DIY Van Conversion | Weboost Cell Phone Signal Booster Install + Review

Disclosure:

I am not a van conversion professional or professional handyman. This is a documentation of my experience and you should make your own decisions on how to build your own van, and seek professional guidance if you are unsure. This blog post also contains affiliate links, so if you click a product link and buy from the merchant, I will receive a commission fee. The price you pay remains the same, affiliate link or not. Buying through my product links is the best way to say thanks if this blog post was at all helpful to you.

Weboost Cell Phone Booster Install

In general, this comes with great directions. But it may be helpful to see how I installed in on a Promaster, specifically.

I made sure to mount the antenna on the drivers’ side, as to avoid low hanging trees that are more likely to be on the passengers’ side.

To mount the outer antenna, I bent a spare Solar Panel mount from Renogy in a vice so that it only had one 90 degree angle and stood straight up, I then attached the pole mount that came with the Cell Booster to the mount by drilling two holes in it and using bolts. I attached it to the roof with 3m VHB tape and sealed it with Dicor Lap Sealant. This is great because it gives you a little extra height above the solar panels. It does wiggle a little bit at high speeds/in the wind but it seems pretty sturdy still. This main wire from the antenna to the main unit inside is wired behind the walls, so I did this as a rough wire before much of the building inside took place.

I was wary about putting another hole in the van to run the wire, especially because the entry port that comes with the Weboost did not look very waterproof to me. Thankfully, the big black rear view camera thing on the back of the van is easy to take off and has an existing hole into the van for wiring so I decided to wire the cell booster through here. Yay, no drilling through the metal! I used the provided 1″ hole saw to cut a hole for the entry port on the plastic and ran the wire from the antenna in through this. I made sure to have the wire bend over the back of the van so that water will drip off it and not stagnate on the entry, which, again, did not seem as waterproof as I might have hoped.

On the inside of the van, this wire runs to my bedside cubbies, where the main unit is located. From this unit, another wire runs to the inside antenna, as well as to the power supply for the unit. This gets pretty warm when it has been on for a while. I would recommend wiring a switch somewhere to be able to turn it on and off.

I mounted the interior antenna with Velcro, upside down on my overhead cabinets in the front of the van. Considering proximity to the antenna matters, this is perfect because it is right next to my work station. It also evenly spaces out the interior and exterior antennas from the main unit as much as possible, which the directions recommended. The wiring for this runs through the back of the overhead cabinets, and out a small hole in the bottom of them to the antenna.

Weboost Review

(Updated July 2023) This works good but not great - It's certainly better than nothing. I have had it take me from one bar LTE to Full LTE, and from zero signal to 1 bar (not that common, but it happens). There are times when the service bars go up and there is significant speed difference, and times where they go up and the speed does not. It is very noticeable when you turn it on and the closer you get to the inside antenna the better it is. I mean that very literally – if you touch your phone to the inside antenna you might get another bar. Keep this in mind when planning where that antenna will be, and also keep in mind it should not be next to the main unit.

That all said, If I were were starting from scratch here again, I would go with Starlink which I have used in a friends conversion. You don't need signal at all and expands your ability to work from anywhere.

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