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One of the things we really love about Winnebago is that they include a convenient roof port box on most of their smaller RVs. It’s a great and stress-free way to run cabling to the roof, without actually having to drill into the roof yourself.
But what if you change your mind about what you have installed on the roof? Or what if you want to install additional stuff after you’ve already used the box? Or what if you really made a mess of the box the last time you used it with a stupid Starlink cable gland? Or what if all three of these apply???
Well, that’s exactly what happened to set me up for this video. You can see how I solved it, and also created a flexible solution should I change my mind again.
The Problem
It all started when I wanted to change our RV’s router. I purchased a Peplink MAX BR1 Pro 5G as our new one. (I still have a day job, and work from the road, so we need highly reliable gear.) To work best, that router requires an external antenna, so I purchased a Peplink 42G cellular antenna to go with it. That’s all fine and good, but it requires 5 separate cables to be run from the inside to the outside.
If you’ve been around here a while, you may remember that I installed Starlink… TWICE. The second time, I ran the Starlink cable through the roof port box, and sealed it up with the obnoxious and large Starlink cable gland. This really made a mess of the roof port box.
Plus… I mean… 6 holes in the roof port box? I wasn’t too keen on turning my box into Swiss cheese. I set out to find something that might make the install a bit easier… AND a bit more modular and configurable should I change my mind again in the future.
The Solution
I decided to install an icotek Cable Entry Frame that I got from MobileMustHave. I’m not affiliated with them, but this is a really cool and modular solution to the problem, so I’m sharing it here. The way it works is that you install this frame onto, in this case, our roof port box, and then you install little square grommets into the frame. The grommets are made to accommodate a variety of cable solutions. There’s one for a four-cable cellular antenna. There’s one for a GPS cable. There’s one for a Starlink cable. And they make blank ones, so I have room to expand in the future.
The Next Problem
Which would have been a great solution if the Stupid Starlink Cable Gland Monstrosity (SSCGM) hadn’t made such a mess of my roof port box! Ultimately, I decided my box didn’t have enough integrity for me to be confident it would remain watertight. Lucky for me, in a moment of Boy-Scout preparedness… I had ordered an extra roof port box! So I got the opportunity to remove and reinstall Winnebago’s roof port box.
Yay?
Anyway, the cool thing (for you) is that you get to see exactly what’s under the Winnebago roof port box without actually having to remove yours.
After I reinstalled the roof port box, I have a solution that should be very easy to modify in the future should I ever change my mind about what’s installed up there again.
So, what do you think? Is a modular solution like this something that interests you? What have you installed using your roof port box? Sound off in the comments below!
That’s the same Peplink router and antenna I have and they work extremely well for me in my EKKO. But routing the antenna wires through the roof port is one serious PITA, as you know. I saw those port boxes at MMH but they only got them after I got my antenna. I suspect that I’m going to add a project to my list and clean up that port box. Thanks for the tip.
Good luck, Graham!
Nice.. I 3d printed a roof box replacement that’s squattier and wider, has better aero, and a removable/reprintable rear panel.. used flexible tpu to make gaskets so the rear panel seals up well. Cable glands and an Ethernet waterproof bulkhead thread into the current version. On the Boldt getting cables routed through the box into the van is difficult, so it’s handy to be able to remove the rear panel and route the wires directly. Once you get that speedfusion vpn on the pepwave up so you can seamlessly failover between starlink and cellular, you’ll rarely ever worry about internet performance or dropouts. I’ve never personally used the speedfusion vpn, but I’ve been getting annoyed at websites forcing poor captcha games while on vpn. It’s real annoying when ordering online and everything works except the credit card auth fails because it detects you’re on vpn. I’m in the middle of switching from speedify to a custom multipath vpn that routes to an AWS EC2 instance that I’ll spin up based on the region I’m travelling in.
Awww man! You’re one upping me!
Fantastic idea. I never even thought of printing my own box. You win.
I’ve been a VPN user for years, and they’re just about not usable anymore.
I at first tried to set up my own speedfusion hub solo on Vultr. I got it working, but had even worse problems with captchas and non-functioning sites than I did with my regular VPN. It was so bad, I tore it down almost immediately.
So I’ve decided to use the Peplink speedfusion service. Yeah, I’ll be paying for data, but I think if I only use it for “can’t fail” work stuff, I should be OK. Apparently, they have a whole team trying to eliminate the VPN annoyances from their speedfusion service. So far, it seems to be much better. More testing needed though.
Curious why the the cellular antenna needs 5 cables.One for power and 4 frequency bands?
