So we thought that was encouraging, but still not real numbers. We thought it was a pretty impressive showing. For those who don't know, Forest City is the land that cell service forgot, and AT&T just doesn't work there at all. For example, last summer, when we were visiting Forest City, Iowa for the WIT Club Grand National Rally, we were able to achieve decent internet speeds on Verizon, and we were able to actually make a connection with AT&T - but only if we were sitting around our dinette. We've had plenty of anecdotal evidence that the booster was working for us. The unit runs off of 12 volt power, and I've verified that, when it's running, it uses about 1 Amp of 12 Volt electricity. It has connections to both antennae, and also a power connection (red light - it's just a 12v cigarette lighter plug). In our Travato, it sits above the radio - you can see it with the green lights on. For us, this location covers our dinette table (where we work), and the front seats while we're driving.Īnd finally, we have the weBoost unit itself. It needs to be placed where you anticipate needing the signal boost. It has a range of only a few feet, so placement of this antenna is critical. In the picture above, it's the metal bar mounted to the underside of our cabinets. The next major component is the indoor antenna. With 140 square feet of metal roof, I think we're covered! A ground plane for cell signals should be a minimum of 8 inches across. Without getting too deep into antenna theory, a ground plane is a reflective body at the base of the antenna that greatly improves reception. Besides an easy mounting surface, the other advantage our metal roof provides is that it serves as an enormous "ground plane". weBoost provides a small, magnetic mount antenna which works great on the metal roof of our class B van. You can see it in the center of this picture. (Stef and I have different carriers on purpose, if one doesn't work in a particular area, the other one likely does!) Here are the different parts of the system as they were installed:įirst up is the external antenna. We chose this model because it has an indoor antenna, rather than a cradle it's capable of serving more than one phone at a time and it works for multiple carriers. weBoost (formerly Wilson) has a range of cell signal boosters, and a long history in the field. The system I sent Winnebago to install was a weBoost Drive 4G-X. You can use that, and other knowledge to come up with something that will work in your RV. The idea here is to show you some things I know work. In this post, I'll be covering a couple installs, and focusing on the testing I've done. You can go there to get more detailed information. There are whole websites ( ) dedicated to better internet and cell connections in your RV. But I didn't really have anything to back that feeling up. The Winnebago team did a great job with the install, which I'll show you, and we felt like it worked well for us. That's why, when Winnebago was building our tricked-out Travato, I sent them a cell signal booster to install with the rest of the electronics. We don't stay in many RV parks, so we use our cell phones for ALL of our connectivity. Simply put, we can't afford to be out of touch for very long. Stefany too, has to remain in contact with her personal training clients when we're on the road. I work in the IT industry, and Stefany and I also run an RVing website of our own. Cell service and an internet connection is no longer "nice to have" in many RVs, it's a downright necessity.
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