Dish Tailgater

[pegmikef]

I have only used my Tailgater a few times and like it very much but my experience is just the opposite of the previoys post. I find that I need a large (really large) open area of sky to have mine work. al
Does anybody know what the angle is that is needed to clear the tops of the trees....30 degrees, 45 degrees, 60 degrees, etc.???

I don't know the angle, but it appears to be almost straight up. I just put my compass on it and make sure it has a clear shot in a southernly direction. Initially, I thought it needed to see the horizon, but I have since found it works with a narrow opening to the sky. I just spent a few days at Ft Tuthill in Flagstaff, AZ, a heavily treed area and it worked fine. Another camper was surprised that mine was working . . . he went back and tried his and it worked fine.

 

[Rodbuster]

Thank you Gizzy and pegmikef.
I guess it's all part of the learning process. This campsite that I was telling you about had trees all around us but we were in an opening at least 200 feet in diameter. We had plenty of open sky over the truck, the picnic table, the RV and certainly over the tailgater. I relocated the tailgater a few times but still could not receive a signal. At the Pine Mountain, Georgia rally there were hardly any trees at all.... the tailgater worked fine. I hope it's just something that I'm doing wrong and that I find the answer but as far as right now, I'm disappointed with the product in that it seems to need "so much" open sky to find a signal.

Haven't given up, I'll keep trying.
Dick

 

[pegmikef]

One other thing Rodbuster. For awhile I had trouble off an on in acquiring the satellites. One time it would work perfectly, then another time it would say complete signal loss, check your connections, etc. and still other times it would give me a message that it could not find one or more satellites. This happened in a park where I had used it before and it worked fine. I was in the same campsite at Brushy Creek COE park in Texas. I spent the day checking all the connectors and I ended up finding two that were a little loose . . . apparently loose enough to move and lose partial or complete connectivety. I tightened them all up and it has worked perfectly ever since.

 

[ncc1701e]

I wanted a way to put the dish above the ladder when parked. Without a question, if I figured my time I could have bought the ladder mount from Camping World @$250.00 cheaper, but this was more fun to figure out. The real goal was to see if I could figure out a way to be able to put the dish up without climbing a ladder. Success looks like this:

 

[cookie]

That's a great idea, and it looks good.
How heavy is that thing when lifting up into place?
Oh, sorry, I had to delete your other post in a different forum about this great idea, as it was a duplicate.

Peace
Dave

 

[pegmikef]

Mine is less than ten pounds I would guess, but I was wondering how you orient it since the tailgater always has to be pointed to the southern sky. With mine, I just put my compass on the top of the tailgater and align to the south . . . but of course, mine is on the ground.

 

[Hastey]

Sweet idea, I may have to buy another Flag Pole Buddy.

Can you but on a pic of the top of the mast how you attached it?

 

[ncc1701e]

Sweet idea, I may have to buy another Flag Pole Buddy.

Can you but on a pic of the top of the mast how you attached it?

The top is made using two 14"d plates of aluminum clad trailer skirting, a 3" water drain, 3" to 1-1/2" drain reducer, all sitting on a piece of 1-1/2" of electrical pvc gray conduit cut to length.



I painted the with pvc gray, but you really don't have to do that if you don't mind some of it white and some gray (the support leg). Of course, if you use 1-1/2" white pvc you won't have to paint. However, there is a neat little trick about using the section of electrical gray pvc. One end is already set up as a coupling and a little sanding gives a real nice tight fit in the 2.0 Flag Pole Buddy mount where the 1-1/2" white pvc is loose. The spacer between the two plates is 3/4" square aluminum tubing.

The whole thing weighs about 5lbs without the dish. Takes just a little practice without the dish on top to get the hang of leaning against the edge of the trailer and then into the top of the flag pole buddy. We always carry a small two step fold away so the wife can reach the top shelfs in the trailer. I have to admit that it is a little more comfortable standing on that step when putting up the dish. To get the hole patterns I used the base plate for the tripod mount for the dish. Someone asked about always facing south. This model is the auto model that rotates and finds the satelites.

Tom

 

[Hastey]

Tom, my hat's off to you. That's one heck of a piece of Southern Engineering! Necessity is truly the father of invention. I will definatly be copying you design.

 

[pegmikef]

That is really slick Tom. A very nice installation and design. I thought it was the Winegard carryout antenna that was fully automatic. I have to orient my Tailgater to the south and as far as I know there is not a newer model. Mine is automatic, but still has to be oriented towards the southern sky.

 

[Hastey]

That is really slick Tom. A very nice installation and design. I thought it was the Winegard carryout antenna that was fully automatic. I have to orient my Tailgater to the south and as far as I know there is not a newer model. Mine is automatic, but still has to be oriented towards the southern sky.

Mine is the same as yours, I think I can just rotate the pole.

 

[pegmikef]

Mine is the same as yours, I think I can just rotate the pole.

Hehehe, yeah my thought too, but . . . so I just went out and set mine up on my hardstand and ran it up with it "facing" 0, 90, 180, and 270 degrees respectively with 0 degrees being compass south. It worked just fine in each position. For some reason, like many others apparently, I interpreted "view of the southern sky" to mean it somehow had to be pointed in that direction. I even remember some discussion in other threads about what the front was and we all decided that it was the narrow side directly opposite the cable hookup connector and handle.

As it turns out, what it really meant is that the antenna itself has to have a clear view of the southern sky, but the directiviety of the sides is of no consequence.

So Rex, your orientation problem is solved and my setup is a couple of minutes faster if I can figure out whether or not it will have access to the southern sky.

