The big, expensive dome I bought 10 years ago is finally gone for good… The Camel has lost its hump! ?

Back in the day, these domes were the bee’s knees, built-in GPS, all the bells and whistles. I was pretty chuffed with it at the time. But only a couple of years in, it started playing up. The team at Apollo Entertainment kindly fixed it for me, no charge, though I was left with the impression that it had already been superseded and wasn’t expected to last much longer. A bit disappointing, but I appreciated the fix.

Surprisingly, it soldiered on for another 7 or 8 years without a peep, until one day, it just gave up completely and wouldn’t tune into anything. By that point, we weren’t really using it anyway. Streaming via our Netspeed connection on the phone or iPad had taken over, and we had Google TV boxes on the Avtex TVs turning them into smart TVs. It was all working a treat.

Last year, I booked Vantage RV to take the dome off the roof while they were cleaning the fridge gas flue. The tech climbed up, removed the dome cover and spotted two very loose wires. He plugged them in properly, asked me to test it, and it worked perfectly! So, the dome got an unexpected lifeline. But even after that, we barely used it. Google TV had well and truly taken over.

Fast forward to now: with the Optus satellite changes, the dome is finally nuked for good. It relies on recognising the satellite name, which has changed, and updating it would mean gutting the entire system. Just not worth the effort… Game over.

This time I booked it in with Zion Motorhomes to get the dome removed properly, along with a flue clean and some tap replacements. A few hours later, job done, and I have to say, Rafe looks heaps better without the hump!