Satellite Wiring Nightmare Cyclone 4200

[CampingGwrl]

We have a 2015 Cyclone 4200- this thing has actually been somewhat of a nightmare since we bought it,

Lights falling off on the patio, the back ramp/patio bubbling up and unusable as ramp (so much for toy-hauling), the 3 season door velcro & plastic "door" falling off completely when it rains outside, the sony dvd/stereo unit won't function- had to order one on amazon (the thing was used ONCE!!) the bathroom sink faucet is so far back you literally cannot rinse your hands under it, the washer and dryer hooked up incorrectly and it leaks all over the floor and under the dresser in the bedroom.

As if all of that weren't enough - we decided since this thing has 4 TV's in it, we might as well install a tailgater Satellite dish, after all, it's Satellite ready... Right?

Except that it's not. Beside each tv is an outlet box (seemingly) for Antenna & Cable or Satellite. The outside UDF box has an antenna, cable and satellite hook up, except if you look in the wiring behind the box, they have the (supposed) satellite hooked to a 900mHz splicer. Folks, if you don't wire things for a living you probably don't realize the problem with this... the problem with that is Satellite cannot run through a 900 mz splicer, it needs over 2100mHz. So, we changed out that splicer... great, now we're one step closer to having satellite. Oh wait... there are at least 9 other splicers in the walls.

After taking off nearly every panel we could access we finally found the stupid things hidden above the living room tv behind the faux speaker. There are literally 5 in this one area, all of them are 900 mHz. Then, if you go into the bedroom and look at the outlet in there you'll see it's clearly labeled for satellite, again, it's not. They didn't run proper cabling to That outlet either.

I am so fed up with heartland right now!!! I called their support line to get a layout of the "wiring" so we could find the remaining splitters but they couldn't tell me where those might be located. In short, if you want your satellite to work, you'll either have to tear your camper apart or you'll have to Pay one of their "Technicians" to wire it properly. Good Luck with that!

I'd like to know why a 100K camper isn't satellite ready?

 

[danemayer]

Hi CampingGwrl,

I was under the impression that the Tailgater Dish supports a single receiver. Have you given any thought to how you'll get the receiver output to all 4 TVs?

 

[remoandiris]

this thing has actually been somewhat of a nightmare since we bought it,

Welcome to the club. I feel the same way about my 2014 4000.

Watch the HL bashing. Mods reserve the right to delete bashing posts.

 

[CampingGwrl]

Hi CampingGwrl,

I was under the impression that the Tailgater Dish supports a single receiver. Have you given any thought to how you'll get the receiver output to all 4 TVs?

Yes that's correct, a single receiver; But you can hook up multiple TVs for shared viewing. The receiver's audio/video output can be sent to multiple TVs with an HDMI cable or component +audio, composite, or coaxial cable. Which is perfect- we have the Game showing on ALL tv's so no matter what room you're in or if you're outside you can still see the game, which is of course, the point of the Tailgater to begin with.

 

[scottyb]

Yes that's correct, a single receiver; But you can hook up multiple TVs for shared viewing. The receiver's audio/video output can be sent to multiple TVs with an HDMI cable or component +audio, composite, or coaxial cable. Which is perfect- we have the Game showing on ALL tv's so no matter what room you're in or if you're outside you can still see the game, which is of course, the point of the Tailgater to begin with.

You have my sympathy and my curiosity. I have a tailgater and a single receiver. I have been using it for 2 years but only for a single TV. I have tried to feed the coax out to the BR TV w/o any luck. It gets a picture but very snowy. It is possibly due to the splitters you mentioned? It hadn't occurred to me to use component + audio. I use the HDMI for the LR TV. Of course it would require routing multiple cables to the BR and other locations. Have you done this already?

