25 replies to this topic

[abqbw]

I have been using Wilson cell boosters since 2010. I highly recommend them. (I have nothing to do with the company - just a happy customer).

I own a 4g unit from when the company was still Wilson. The model is a mobile 4G, SmarTech III, model no 460008. Weboost is just a new name for the company. I also have a 3G unit from before the 4g units came out. Without question they work great. I have verizon cell service. I spend a lot of time camping and hunting in remote areas of the southwest and Rockies. Countless times I have gone from no signal/connection to streaming video with an LTE connection. Or from no connection to enough signal to send/receive text messages and make calls. It is not unusual to have boosted cell service 50 miles or more from the nearest unboosted cell service.

One thing with the 4g unit is sometimes it loses the LTE signal so I have to toggle in and out of airplane mode on the phone to get LTE to come back on.

The technical and general customer service has always been great when it was Wilson and remained great when the name changed to weboost.

[abqbw]

[JaSAn]

 

. . .

 

It is not unusual to have boosted cell service 50 miles or more from the nearest unboosted cell service.

One thing with the 4g unit is sometimes it loses the LTE signal so I have to toggle in and out of airplane mode on the phone to get LTE to come back on.
 

 

I'm surprised that you can use signals from that far away.  I can get great signal from 40 - 50 miles on occasion but the tower will usually drop my call because of transmission delay.

 

jim

[TwoPlusLu]

Thank you both for the feedback. Ended up purchasing the weboost (wilson) drive 4g-x otr (truck edition). Was an expensive investment, but after more reading and research and comments here decided to pull the trigger. Our jobs depend on Internet connectivity, so we wanted to give ourselves a good chance of having Internet whenever possible. Technomadia (rv mobile Internet. Com) was a good resource as well mentioned in this thread. Will have a chance to test out next week and over the next year or more on the road and will report back to the thread. Will also post pictures of the install of the large antenna up top and hardware inside the camper soon.

[rando]

TwoPlusLu,

 

I am curious how you ended up installing the booster?   I have the same unit sitting on a shelf right now, and am thinking about the install.   My questions are mostly about the antennas - where did you mount the (large) out side antenna, and will it work well with the top up and down?   Secondly, what did you do with the smaller inside antenna?  Ideally I would like this to work both while driving (so antenna in the truck cab between the front seats) and while camped (antenna in the camper).   My thought was to buy a second inside antenna and mount it in the camper with a two way coaxial switch so I can switch between the truck cab antenna and camper antenna.  Any thoughts?

[PaulT]

Looks like the inside antenna could be installed on the front camper window in order to  have the signal available for use inside the cab and inside the camper.  Unless your truck rear window has a metal film coating, it should pass through both window panes with sufficient strength to work well.

 

For the outside antenna, follow the installation instructions especially with respect to any discussion of ground plane requirements and outside antennas nearby.

 

Paul

[rando]

The issue I foresee is that the inside antenna needs to be "within 36 inches of where the cellular device will be used" and the suggested location is the side of the passenger or drivers seat.    If I mount it on the rear window (we have a 4 door tacoma) it will not be within the 36" of either the driving position or the rear dinette in the camper.   It may be close enough -  I guess the easiest option would be to try it and see how it works out.  

[rando]

PS I specifically bought the 'OTR Trucker' antenna as it is ground plane independent.   With the camper cab over it makes it impractical to use the little ground plane required magnetic antenna with the regular booster as it would be under the cab over.   My plan at the moment is to mount the antenna on the rear wall of the camper, maybe with some sort of extension to raise it when we pop the top.   Hopefully this would get us the necessary separation between the inside and outside antennas. 

[Stalking Light]

I have a side dinette and there is a small 'cabinet' above the window and I mounted the inside antenna on the side of it over the table, I use mine only when I'm in the camper and parket. I used silicone to attach a galvanized plate to the top rear of my camper above the door and mount my outside antenna there and my booster is mounted next to the door on the inside left.

[rando]

So here is what I came up with for the weeboost OTR antenna -

 

Deployed:

 

And stowed:

 

The 80/20 cross bars on the back are super useful for trying out stuff like this.

 

I am still wiring up the inside antenna - I will try putting it on the rear window of the truck cab and see if that will work for both the cab and camper.