weBoost - Drive Reach OTR

Easy to install! Works perfect in our Winnebago Solis 59PX van, aka La Chula. First trip since the installation no complaints Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and Nevada.

I drive OTR and have more then ample room to spread it out, because you can't have the outside and inside antenna and the booster box close to each other per the directions. And I get at most 1 bar. I have Verizon from Verizon, not a secondary cell provider and at best I get one bar. Maybe it might work better with another provider, but as it stands this thing shouldn't be more then 150 dollars at best. I even have it set above the truck top. It's the big one next to the satellite radio antenna.

I have an older weBoost product for at-home usage, and that one does a great job increasing cell signal, so I am confident this new vehicle booster would also be great and last a long time. I genuinely enjoy this weBoost Drive Reach OTR, which works powerfully to boost cell signal. The booster is great for me since I travel in city and remote areas for both work and pleasure. The package includes everything needed to assemble into your vehicle: height-adjustable outside antenna, small indoor antenna, the booster device, and all wires. Make sure to get the top portion of the outdoor antenna canister above the vehicle roof and away from any cluttering cargo. Included is an optional spring base for the external mounting, which I think is suitable for when you will have some impact or wind resistance with the outside antenna. The mount is two heavy-duty plates designed to be mounted to a truck's headache rack. I used just the main mounting plate to attach it to the corner of my truck bed frame, just drilling four holes for the plate. In my situation, the installation was effortless, attaching the mount and running the cables inside the truck. The interior antenna looks somewhat directional, so you want mobile devices as near as possible, within a foot or few inches, for optional performance. It can handle multiple devices at once. I have used it for some time, and now I get faster data speeds, improved audio/video streaming, and better voice quality. I use a 5G phone, and the weBoost amplifies the signal on my phone while inside the truck. I did a speed test on my trips to different central and south Florida locations, especially off roads, remote areas, and the Everglades National Park. Without the booster, most of the time between cities, my phone received 4G signals and only a few bars. With the weBoost it was a super different experience, which now I received 5G a lot more, and in extremely remote locations, I had more full bars. The speed test showed that the booster always did improve both the download and upload. While there is a significant improvement in both, sometimes the download would be faster, and sometimes the upload would be faster. Now, I do not always leave the booster plugged in, especially when the vehicle off or the vehicle key is in the on position for a prolonged time because it might drain out the battery. I mostly use it for special situations like long trips, driving in rural areas, at a wilderness park, when I need faster speed, or when there is a weak signal. To conclude, I am satisfied with the weBooster; it does make a huge difference with both the download and upload speed. It does helps reach signals that are further away.

Having recently dived in to the RV lifestyle with a travel trailer, and having always road tripped in my Ram pickup truck, I was really excited to get this booster. There were always those times where I'd be driving through the middle of nowhere and have horrible cell connection. Usually not a big deal, unless you have a 6 year old riding in the back you're trying to keep happy. With the addition of the RV, I found myself staying at several State parks. Unfortunately the state parks I've been to have rarely had good cell coverage. Great if you want to get away, but not so great when you decide you want to work remotely. Because why not take advantage of having to work remote due to the pandemic and do it with some beautiful scenery. That's where this booster comes in. I knew about this booster when I visited the oil fields in west Texas. I noticed this weird looking antenna on everyone's trucks, and found out everyone out there swore by it as they tend to drive out into very remote regions. So first thing I did when I got this booster was take a quick road trip to the state park I often go to and where I knew had bad cell service. Set everything up on my Ram truck, and started testing my connection without the booster, and then plugging it in. The booster did exactly what it said it would do. My cell signal improved every time. Sometimes by only a couple bars, but the improvement was there. I took screenshots of the signal strength with and without the booster to show the improvement. I drove all around the state park testing out in bad spots and good spots, and no matter where I went, my connection was improved. And in case you're wondering, my carrier is T-Mobile, although that shouldn't matter since the booster should work regardless of the carrier. So far I'm really happy with this booster, although I have yet to take one of those long road trips to really put it to the test. This booster now allows me to work out of my travel trailer too, since now I can hop onto a call or meeting anytime, whereas before when I tried, the call would just break apart and I was forced to drive out to get service, but no more. The only thing I still have trouble doing work-wise, is trying to use my cell phone as a hotspot for data when I need to get on the internet through my laptop. Even though I was getting a boosted connection, I'm not sure it's meant for data usage in this way. So loading sites was painfully slow still, albeit I was at least getting a little bit of data whereas without the booster I got none at all. Set-up was much easier than I thought it would be too, with one exception that I'll get to in a moment. All the cables are sufficiently long enough and very durable. It even tells you in the manual that you don't have to worry about damaging the line if you need to run it through your door jamb and shut the door on it. With my Ram, there are actually plenty of spots and holes to route everything through to keep most of it hidden and clean looking. Now to the exception, and that is installing the external/outdoor antenna. It uses a standard cb antenna mount, so if you have one of those somewhere, great, but if you don't, good luck. The only mounting bracket this comes with is one that you attach to a metal bar like you would see on old truck sideview mirrors, or more commonly now on semi trucks. As for pickup trucks, they all have more modern sleek mirrors, I don't think they've had the metal bar style in many many years. So be aware that in this case, you'll need to improvise or go out and buy a bracket separately. Being that this booster is marketed towards both OTR Truckers and pickup trucks, there's even a picture of a Ram like mine on the front of the box and other pickups on the back, they really should have included some sort of bracket for pickups, maybe a universal one that can attach to a standard pickup truck bed, which is the kind I bought separately. Overall, this booster works and does what exactly what it says it can do. If you work out in remote areas, take road trips often, and especially if you live that RV lifestyle, this is practically a must buy.