It’s a MIMO antenna, so there are four antenna elements.
The fifth one is a GPS antenna.
Awesome project! I was just getting ready to mount a MobileMark 7 and was trying to figure out the best way to run those cables. I read somewhere thawing that box off was quite a challenge. Your modular gland find looks like a better one I was about to try.
Question: Do you think you could have gotten the nuts on the back of that gland mount with the box still installed on the Ekko? Did you cut a hole int he box the size of the entire gland feed through section (obviously not the frame section? Did you add any sealant to the gland, or just use a rubber seal?
Great work! Thanks for sharing!
Yes, I did cut one rather large square hole. And I didn’t use anything besides the provided gasket so seal it off.
You *could* attach the frame to the box without removing it from the roof. You’d need to do either one of three things.
1. Use a rather small crow’s foot wrench to hold the nuts inside the box while tightening the securing bolts.
2. Use screws instead of bolts. They should bite into the plastic of the box well enough,.
3. Find a very skilled child or someone with micro hands to help you secure the nuts.
Or, put a piece of painters tape on the backside of a box end wrench and insert the nut which sticks to the tape. My 2-cents
I installed a Peplink back in April, and for starters it works really well. Just get a Data SIM and you’re in. Also, the gang at the 5G Store were incredibly helpful. I’ve tested it in multiple remote areas (Prescott Nat’l Forest, and Coconino) and we pulled in the signal nicely, but having the router broadcasting all over inside and for many feet outside is fabulous. Moreover, you can run it while traveling down the road no problem. Bottom line, no more issues with where you connect wirelessly. I initially looked at the Weboost sticks, but concluded they are a waste of money, but perhaps there’s an application or for a backup?
Anyway, what I did was I used a keyhole saw and utilized the box. But to do that I actually took the box off the roof (stripping the old caulk was not as hard as I thought it might be) and fabricated on the ground so that I could use the compression ring the Peplink comes with. Then, I reattached the box and re-caulked. This avoids having to mount the antennae with a bracket and you’d never know that it was a Peplink on the roof (Thieves look for bracket attached devices). This way, the antennae cables then simply went straight down the hole and into the BR cabinet where I mounted the router against the drivers side wall, tidied up the cabling, and it works perfect. No exposed cables on the roof at all.
I thought I might put the antenna directly on top of the box, as it sounds like you did, but obviously I ultimately decided on this. Now that it’s done, I kind of like it, and I’m glad I went this way.
But directly on top of the box would absolutely be more “stealth”.
Not being familiar with the tape you used, I have to assume it is as water resistant as using Dicor?
Depending on who you ask… even more so!
I’ve used Eternabond tape in the past and never had an issue with it.
Unlike sealants, which need to be renewed every few years, I’ve never seen Eternabond tape wear out.
James, I read about the tape you used on the outer surface to seal the box but can you share the name of the double sided tape you used to attach and seal the underside of the box to the top of the vehicle.
It’s also Eternabond tape!
https://amzn.to/4bJR0rl
Hi James, I brought my Peplink over from my Travato, and yes struggled with all the cables going through the roof access. Since the Starlink install I have not used the Peplink. Starlink has been very reliable. Thoughts on having both?
I also had 4 cameras mounted to the roof rack and those 4 cables running through the access port. I’m now using wireless Arlo cameras. Saving some room through the access port.
We also have both, and there are times (not many though) when we fall back to cellular.
Once, for example, we stayed at a mega-giant RV resort in Tucson. Literally every other rig had Starlink. The downloads were so slow! Fell back to cellular and it felt like we had it to ourselves.
And just recently, in Tahoe, the tall trees were messing up Starlink every few minutes. Cell was a life saver there as well.
It’s not all the time – especially out west – but when you need the cell… you need it.
Haa…. We just had a similar issue in South Lake Tahoe. My wife still works and we would move around the area to get clear skies. Fortunately next to a river so I could fly fish. Thank you for answering James.
Nice find: the “Cable Entry Frame”!! Would liked to have used that 3 years ago when we installed the Pepwave Duo Max and the MobileMark 7 lead antenna on our Travato. Used the Roof Port Box, installed by Winnebago, running the cables through the back of the box.
It’s like that thing was *made* for Winnebago’s roof port box!
Awesome video and great solution. Thank you for sharing. Do you have a link for the “eterni-bond tape”?
Thanks.
These days, I just buy Eternabond right from Amazon: https://amzn.to/4c4j20w
the new install looks a million times better, looks like it should be much easier to live with going forward.
That’s the hope!