ouR escaPOD mods

Originally posted by Wood River Pod Stephen, what's interesting is that on our 179 HRE, our batwing is located on the slide side of the pod.  The coax jack is still just above the tv, but the cable goes into the cavity behind the jensen and then pops into the ceiling and runs across the pod and up an out the antenna base on the roof just to the right of the a/c unit.  So adding a new antenna would be difficult.  Been considering just removing the antenna and putting a cap on the base.  Thanks for the info. Jeff

In your case, replacing the batwing with a rotatable antenna would be simpler since you already have access to the base of the antenna that is not in an inaccessible space. If the wires from the antenna to the Jensen unit are not fastened tightly to the framework, you might be able to use the existing wires to pull new wires through or modify the existing wires to support a new unit if it uses the same type wires as the batwing.

In my case, the new wiring is somewhat different. The batwing had two wires, one that fed to the TV In connector and a thin red wire that looks like it fed 12V power to the antenna with the shielding of the TV wire likely serving as the ground. The new antenna has two wires. One is the TV wire and the other is to to to the AM/FM connector on the Jensen unit. Power does not go to the antenna. Neither wire is long enough to reach the connector panel. Since the wiring was different, I installed the new amplifier panel that came with the unit. I am waiting on delivery of an extender cable for the radio. I already had a TV antenna extender cable as there was already one being used with the old antenna.



Although I do not have the cable for the radio portion, I do have the television working. First impressions? This is a good unit. It already seems to pick up more stations than the old batwing. In the house, our local ABC station affiliate is problematic. However, in the R-Pod, that channel was coming in strong. OTOH, channel 17 (NBC) registered on the scan but shows a blank picture with no sound. A few say "audio only" and some others are pixilated. When they do come in, the picture is very clear. The best thing is that this cost significantly less than the batwing it replaced and the same base fits the new antenna so I di not have to do anything that would compromise the roof's sealant and add the risk of leakage.
I thought it best to stick with the original base because the one that came with this antenna is plastic and the old one is metal. If I really wanted to, I could paint the base white to match the antenna. The black base does not look bad, so it is something that would be very low on the priority list.

Edit: The radio antenna extension cable came in today (2' long). The Jensen stereo unit is now installed again and tested. Radio reception is very good.

I believe I can with good conscience highly recommend this antenna as a replacement for the batwing antenna if you have one and it breaks.

Your right, should come from factory that way.

I can see this mod is in my future.

Thank you. It is something that I had wanted to do for a long time.

Yes I made my own brackets, bought the igniter at Home Depot they are for a BBQ