Review: The weBoost Connect RV 65

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The fine folks at weBoost have been helping us squeeze every drop out of our available cell service for the past year now (see this article on finding cell service in campgrounds, specifically the cell phone booster section), so when they sent us this latest device, promising even better cell amplification than the Drive Sleek, we were all for it.

We were a bit stunned at the size of the package, taller than me and though not particularly heavy, a bit of an awkward carry and barely fitting into our van, but as we pulled into some BLM land outside of Moab, Utah, set the device up, and gave it a swing, we were highly impressed.

A few days had already gone by where we were calling Dalton Well Road home, and though we were able to get a decent, single bar of AT&T LTE in the wide open desert spaces of that lovely stretch of free camping between Arches & Canyonlands, we really wanted to camp in a patch of junipers perched on a rock about 100′ further down the road…but our AT&T service dropped to a lonely bar of 4G, not nearly enough for me to work and keep this whole show on the road.

The day we setup the Connect RV 65, though? It skyrocketed our service to 2 bars of LTE. Made, and now also in the shade.

While we’ve managed to find space for the entire unit, the key ingredient you should keep in mind here is that this is a stationary booster. You can’t use it while you’re driving around, and it is big, primarily the telescopic pole that was meant to attach to the side of an RV. So if you’re living the vanlife, this probably isn’t for you (though again, we’ve made it work for us.)

You essentially put up the pole, get the medium-pizza box sized antenna pointed toward the nearest cell phone tower you can see (these are their instructions, we’ve used it a few times without actually seeing any cell antennas and it still provided results, as in the case of our Dalton Well Road experience), and then plug the old girl in. The unit we were sent came with a standard 120v plug, so I wrote to weBoost and mentioned that most people who will need to squeak out additional cell service probably won’t be plugged into an RV park’s electrical service, they sent a 12v adapter. I would think this more useful, but if you’re RV has a good inverter, you may not care. Either way, know what you’re getting beforehand so you won’t have to wait for an extra part when it arrives.

The main box then, which goes inside of your vehicle and also attaches to the outside antenna, makes it very clear whether or not the Connect RV 65 is actually working, with a series of lights that mean different things.

All in all, we’re happy to recommend the weBoost Connect RV 65 (Amazon link), particularly for anyone with a large van or certainly an RV with space to accommodate the telescopic pole…though we have found that you can use it even without the pole if nature’s conditions are convenient to hanging an antenna somewhere it can have line of site.