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Thinking about the Oyster 85cm system but many say hopeless in the wind, just how windy before you have to close, for those who have this system how do you gauge the strength before closing for safety ????
I had one of these on the last motorhome. When windy, I left the dish up but as soon as there was a gust strong enough to cause the picture to break up, I lowered this dish. I do not kno what wind speed may cause that to happen. Equally I lowered this dish every night in case the wind got up.
The use of the equipment all year round and also in wind was a major decision maker for me and hence I switched to the Camos.
Russell
______________________________________________________________ Our long trip around Europe - blog now online at www.swift-kontiki.co.uk
Good advice from Russell on lowering dish every night - something we do as well. Only ever had to lower dish once in really string winds near Estertit. Mind you at the time we watched some tuggers chasing their tripod set ups across the site! It was pretty strong.
Now that some travellers are getting upmarket vans, do they continue to spot each other coming by driving along motorways and autoroutes with motorised dishes fully erected, as they do for manual ones ......
Now that some travellers are getting upmarket vans, do they continue to spot each other coming by driving along motorways and autoroutes with motorised dishes fully erected, as they do for manual ones ......
Not possible with an Oyster mate - they automatically retract when ignition is started.
This is an interesting question. I suspect Oyster may have a figure at which they advise that the dish is retracted. If it's windy outside I go out & look at the dish & the direction the wind's hitting it from. If it's hitting the dish square on & the dish is being deflected I bring it down. I've not had to retract the dish if it's taking the wind at 90 deg.
I believe that there is at least one shear-pin inside the drive mechanism in the base of the Oyster. This will afford some protection to the mechanism if it's physically overloaded. My main concern is the fixings to the roof In windy conditions the dish forms a metre long lever against the fixings to the roof & personally I er on the side of caution.
So to answer your question I judge it on the conditions at the time. My estimations may be wildly out so I always judge conservatively.
I rarely have to put it down whilst watching TV. We have been in some windy conditions but unless TV breaks up or if the dish looks as though it is moving too much then I carry on watching TV.
However I nearly always put dish down at night, just incase of strong gusts during the night.
By the way if you turn Oyster box off with the dish still up and then turn the ignition on then the dish will not retract. As I found out. This is because I will turn things off to save battery power but still leave dish up. this is usually when I have arrrived on site (Aires) to check I can get a signal.
However I don't want to keep putting dish up when using 12v only (as it does use up some power) so tend to just turn off all switches.
This is an interesting question. I suspect Oyster may have a figure at which they advise that the dish is retracted.
I can't see anything in the manual relating to high winds.
We have a Caro, not an Oyster 85 - when we collected our van last February winds were horrendous (up to 48 mph at Newcastle Airport) so the handover did not include demo of the satellite system!
______________________________________________________________ Autotrail 635SE
No longer quite so new to all this but still loving it!
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In windy conditions the dish forms a metre long lever against the fixings to the roof & personally I er on the side of caution.
