Sandia Man

One of the first mods we did when we picked up our new to us Monaco a few years ago was gut out all the inferior, outdated AV equipment, Monaco had installed Sony receiver during manufacture at the Oregon facility. I just went to the base exchange here at Kirtland AFB and picked up a Sony theatre surround sound receiver and 5 Sony speakers, a nice improvement over the factory installed AV equipment. I was not looking for any specific model or brand as Pioneer, Kenwood, or any reputable brand would work just as well. The Sony 5.1 receiver just happen to be on sale, also installed a 55" Samsung HDTV on an articulating arm at same time. Satellite receiver, bluray dvd player, Xbox, TV antenna, and our cell phones (via Bluetooth) easily connected to our Sony receiver, all the various signals from these devices can be readily viewed on our Samsung HDTV. The signal splitter installed by Monaco is no longer needed although it still remains in the coach, all other factory AV equipment has been removed and relegated to life on a shelf in our garage. Although we don't watch a lot of TV while RVing, we are avid sports fans and music enthusiasts, and having all the available options we have at home is why we went from a towable RV to a class A motorcoach, we wanted nothing short of a rolling condo at this stage of RVing. Most any A/V equipment can be utilized and does not have to be manufactured solely for RV usage, we replaced bedroom A/V equipment as well that way it f my DW and I want to watch different video content we have all options mentioned above available to each HDTV. After 3 decades of RVing with our kids, we are going places purely for our mature tastes, and having the time of our lives doing so.

I can't comment on if you really need to upgrade your Winegard equipment, but we have had Dish network installed at our home since 2002 with same antenna mounted on our roof and it still provides all the available content Dish offers to this day, maybe it is a Winegard issue. As for streaming via our phone's hotspot in our Monaco, we have done so although sporatically as we have Dish being fed to our main cabin and bedroom HDtvs. First thing I did when we purchased our motorcoach nearly 4 years ago was gut the inferior outdated audio video equipment and replaced with smart TVs and Sony AV feceiver and bluray dvd players, original equipment provided dismal results by comparison. Previous owner threw in two Kingdome automated units, one set for Dish and the other set for Directv programming as they changed satellite providers over the course of time. I mounted both units to roof using mounts that allow for easy removal of domes if obstacles are blocking signal, additionally converted Directv dome to Dish programming thereby providing access to all Dish programming on main cabin and bedroom smart TVs independently. I can't foresee dumping Dish network anytime soon as both OTA and cellphone service are unreliable where we do most of our RVing which is primarily the four corner states, we don't watch lots of TV but want to keep up with our favorite teams and sporting events.

When our Dometic Penguin 2 in our bedroom gave up the ghost roughly a year and a half ago, a direct Dometic replacement would take well over a month to get due to covid production/shipping constraints. RV Tech suggested the Houghton units sold by RecPro as many of his customers were changing their working Penguins out for these as they were much quieter. Had some trips planned that we didn't want to miss, got online and ordered directly from Recpro and had a heat pump unit in a few days. Drove our rig to mobile RV tech's workshop where he used his forklift to get AC units off/on roof, would have installed myself with help from my eldest, just didn't have time available with work and upcoming trips around the corner. Well, they are indeed quieter although they appear to deliver more velocity/cfm, have modes/options not available on our Penguins, and state soft start technology in their documentation. Thus far the RecPro unit is performing well, going the same route when main AC unit dies.