well, I managed to get it installed just before last weekend's rally. not that I was desperate for tv, mind you, but that the ceiling was down, and had to be re-insulated and reinstalled before camping.
I wanted to do that part ONCE. and for good reason, too. putting it back in place was the hardest part of the job.
turns out, it couldn't go in the original antenna's location; the "wing" would have hit the a/c shroud! (this thing really is longer than the old skyliner). so that was the end of that debate. and even moved over to the side, it still would catch the a/c shroud, unless it was practically mounted on the side of the trailer, instead of the roof. doh! so, had to move it forward, as well. carefull, carefull measuring off a reference rivet led me to the spot. drilled a perfect hole in the outer skin...and down into the ceiling. but there was my mistake: I went straight down; the curve of the roof and inner ceiling call for a more "angled" approach. when I had the antenna sitting in its new location with the shaft centered in the roof hole, it was off-center in the ceiling hole.
oh, well. the inner trim plate covers this gaff.
other than that, the job went fairly smoothly. lots of vulkem...made a nice patch for the old hole. I wire-wheeled the corrosion first, and it shined up quite nicely! turns out, it wasn't nearly as bad as what was found on VT.
testing the functionality at the rally, I was pulling in stations from 100 miles away. good spot for tv reception...I did a driveway test when we got back home, to compare it with the old antenna, and I do think that the batwing pulls in the stations a little clearer. it is certainly MUCH easier to operate than the old one.
I was in such a rush to get this done before the rally, I didn't get a chance to take pics of the process. (its been raining every weekend for the last 2 months, which is why I didn't do it sooner). but here's a pic of the finished product:
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