I am nearing the end of the snake training circuit. It has been a long season and I am read to slow down. Just one little bitty problem. I got off work Friday and jetted home. My wife had been sick and was unable to have the bus preflight checks completed. So I go to the feed store and grab chicken feed and supplies for the clinic we are headed too. Get home, feed chickens and dogs, do the bus preflight, air up tires ect. Now we are an hour off schedule and of course wife has been sick so we have to make the famous WALMART STOP- OHHHHH!!!!! It is a love hate relationship we have with Walmart. Now we are 2 hours behind. We get to New Ulm and pick up the hired help (2 nephews). Get on the road and the first thing they say is "We are straving, where we eatin". Get to Giddings and Whataburger is the fastest way to feed them. Now were are 2.5 hours off schedule which puts us on a county road to the clinic at dark thirty.
My fault comes here. GPS will get you there but not so good some times. It picks the best route it sees. I hand GPS to nephew and tell him to tell me where to turn. Not good. Turn left turn right oh wait you were supposed to turn back there. I had to take said GPS back after we were committed to the smallest dirt road with the tightest turns and no way to back out or turn around.
We got free and got going and I didn't see it until it was too late. The one tree branch that was too low. I heard it whack AC unit #1 then AC unit #2 and boom!!!! I knew something didn't sound right on the third hit. I don't know how bad it is yet but I know the satellite dome didn't make it. It is now more like 2 half domes. Damn!!!!
As for now I am hoping it is only the dome. Anyone have any idea what a replacement dome costs?
$200 easy
fiberglass -easy repair---remember your going to be at least 15ft away from it...plastic not so easy...I shuttered when you posted..brings back memories...and self inflicted slap upside head...Bob
Ouch!!! Just remember in most states it is still illegal to kill a kid! Im sorry
What kind of sat dome is it?
Paul
the only thing worse than damageing your own car is banging your car into your wives...lol...s...
Well, not quite. The worst thing is backing your car into your bus.
After you tell us what kind it is I bet a used one off a nonworking one can be found cheap.
Sorry for not keeping up with my own thread fellas. The dome is plastic and it is in no way going to be fixed. It is so beat up I can see the guts it is supposed to cover. I will go take a picture and post it. The brand is trakstar. Anyone have a used dome for sale?
I just can't see the guts not being damaged. The internals had to have recieved a good blow from the branch judging the damage to the dome. I need to fire it up to see what I have going on but I am afraid to do it right now as there are pieces inside that will hang up in the gears. Here is a photo.
(https://busconversionmagazine.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi137.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fq234%2Fwal1809%2F20dc1f00.jpg&hash=19068b6d72781196612903ccc93bf1522482605b)
Ouch!!
Looks like the dish took some damage too, does it spin at all or is it toast? Is that LNB in line to the parabola anymore?
Where is this mounted on your coach? I've been meaning to ask where people mount their domes and if it makes a functional difference. I was kind of thinking of placing mine back further maybe in hopes of giving me just a little bit of safety space in case I see myself getting into a tight place. Maybe I could stop and back out before too much damage though obviously that wouldn't help in all scenarios.
Didn't someone run into a low overpass a few years back and smack their dome?
It is on top in the middle between Ac unit 2 and Ac unit 3. The 2ac units took a hit but are not dammaged. Tracstar as you can see not so good.
Pardon me being ignorant but what is an inline parabola? I have never used it before as we just got the title changed over. Dish would not install thr boxes without the title in my name. So I will have to take the box from the house and hook it up to test it. I was planning on them to come out next week and install the boxes in the front room and the bedroom. That is what I get for planning.
I'm sure that others can explain it far better than I and especially since it's been years since I studied the stuff but a parabola is the intersection of a plane and a cone. The dish is the cone and the LNB would be the plane across the cone. Essentially the LNB needs to be lined into the center of the dish at a point where imaginary (or not so imaginary) lines intersect, where the signal would be the strongest.
I'm sort of stumbling here and I hope others can explain in better language but if your LNB gets knocked off alignment it cannot receive as well or at all. If you bent where the LNB is aiming you might need to realign it to the parabola before it would properly receive again.
I beleive I am getting your drift on the parabola.
Well I dug out the broken dome pieces amd branches. What the heck I powered it up. I spins and locks on the satelites so next step is book a box up to it and find another dome.
We have a Tracvision LM, the dome looks very similar. Good luck on finding a dome, might check any RV shops around your neck of the woods, might find one in a dumpster.
Paul
Quote from: wal1809 on August 29, 2010, 11:23:17 AM
I beleive I am getting your drift on the parabola.
Well I dug out the broken dome pieces amd branches. What the heck I powered it up. I spins and locks on the satelites so next step is book a box up to it and find another dome.
Wow, if you spin and lock then I'd say you are in great shape...except for the dome. I dunno here, maybe totally wrong material and cost may be way out of line but vacuum formed plastic? There is a shop around here that does the kind of stuff but I'd bet the setup cost would be pretty high for a one off piece.
I wonder if a dome off of other brands could also fit? At least that would open up the spectrum a bit.
Time for the Saran wrap ;D ;D !!
If replacement domes are not easily available, I would guess that you could use just about anything the covers the mechanism without obstructing its function.
Well aside from physical things like maybe a twig or leaves falling into the mechanism or on the dish or slush and snow I don't really see why it needs any cover at all. Maybe put a screen (nylon, not metal) over it and see how that goes?
-Dave
It has exposed electronics. Has to be covered.
Quote from: eddiepotts on August 29, 2010, 01:34:07 PM
It has exposed electronics. Has to be covered.
Having never actually been inside one I wasn't aware of that. Thanks for the clarification, I guess a cover is in order.
There are some really delicate looking electronics, tiny gears, belts ect. I pulled it into the barn and I am still worried about dust getting in. The dime looks easy to replace. As far as I can tell it is 4 bolts and a sticky rubber gasket. I looked on the tracstar website but it mentions nothing about replacement parts. If it is to much of a pain in the arse I am going to call my insurance agent. I might just take it into the shop and have them go through Otto check it out. If is broken then now is the time to find out. I might wind up having to replace the system.
If it's toast send it to me if you are done with it, I'd love to tinker with it and see if I could find a reasonable dome solution. Don't want to mess with mine.
-Dave
If it is in fact toasted you are welcome to it.
Call trina at RV Surplus and tell her you need an empty dome.
What about a big plastic tub over it for temporary protection, until you find a dome?
Dennis
Radomes, which is what that piece is, are designed for minimum signal loss. A substitute may work OK but probably not as well as the original. Protection from the elements, of course, is a different thing; whatever works.
Quote from: cody on August 29, 2010, 02:18:27 PM
Call trina at RV Surplus and tell her you need an empty dome.
Will do!!
I called Tracstar today. $85 plus shipping. Not to bad!!!