TL;DR review: The weBoost Drive OTR is an expensive, effective (within its limits/constraints), USA made, booster that could bring you peace of mind to have. It is the most powerful consumer grade vehicle cellphone booster available from weBoost. It has excellent build quality and includes most all of what users will need for install aside from vehicle specific brackets, adapters, etc. It does appear in my limited experience thus far to be yielding improvements to my cell reception and data usage in remote areas. Long review: The weBoost Drive OTR is a high-quality built system that, likely in response to user reviews on the previous model, includes most all accessories one could need to effectively mount this device. On the previous discontinued model of this cellphone booster, many of the accessories included here had to be purchased separately. This model is best mounted to a semi-truck or an appropriately equipped passenger vehicle that has a roof rack, bed rack, or other custom mounting bracket option to be able to mount a half-inch bolt antenna assembly like this securely. This is NOT the SKU you are looking for if you are seeking a magnetic mounted outside antenna included in the package; this assembly will need to be bolted securely in some fashion to your vehicle. With this information in mind covered, here is my experience. I installed this antenna on my 2015 Toyota Tacoma crew cab SR5 4X4 4.0L V6. I was seeking a device to help me maintain cellular connection while on long road trips and in the outdoors on overland and hunting trips--delivering peace of mind that I would have improved cell reception in the event of an emergency or need to download an offline map on the go. I installed the outside antenna on a special antenna bracket adapter that attaches to my previously installed driver side ditch light bracket made by Cali Raised LED (see my pictures). To mount the outside antenna, I used the spring base, coax cable side-exit adapter, the 13" mast extension, included blue Loctite, and the nuts and washers mixed between the included 3-way mount and the spring base. The total height of my setup from mount to tip of the antenna is 26”. All of the listed accessories and more were included in this package. I felt this combination with the spring base was best as I wanted to ensure this antenna would clear my roof top for maximum reception, not be too tall, while having some give and flexibility to bend in a safe part of the assembly when it gets hit and pushed around by low branches etc. I don't have much concern about this happening as the antenna has an IP66 and MIL-STD-810 rating for weatherproof and impact performance, but it is important to do what you can to help prevent unneeded stresses to the antenna assembly as there could be other stress points in your mounting setup that could become an issue if they sustain repetitive or excessive forces. The spring base helps to absorb and dissipate the normal vibrations and movement caused by the road and wind while driving. I routed the outside antenna coax cable next to my hood hinge into my engine compartment and pulled the cable through my firewall into my engine compartment--zip-tying and tucking away the excess neatly in the engine compartment as this cable is LONG at 16ft. I installed the Drive Reach OTR cellular amplifier under my seat using the included sticky-backed Velcro strip. This securely mounted the snap-on base of the module under my seat to the carpet without any sliding or other issues so far. The inside antenna I mounted on the driver side center console using the double-sided adhesive strip; adhering to the instructions of ideal distance from where your phone(s) will be used in the vehicle and keeping plenty of distance from the outside antenna to prevent oscillation of the signals. The cigarette plug 12V DC power adapter was plugged into my 12V DC outlet and I also routed that cable underneath the center console trim to keep it neat and tidy. With some careful cable management and neat tucking away of all of the cables, I managed a clean install and got the "green light" on the module, indicating that it is working per the manufacturer. Now, the big reveal, how is it working? Well, that is where it this review gets difficult for me. It appears to be helping somewhat with increasing my phone call quality and reception while I am out in the woods away from civilization, but it is not producing the staggering night and day differences in data speed etc. I had, admittedly ignorantly, hoped for. To test it, I placed a call to a family member while I was out in area with poor reception with this module turned on and with it turned off to compare the quality. The person I called stated that they heard a difference in my voice call with less static and popping noises when I was using the weBoost. In trying to gather objective data, I downloaded the Speed Test app to my iPhone App to see if there was a difference in the download and upload mbps speed with this device. My results were inconclusive as it seemed like my results were the same whether I had it turned on or not. When I drove out into the woods and lost all but a bar or two on extended network collection, I was unable to initiate the speed test whether I had the weBoost turned on or not. Keep in mind, I have followed all manufacturer instructions for install and I ensure the device had the solid green light on indicating that it was working. WeBoost advises that bars on your phones screen are not the preferred method for effectively measuring the performance of this device. Some reviewers have stated that they noticed increased bars with the use of this device, I did not notice this myself. One situation in which I really recognized an improvement with this device was utilizing the hotspot on my iPhone 8 to browse the internet on my Macbook Pro while at my grandpa’s house. He lives in area that gives spotty cell reception at best; one of those places you walk around the house trying to get a good signal so you can make a call. When I brought my laptop over to help him research some building supplies, I utilized the weBoost in my truck. It really was about a noticeable difference in the load time of web pages and the snappiness of the interactions with the pages I was on. One other topic I wanted to address was making sure to register this with your wireless network provider. I followed the instructions in the included installation guide booklet (pages 13 and 14) to register my booster with Verizon. The information needed, including the FCC ID for the device was on page 16 of the booklet; you also want to be sure to have your serial number on hand for the device. The process took me less than 5 minutes and keeps in compliance with the usage of such a device. Overall, this is an expensive, occasionally but not entirely effective, piece of hardware that could bring you peace of mind in remote regions. I see the decision of this purchase being relative to how much you operate in remote areas or on long stretches of highway across large regions away from good cell tower reception. For once a season trip-takers, I feel like this wouldn't yield a good cost/benefit ratio. For truck drivers or overlanders who are on the road all the time traversing through all sorts of remote or poorly connected areas, I think that the potential benefits this Drive Reach OTR booster has to increase connectivity and reception would be worth it. Thanks for reading my review! I hope it helps give another picture of what this package weBoost is offering is like!