GL Class (X164) 2007-2012: GL320CDI, GL420CDI, GL450, GL550

Satellite For GL550

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Old Sep 7, 2007 | 03:37 PM
  #1  
dsunnym1's Avatar
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From: ft.lauderdale
08 S-550 & 08 GL-550
Satellite For GL550

I would love to take full advantage of the rear tv's that came with my 550
and have the satellite sys installed ,, but I am worried about screwing up the look of my truck.

What do you guys think??
The dish does come in a silver finish that would match my 550 .
But being that the 550 is pretty low compared to other suv's it would be pretty noticabale! HERE IS A LINK TO SEE FOR YOUR SELF'S.
Any inout highly appreciated.


http://www.kvh.com/products/Product.asp?id=125
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Old Sep 7, 2007 | 03:46 PM
  #2  
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From: LA LA Land
'07 GL 450, '02 S 80 T6
Buy an RV to put the satellite on and tow the 550 behind it Get best of both worlds.
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Old Sep 7, 2007 | 03:52 PM
  #3  
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I don't know what to make of that exactly but if it works without signal loss all the time it would be pretty cool for the kids. I think most people would look at it and think it's some kind of special roof top carrier or something. Also, watch out for low overhead garages!
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Old Sep 7, 2007 | 04:05 PM
  #4  
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From: ft.lauderdale
08 S-550 & 08 GL-550
Originally Posted by jpeardm
I don't know what to make of that exactly but if it works without signal loss all the time it would be pretty cool for the kids. I think most people would look at it and think it's some kind of special roof top carrier or something. Also, watch out for low overhead garages!

my brother in law has a cadi escalade with the sat
and it works very good!

the only thing is that the sat on the roof is just so damn big!!
but not that noticabele being that his suv is really large and sits higher then
the 550....................

Last edited by dsunnym1; Sep 7, 2007 at 04:08 PM.
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Old Sep 8, 2007 | 05:08 AM
  #5  
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From: Chicago, IL
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Originally Posted by dsunnym1
I would love to take full advantage of the rear tv's that came with my 550
and have the satellite sys installed ,, but I am worried about screwing up the look of my truck.

What do you guys think??
The dish does come in a silver finish that would match my 550 .
But being that the 550 is pretty low compared to other suv's it would be pretty noticabale! HERE IS A LINK TO SEE FOR YOUR SELF'S.
Any inout highly appreciated.


http://www.kvh.com/products/Product.asp?id=125

the tracvision system works very well and provides uninterrupted coverage as long as you have line-of-sight.. this means that in the city between tall buildings you will lose signal but out in the open you will not.

as far as mounting you actually have a couple of options: the standard mount (as pictured on the kvh site) utilizes the roof rack and the dish mounts to the cross bars with the top of the unit sitting about 2" higher than the top of the roof rack. the mounts can be customized so that the unit actually sits lower or further in between the roof rack side rails which (to me personally) looks much better: the rails tend to hide the unit with only about an inch or so sticking up above the rack. finally if you really want a stealth look, the roof itself can be cut and the tracvision antenna is recessed into the roof line using the space between the interior headliner and the metal roof. a custom fiberglass cover is then painted the exterior color and attached to the roof to cover the antenna. the result is that the top of the antenna sits well below the roof rack and is effectively hidden completely.
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Old Sep 8, 2007 | 08:59 AM
  #6  
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Buy some more DVDs. Watch TV at home.
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Old Sep 8, 2007 | 12:43 PM
  #7  
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Originally Posted by dsunnym1
I would love to take full advantage of the rear tv's that came with my 550 and have the satellite sys installed ,, but I am worried about screwing up the look of my truck.
Here's a couple of thoughts on it; first, we used an in-motion sat dish on a motorhome we rented and it worked well, though every single overpass we went under and every major "turn" it lost signal for a few seconds.

As for the look, I just saw one on a Suburban/Tahoe/Escalade (I just can't tell that much difference but it was one of those) and it was pretty noticeable. My personal opinion is that it's pretty big to start with, and when you put it on a Euro-proportion SUV it might be overpoweringly large.

My third point is that I took my Ford Excursion when I first got it and tricked the heck out of it - 2 VHS players, a DVD with DVD NAV, a TV tuner, four position headphones, connections for video games, two TVs in the headrest areas of the front seats, and even a TV in the passenger visor. We took many cross country trips in the beast, but barely used any of the stuff. What'd we use most? The DVD player for the kids in back. I think the existing RSE system (which I don't have in my truck - my teenagers are more interested in text messages and hand-held video games) would be all I'd want if I were to do it again with the GL.

Just my opinion, honestly. It is a cool unit, and one of the things we did use the in-motion for in the motor home was watching The Weather Channel for the live in-motion radars to see if we were headed into trouble. But you can get similar stuff off of Sirius, and the GL can quickly pull over into a tight place to ride out weather where the motorhome was a complete nightmare.
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Old Sep 8, 2007 | 12:55 PM
  #8  
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I've been considering this satellite, and I think I'll get it eventually. I like to watch F1 and soccer while on the road, which is at least once a month, and most hotels don't have Speed and/or Fox Sports. As for my kids, they love Nik and Sprout, but they get very entertained watching videos.
In addition, my Yakima roof rack might interfere with the signal, but having the possibility of connecting to the web via satellite while off roading is a great plus, I was stranded in the middle of Death Valley on my first trip there, and no cell phone works there, and didn't have a CB radio then, so it's something else to consider.
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Old Sep 10, 2007 | 10:09 PM
  #9  
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Forget that, here is the new Sat-Go, for half the price:
http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/global...5yn8g00005887d
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Old Sep 10, 2007 | 10:35 PM
  #10  
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From: ft.lauderdale
08 S-550 & 08 GL-550
Originally Posted by BETO
Forget that, here is the new Sat-Go, for half the price:
http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/global...5yn8g00005887d
thx everybody for the input
this is a cool carry along system but not for me!

I think I am gonna go with Steve Pilot on this one,
We will probably hardly ever use it.......

So instead of letting some guys tear up my 550 to install
this sat system ,,,, I think I will just buy a bunch of DVD"s
just as one of the other brothers here mentioned in his
relply!!

Thanks to all......

Last edited by dsunnym1; Sep 10, 2007 at 11:11 PM.
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Old Sep 14, 2007 | 06:56 PM
  #11  
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From: Reno, Nevada
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Originally Posted by dsunnym1
I would love to take full advantage of the rear tv's that came with my 550
and have the satellite sys installed ,, but I am worried about screwing up the look of my truck.

What do you guys think??
The dish does come in a silver finish that would match my 550 .
But being that the 550 is pretty low compared to other suv's it would be pretty noticabale! HERE IS A LINK TO SEE FOR YOUR SELF'S.
Any inout highly appreciated.


http://www.kvh.com/products/Product.asp?id=125
Actually, the dish is not as noticeable as I would have thought. Not my cup of tea, I would stick with DVDs just to avoid the roof dish, but that's just my opinion.
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Old Sep 14, 2007 | 08:39 PM
  #12  
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Originally Posted by dsunnym1
I think I am gonna go with Steve Pilot on this one,
We will probably hardly ever use it.......
I ... wha ... uh ... really? I mean, Great! Good choice! (Someone agrees with me? Wow.)
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Old Sep 14, 2007 | 11:51 PM
  #13  
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'07 GL 450, '02 S 80 T6
Originally Posted by StevethePilot
(Someone agrees with me? Wow.)
Stop making sense like a Talking Head and things will quickly go back to normal.

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