Do any of you use a cellular booster in your van?

Looking for suggestions from anyone running a booster. I’m Verizon but most have a version that supports most carriers.

Weboost seems to get good reviews but curious if others use something else?

I’ve been looking at these as well and am pretty much sold on weboost. It’s the most common one I see around. One of the ones with the larger cylindrical antenna.

I’m a bit confused by their site. The have multiple offerings at $499. Some car/suv some RV. I’m not sure which one is the best?

We do get decent signal with T-Mobile in most places. It’s would just be really nice to not have to drive into town to work sometimes.

Hey-o!

I found this big long post awhile ago from some Vanlife couple that had a bunch of good reasons for the 3 following items.

1.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PDVTMM6/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_1?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

2.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FUF1JAY/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_10?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

3.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07XM9LV9B/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_9?smid=A2EER51DNG9JUZ&psc=1

(None of the above links are influencer links)

Between those three items, they apparently had WIFI (pretty darn close to) anywhere in the US for $50 a month. It’s been a long while now since I read that article, but if I can find it I’ll try to post the link.

But that’s the same setup I myself will be using once I finish my electrical this month.

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I don’t know about the sky roam. I looked into that. I read that the speeds were not great. The weboost you posted also comes in a version with the antenna from the second post for the same price as the first one. As I said. Weboost site is confusing.

Ooooo, nice!

Yeah even on Amazon the weboost stuff is a bit confusing. They recommend an antenna with it that doesn’t actually work with it. -_-

As for the Sky Roam, yeah for $50 a month I figured the speeds couldn’t be that great. If you don’t mind my asking, how much is T-Mobile running you a month?

I pay the standard $100 for two lines (though I think this is a grandfathered plan). Mine and my wife’s plus an extra $15 per line for 20gb of unthrottled data per line.

I hit the cap on the last day or so or the month. Even at throttled speeds Netflix and hbo max are still a go. My wife hits the cap in a week or so with all the streamingon her ipad pro. This is what we use as our tv, we don’t watch a lot, but leaving netflix on all night will kill things quickly. They apparently got rid of the. “Are you still there?” feature.

Typically 2 bars is all I need to work. Everything is good there except zoom can be a little choppy sometimes. I’m a web dev so I only have about 30 minutes of meetings a day and you can always call in to zoom if you need too.

Had not issues working from the south side BLM at Joshua Tree last week or from the Alabama Hills this week. In Alabama hills we had to pay for the $10 campground outside of town as there is no service once you get in there.

The week before we were outside Sedona and I found a spot to work there, but I wish I had had a booster for just a little bit more signal, so finding that sweet spot wasn’t as necessary. Sedona was weird, I don’t know if it was the amount of vans and people (there were a ton, people were definitely long hauling it there) or what, but the network felt overcrowded as we had great service just terrible data speeds. Still made it work. Just took an hour of driving around backroads till got decent signal.

Which brings me to a great tip. Save your spot - Take some crappy camping chairs and maybe a cheap tent that you aren’t worried about losing. Set these up whether you are going to use them or not and leave them when you head out for a bit. People will typically leave it alone and it helps secure that spot you took so long to locate. It took us a bit to learn this one and it’s so simple.

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The SkyRoam is terrible, we’d usually have signal on Verizon and nothing on the SkyRoam.

I installed a booster yesterday. The weBoost Reach RV. Install was simple and it 100% made a difference. When I tested yesterday without the booster my speeds were about 1.5mb down and 0.4mb up with latency around ~100ms. With the booster my up and down were both around 10mb and latency was around ~50ms. Actually surprised as I didn’t think it would work as well as it has so far. Typically we could barely watch netflix at this spot without it freezing all the time to load. Super pleased so far.

It pulls ~4amps at 5 volts so I am assuming a little less than 2amps from 12v. Simple enough to turn off when not in use. You have to buy a cable entry housing, DC power supply and outlet to install it properly.

Hi Bretly I know this is an old post but curios if you did the install yourself? If so did you mount the antenna on the roof and make a hole in the roof? If so curious what you used for this. Thanks!

Yeah, I mounted mine onto the side of my roof rack and just put a how in the back of the roof.

In the promaster you can hit inside the back cross member and run the wires through there to your electrical.

I simply drilled a hole and bought a cable entry housing for to go around the hole https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01CSEXWC8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1i

Then just glued that down with some of the high test liquid nails or ultimate gorilla glue in the tube. The stuff that bonds in 30 seconds. I used this glue for a lot in the van including the solar entry as well and some of my studs on my ceiling where I could not drill. All of it has held for 3 years now without fail.

Good luck!

Yeah, I have used this weBoost cell phone booster for RV. The booster definitely works. I drive all over the country and I have tested this unit for over a month. It works best if sitting completely still and if the service was weak, once you flip the power switch your signal will jump 2 to 3 extra bars at times. After doing a download speed data testing there’s no doubt it works, anyone can do these tests on their own.

Another advantage of this booster](5 Best Cell Phone Boosters for RV for Better Internet Speed) is that moving it from a mobile to a stationary setting will never cause you any discomfort. Additionally, it may boost your phone’s signal while ensuring that it consumes the least amount of energy possible. Your phone’s battery life may be increased by up to two hours thanks to it.

Greetings!

Just a cell phone which works tethered, as a hotspot, or connects to any available wifi, seems to be sufficient for me.

No signal, no problem, unscheduled vacation… :wink:

Cheers!


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I use a router with specific settings adjustments (the one particular setting you need to adjust is called TTL or Time To Live). With these settings, the sim card that powers the signal will be interpreted as a cellular signal by the service provider. This means you can sidestep the exorbitantly expensive wifi roaming devices and plans while also being throttled less. Better service for cheaper. This is not illegal, but does violate the terms of service or whatever other legalese agreement you have with the service provider. The only way they can know that you’re doing this is if you tell them, so don’t do that.

Here’s a video that explains the setup with a cheap router that I’ve been using with great success for more than a year.

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Definitely, I need to buy such an amplifier. Often when I travel, I find it difficult to get enough signal. Often this manifests itself in the fact that the mobile Internet does not work well. Often I can go to a httрs://hookup-insider.com/reviews/bicupid site to chat with new and interesting people, and sometimes to look for a possible, potential soulmate for myself, and the site does not load because of a weak internet connection. Very often I get frustrated with the lack of communication because I really miss it.

Thank-you for this insight & knowledge! It’s a big help!

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I have a SolidRF system. 4 years and going but since starlink I only use it when on the road. It’s been a lifesaver for data and voice at times. I also like that it was a one shot expense and no monthly fees. It’s just hardware. Dan