Foretravel Owners' Forum For owners and Fans of Foretravel Motorcoaches September 11, 2025 ...

Also thinking of the King, and a roof mount. BUT, here is a question from a person that has never had a satellite system on an RV.

If all Satellites work best when pointed toward the southern sky, before the fine tweaking. If you Park you rig and the Sat antenna needs to be rotated in order to see south, how is that done with a Fixed mount? Does the internals of the Antenna have the capability of rotating 360 deg?

Thanks, Mike

Thanks for all the feedback. I am at present a DTV customer at 2 homes and soon the RV, so statying with DTV at the moment. I am planning to buy the KING one Pro 4800, it is capable of both DTV and DISH with no need for upgrades or added costs if one were to decide to switch. Winegard will do DTV also, but I am told at an added cost.

All sats regardelss of make, have to start out by pointing somehwere to the south. If they are capable of 360 deg rotation it would make no differerence what direction the RV is pointed at the end of the day. However, if you are pointed due north and you are not 360 capable, then there would be issues. I have no idea of what the KOP4800 is capable of, but plan to get with King and ask. I do know the Winegard IS capable of the 360.

I have read on another forum of 1 inividual that took their old Antenna base mount, that is capable of rotation, and adapted it to mount a dome to. As that person had a system that was capable of only 270 deg rotation, using the old antenna rotator was able to do slight adjustments to get it within the southern plane, then the auto tracker took over. Just a thought if I find that KING is limited.

Chris,
Appreciate you pointing that out and looks like a fair bargain for what your selling, but im just not interested in an in motion system, to boot might would have added cost for the DTV account.

Thanks, Mike

Chris,
thanks for the continued details and explanations of your experience with the many different types. Much of  what you mention, really to us is just not important. Locals, we dont really care for. HD, could care less have really not seen all the attraction...I know that sounds odd to most by today standards, but we honestly just don't like it. As for the in motion, a few that I know that have them, don't speak very highly of the in motion feature unless on long straight interstate runs. Even 2 RV dealers stated the same, but would sell us whatever we wanted. We are the type that adventure mostly back roads and off the beaten path where they all have stated we would not be satisfied with the in-motion. Yes have given thought to it, and wouldn't let the cost bother me, but other than the 360 motion ability do not see where the cost would justify the features we really don't care for.

We have 2  homes, and now the RV. I fully agree since ATT acquisition, DTV has gotten even worse when it comes to customer service. BUT , I am a 16 year DTV customer with a very old plan that gives me just about anything we want for both homes for little of nothing due to loyalty perks. I have 1 account, with the 2nd home being an added receiver on the 1st home. Adding the RV will be a cost of nothing, as I will just take the DVR receiver out of the main house when we travel. IF we wanted locals on the road, for a small fee could get it, but just not important to us.  And for the most part with exception of heavy storms, does what is is supposed to do. Only mistake I have made with DTV was agree to upgrade to a HD DVR. With that we have had the most issues of anything in all these years.

Due to all the RV forum talk about DTV not being the best for the RV crowd, I did just last year check to see about a change over to dish. However, they wanted us to have 2 seperate accounts for the 2 residents, and the RV was a pay as you use it. To make the change would have more than doubled our existing approach.... We used our DVR receiver with 2 RV rentals in the past few years before buying our own RV, and both times it worked fine for us, other than having to one time move the RV as that unit would not track 360, and the other was a in the yard tripod setup, which I dont really care to have.. So I really dont understand why some folks say DTV is not friendly for those in RV's..As DTV for 16 years has worked for us, right now I plan to stay with them due to our account situation...if we start to heavily use the RV and start to see any issues, might consider a provider change. I would prefer to have a roof mount that will do a 360 if possible, but also be easily removed and tripodable in the event of heavy foilage cover issues.
Yes, WG gives us the 360 but at a hefty price for other features not really important, and VERY pricey to repair if any issues. KING, not as many features, but then much less in price. Both systems appear to have loyal users.

dicksop,
thanks for the piece of feedback, good to hear, that was my biggest concern about the their latest top unit . Emailed KING today to ask, but have not heard back yet.

