Installing Winegard Gateway GW-1000

[Ykinnaird01]

Hello Again Jim,
Thanks for your reply. I called Winegard and they told me to call Keystone. So not much help there. Anyways, if the green and the white wire are the 12v do I just connect the 3 Grey wires and call it a day? Winegars kept saying I have to splice the power cable to plug it in..

[jh.xsnrg]

3 grey? There should be 3 color coded antenna wires that match up to the connections on the gateway. Maybe they have color bands on them? If you find they do match up, then yes, tap into the 12v power wires connect the antenna wires, and you should be good to go. Yes, I would splice in to the 12v with your choice of taps. I used Lockitt Posi-taps

[Ykinnaird01]

PosiTaps seem like a perfect solution. Do you happen to remember what size you used? Also, did you tap into both the white and green parts? Thanks so much for your help. I called Keystone and they weren't much help either.

[jh.xsnrg]

I don't recall the size off-hand, sorry. The wire is likely 16 or 18ga if that helps. It has to be a little larger for the lower voltage (12v). You will want to use a multi-meter to determine if the white and green are 12v before using them. If they are, then yes, you will need to tap both (positive and negative).

[legmar]

No problem. What I did was probe the wire to determine hot and ground, and then used POSI-TAPs to splice in to the 12v wiring to be the least intrusive as possible. When I removed them, you could tell where they were if you looked, but not bad at all.

Jim

That's a fantastic idea. I will certainly try that.

It's interesting... I also called Keystone and ended up emailing photos of the DC parallel wire loop to one of their tech supports. They said they had no idea how to install the Winegard Router with respect to the photo I sent them. They said they expect their Keystone coaches to come "plug n play" ready. They were shocked that I couldn't just "plug in the power." After I showed them that the power wire does not terminate and is instead a loop that continues on, I asked if they had any suggestions or instructions for cutting the wire, and they said they couldn't help me anymore. I contacted the dealer that I purchased the RV from, and the service mgr said they had never installed a single Winegard router and had no ideas either. So, I contacted Winegard, and they were like, "did you talk to the coach manufacturer?" Haha... an endless loop (just like the DC power loop).

Anyway, I'm super glad you suggested the Posi tap connectors. I'm guessing you just pulled the parallel wires apart from each other enough to get one Posi tap on each wire. I haven't decided yet if I want to wire in the switch as well. I'll try to take a stab at the install this weekend and let everyone know how it goes.

[legmar]

Okay, I got my router installed. Here's some pics if they help anybody. I haven't wired in the switch yet... that's a task for another day. For now, the router is just on/off anytime the RV has power.

I used the Posi taps (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1) suggested by @jh.xsnrg

[Ykinnaird01]

Hi Jim,

Thanks so much for all the advice. I was finally able to get a hold of the PosiTaps. Do you happen to remember if you connected yours like this? (I haven't drilled the holes yet for the mounting bracket until I know it works well)

[gbkims]

Hi Jim,

Thanks so much for all the advice. I was finally able to get a hold of the PosiTaps. Do you happen to remember if you connected yours like this? (I haven't drilled the holes yet for the mounting bracket until I know it works well)

Looks wrong to me. The right way looks like picts in post 16
For your's:
One tap on White = 12V return/negative to Black of Wiregard
One tap on Green = +12V to Red of Winegard

[jh.xsnrg]

Hi Jim,

Thanks so much for all the advice. I was finally able to get a hold of the PosiTaps. Do you happen to remember if you connected yours like this? (I haven't drilled the holes yet for the mounting bracket until I know it works well)

I would use a volt meter to know for sure. It seems hard to tell which wire is which in these things without probing to know for certain. 12v positive certainly is the red wire in the router though.

Looked at your pic more:

Oh, no. You are certainly hooked up wrong. You need to split the two wires in the lead. You have them both connected in the posi which would cause a dead short and blow your fuse. Only one wire to a posi, and use two posiTaps.

Jim

[Mooney03]

So it seems I am in the same boat as most with this Winegard Gateway. I only have three antenna wires coming through the ceiling, no power wires. The only power nearby is the wiring for a 12V LED light. Does anyone have any thoughts on how to get power up there without have to run wires from the panel?