I took the excess cable and I coiled that up, I put a zip tie on it. It's one of those zip ties that has a screw hole in it, so that allows me to fasten that up to the wall and just clean that up a little bit. As far as, you know, where this thing is living, this whole cabinet is still waiting for its face frame and its doors and its other components.

So once we have the set, that's where the booster is going to be is inside this finished cabinet. Installation, honestly, it was really, really, really easy. The instructions are great. And this does give us the peace of mind that when we're out doing our thing, it's going to provide that boost on the cell signal so that when we need to stay in touch, we can still stay in touch.