 

[Boostable]

CG,

I feel your pain!!! My unit as yours had no SAT cable run to the Master, Loft, or Garage area.. SUCKED!!! Why have the jacks and not run the cable!!! Very frustrating for sure. You can eliminate all the 900mhz splitters but the only one that will do you any good to solve your SAT issue is the one behind the entry area, as more then likely you will not be pushing SAT signal through the others anyway. From there you should have a home run to the Living and Outside outlets. If your want it anywhere else your are going to have to run it yourself...

I wanted to retain my antenna hookup as it works pretty good in most cases, so I just ran a home run from the master and the garage area. I attempted to use the factory TV runs, but it couldn't be done without having to manual move it back and forth between TV and SAT when I needed it. I didn't bother with the loft area. Should SAT cable already be there.. **** YA!!!

I don't know your exact configuration, BUT you can get the cables where you want them pretty easily if your setup is similar to mine.

Feeling your frustration...

*** Forgot to mention I use a SL3 Dish.. Love my HD!!

Jack

 

[Boostable]

You have my sympathy and my curiosity. I have a tailgater and a single receiver. I have been using it for 2 years but only for a single TV. I have tried to feed the coax out to the BR TV w/o any luck. It gets a picture but very snowy. It is possibly due to the splitters you mentioned? It hadn't occurred to me to use component + audio. I use the HDMI for the LR TV. Of course it would require routing multiple cables to the BR and other locations. Have you done this already?

SB,

You should be able to do what you want with something similar to this..

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103095#

Assuming your receiver has an A/V output you should be able to hook it to this device, then hook the coax to your trailer input on the TV side and watch your content on any TV!!!

Jack

 

[scottyb]

Thanks. It has multiple formats of video output, including coax. Might be worth a try. Thanks for the tip.

 

[Boostable]

Thanks. It has multiple formats of video output, including coax. Might be worth a try. Thanks for the tip.

Another thought, if you are bringing in your satalite feed in on the dedicated satlite coax to the main TV, you could inject the feed from the RF modulator above back in the RV using the TV coax jack on the same plate... does that make sense? BTW, these are usually in stock at most Radio Shacks.

 

[TXTiger]

I have Dish Network and a Pathway dish, not the Tailgator. I am using a VP200K receiver not the VP200Z. I run an HDMI cable out from the receiver to the living room television. The K model (which is the older model and larger) also has a coax out jack and I run a coax feed to the bedroom televisionalso from the livingroom receiver. If you have the newer Z model it does not have a coax out jack and you have to have a seperate receiver for the 2nd televison and run a second line to the second receiver in the bedroom. Not sure if the Tailgater has a second coax line out from the dish?

 

[MarlinCryer]

I agree, Heartland had better get their act together. My problem, one at least is that the tv in the garage does not even work on the antenna. I have Directv and will be able to get my bedroom and living room on Sat, but nothing else. Why put a TV on the patio but not have it hooked up to anything but antenna.

 

[SteveC]

I am about to do the same thing in my 4200, call heartland support and ask for the diagram FEL-20095 and it shows a possible fix for your problem. I agree, the wiring is very strange but once you see the diagram I think you should be able to figure it out. My current issue is I can not find the RG-6 communication cable that connects to the satellite control box. Have not looked at the roof piece yet.

 

[MarlinCryer]

With my 2015 Cyclone 4200, I had Directv come in and install all new SWiM systems. The HDR was wired directly from one of the outside connections and everything else is wireless. It works great, I now have all TV's functioning. Why all the TV's have the Red/White/Yellow wires beats me, as the only one that worked was the living room when you used the Sony DVD player. Also, the speakers only worked when you played the DVD, but not just for the TV. I took the TV down, connected my Directv DVR to the Sony system, ran a HDMI cable to my TV, now I get sound from speakers via TV or DVD.

 

[porthole]

all the TV's have the Red/White/Yellow wires

Seriously - we are still using these?

 

[richardbute]

my problem was a 4 way split in the space above the main tv ,, there ias 2 of them and they used the wrong type for sat ,, I swapped mine out and now have sat signal to all 4 tvs