I would just make sure your receiver is compatible with whatever dish you buy. Most of the HD/DVR's both DTV and Dish are Hybrid. They will not work with dome dishes. Only the Traveler with correct Dish or DTV Hybrid LNB. Travelers come that way now standard.Otherwise it takes a basic receiver. Winegard lists what receivers work with what on their website. King, I don't know.
And I will bet you lunch (been there done that) DTV won't authorize a new basic receiver on the same account, only as a separate RV account. Was the final reason I dumped DTV.They require the purchase of the receiver through them, and a work order # to get it authorized. Even if you buy an unopened new DTV receiver from say Ebay. It takes a work order.
But sounds like you have it all figured out, so hope it works out for you.
Cheers
Chris

No worries Mike
I personally would go with a Winegard product, never had a lot of luck with king cruise stuff (I realize others have).Their Kingdome was a joke. We called them 'Dumb Domes" (see picture of RV satellite dome dish boneyard) All Winegards rotate more then 360, and software upgradeable. Dish and DTV make changes all the time to the satellites. Many people have had to buy several new systems over and over to get past this......Also, be a whare, that NO dome dish will be HD with DTV, you have to get the Big open face Traveler.

DTV is horrible with RV people. Dish is way more RV friendly, especially when it comes to local networks.
I was the 1st DTV dealer in the Coeur D Alene area some 27 years ago. Then went on to sell Dish also. I too had DTV on my MoHo for many years (and at home). Had a Trac Star for Inmotion, along with a Traveler for HD when parked. Paid extra for LA networks. Then ATT bought DTV, and the customer service went in the dumpster.

Switched out at home, and MoHo with Dish 2 yrs ago, never been happier. Have Dish HD in a small dome dish, both Inmotion and parked. Easy to switch local networks with single text message, no hassles. Way less cost for programing.

Funny, many like yourself never see the value to Inmotion, but once you have it, you can't figure out why you didn't have it before.Probably the cost scares them away, or they visualize driving and watching TV. I don't do that, but can listen, and the Sirus music is impeccable One of the biggest things is, when you pull into park, if you lose the signal, you just back up or move till it comes back. With a fixed dish, you don't know till you park and setup, then it's a hassel to move. Just sayin. One time we were too tired to watch the finals of the drags in Phoenix. No problem, put the inmotion on record, drove to Yuma, then watched them.I have owned /had every RV dish made known to  mankind over 40+ yrs, starting with a 6.5" Travel sat C-band. 'Point A shoot" hoping you find something.I would never own a fixed dish again. Even with the cost we paid of $1400.00 for our T4 winegard inmotion from Amazon (no receiver). But that is just me.
Chris

I had to break a smile when I read about the Travel Sat in your post. I think you meant to type it has a 6'5" dish.
I had a 86 Winnabago Elandan that had a Travel Sat mounted to the roof, what a monstrosity. It definitely got everybody's attention even when retracted. When raised it could not be overlooked. My Foretravel came with the in motion Tracvison After a lot of struggle I was able to get it to work well. I tried to never complain because I had the Travel Sat experience to remember.
Perfectly level the RV, Raise the 6' dish with the corded remote and point it at the southern sky, start scanning to locate a satellite. then pan the dish and look for another satellite and on and on. With no guide as to what was on each satellite it was an endless search that would occupy me for hours. The only real satisfaction was actually getting something on the screen.

When I bought the Winnebago with the 6' dish on the roof the previous owner had never used it.
He told me the story of the first time he TRIED to use it.
He used the wired remote to raise the dish then discovered that he could not maneuver the dish. He had no tools with him so he was forced to leave the campground with the dish extended. He drove VERY slowly to a store where he could buy some tools to disconnect the motors and lower the dish manually. What a sight that must have been.
With no advise on the dishes operation from the previous owner except the dish and receivers manuals, it was a frustrating learning curve. One that was MUCH easier to deal with 40 years ago than would be now.
Old age and bad temperament seem to go hand in hand.