Camper trailers are prized by their owners for providing all the comforts of a caravan or RV at a much lower price point. With the right equipment and a suitable portable satellite dish, you can even enjoy satellite TV in your camper trailer, no matter how isolated your chosen campground may be.

However, not all portable satellite dishes are suited to a rough-and-tumble camping lifestyle, and many portable dishes that would suffice for a caravan or RV are not suitable for some types of camper trailer. If you are shopping for a new portable satellite dish for your camper trailer and don't really know what to look for, keep an eye out for dishes that have some or all of the following useful features:

Tripod compatibility

Caravan and RV owners who wish to install a satellite dish can usually get away with simply screwing it to the nearest available wall or roof panel and pointing it in the right direction. If you have a hybrid camper trailer with a rigid body, you may be able to do the same thing, but more conventional campers with semi-rigid fabric construction can make dish installation difficult. 

If you purchase your dish from a reputable portable satellite system retailer, they will probably be able to tell you if your chosen dish is compatible with your model of camper trailer. However, to play it safe, camper trailer owners should always choose tripod-compatible dishes. These satellite dishes can be securely fitted to a seperate, free-standing tripod (similar to a telescope tripod), and can be used even if your camper trailer has no suitable dish mounting points.

Flat panel dishes

While most portable satellite dishes have a similar oval shape to conventional dishes, many high-end portable dishes have a flat, square or rectangular panel design. Flat panel dishes have superior signal gain compared to conventional dishes, and they are worth the investment to ensure you can get adequate reception in the most isolated locales. If you are able to mount your dish directly onto your camper trailer, flat panel dishes also create less wind resistance while you drive, which reduces wear on the mountings.

Automatic alignment

It's probably fair to assume that you'll be taking your camper trailer and your portable satellite dish to a wide variety of different locations. One of the greatest advantages of satellite TV is that can be picked up virtually anywhere as long as you have the proper equipment. However, your dish will have to be properly aligned in every new location to ensure it is pointing at a suitable satellite, and doing this manually can be very difficult and time-consuming.

For camper trailer owners, a satellite dish with automatic alignment functionality is always worth the extra investment. These dishes swivel automatically on a motorised mount, and they use inbuilt GPS systems to achieve optimum alignment and ensure good reception. Look into options like SatKing to get a better idea of what's out there.