 

[ncc1701e]

Tom, my hat's off to you. That's one heck of a piece of Southern Engineering! Necessity is truly the father of invention. I will definatly be copying you design.

Rex.
There are a couple little things to keep in mind. When you sand the one end to fit in the Flag Pole Buddy holder, you have to use a piece of the cut-off end to sleeve the inside. You will understand when you see how much material you take off. Also, I thought the top was fitting too loose in the bracket so I used a thin mouse pad and some water proof glue to make some adjustments. I did clamp the top and bottom plates together when drilling and cutting out all those wierd holes. Other than that have fun, what you see in the pics is pretty much all it takes.

 

[Hastey]

Tom, thanks again. I'm running out of time before we hit the road Thursday for the summer. This is gonna be one of my winter projects. I have the carry-out tripod but need to keep it in case we get to an area where I have to maneuver around trees. I am gonna trace it and get it digitized. I have a friend that owns a metal fab shop in Muskogee and he's got one of them high speed computerized plasma torches. I have a plasma torch myself but its hand held and I'm not steady enough to cut the odd shaped holes and make them look good.

 

[ncc1701e]

Tom, thanks again. I'm running out of time before we hit the road Thursday for the summer. This is gonna be one of my winter projects. I have the carry-out tripod but need to keep it in case we get to an area where I have to maneuver around trees. I am gonna trace it and get it digitized. I have a friend that owns a metal fab shop in Muskogee and he's got one of them high speed computerized plasma torches. I have a plasma torch myself but its hand held and I'm not steady enough to cut the odd shaped holes and make them look good.

Sounds like you're well ahead of my skill saw and hand working everything. Have a great trip this summer, you headed any place in paticular? Never know who you might run across. LOL

Tom

 

[Hastey]

Sounds like you're well ahead of my skill saw and hand working everything. Have a great trip this summer, you headed any place in paticular? Never know who you might run across. LOL

Tom

Columbus, wife has a consultation at Ohio State, then to Elkhart for some warranty work on the new BH, then to Michigan to the in-laws to stay. We will stay there until the Michigan Rally, go to it and then start rambling our way home I think we may be coming toward Kentucky.

 

[ncc1701e]

Columbus, wife has a consultation at Ohio State, then to Elkhart for some warranty work on the new BH, then to Michigan to the in-laws to stay. We will stay there until the Michigan Rally, go to it and then start rambling our way home I think we may be coming toward Kentucky.

We've had to change our plans to head west with all the wildfires. I'm waiting to see what the wife's brother (lives in ND) wants to do now. But, I'm leaning towards making the Wisconsin Ralley and then heading over to the Michigan Rally. After that I'm not sure. Who knows, you may get a chance to look at the mount up close and personal. LOL...

Tom

 

[Gizzy]

Tom,
Sure like this set up. I plan to use your info to make one myself. My only question is how is the Tailgater actually attached to the round platform with the holes in it. Does it just sit in the holes or is it secure in some manner? I assume it is secured someway. Any advice on a template for the holes since I do not have any tripod set up to use?

Thanx,

Gizzy

The top is made using two 14"d plates of aluminum clad trailer skirting, a 3" water drain, 3" to 1-1/2" drain reducer, all sitting on a piece of 1-1/2" of electrical pvc gray conduit cut to length.

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I painted the with pvc gray, but you really don't have to do that if you don't mind some of it white and some gray (the support leg). Of course, if you use 1-1/2" white pvc you won't have to paint. However, there is a neat little trick about using the section of electrical gray pvc. One end is already set up as a coupling and a little sanding gives a real nice tight fit in the 2.0 Flag Pole Buddy mount where the 1-1/2" white pvc is loose. The spacer between the two plates is 3/4" square aluminum tubing.

The whole thing weighs about 5lbs without the dish. Takes just a little practice without the dish on top to get the hang of leaning against the edge of the trailer and then into the top of the flag pole buddy. We always carry a small two step fold away so the wife can reach the top shelfs in the trailer. I have to admit that it is a little more comfortable standing on that step when putting up the dish. To get the hole patterns I used the base plate for the tripod mount for the dish. Someone asked about always facing south. This model is the auto model that rotates and finds the satelites.

Tom

 

[ncc1701e]

Tom,
Sure like this set up. I plan to use your info to make one myself. My only question is how is the Tailgater actually attached to the round platform with the holes in it. Does it just sit in the holes or is it secure in some manner? I assume it is secured someway. Any advice on a template for the holes since I do not have any tripod set up to use?

Thanx,


Gizzy

The feet for the unit drop into the odd shaped holes and turns maybe 5deg t lock in place. In the picture, one of the other multiple sets of holes aligns with a 1/4-20 mounting hole in the bottom of the dish. If you were using the tripod this is exactly the way you would mount on the tripod, drop in holes, twist, put in small bolt to lock.

Now, I had a tripod to make the base from. From your post, I see you don't have a base plate to trace. A couple possible options I think. There is a bunch of holes to get in the right place, maybe I can make a sketch that had enough demensions someone could repeat it or if you want to send me a mailing address I make a cardboard cut-out using the plate from from tripod and send it to you.

Tom

 

[Hastey]

Hey guys and gals. Just to let you know my tailgater stopped working. I called DISH and in turn they got me over to King Controls. Me and the King Control guy worked it over, he even had me take it apart while I was on the phone with him. The thing quit moving inside, one of the motors went out or something like a board burnt up. They sent me a prepaid FEDEX label and as soon as the tracking number went active they put the new one in route to me. I'm having it sent to my parents house in North Louisiana and we will catch up to it there. Bottom line is that it broke and they fixed it and it only cost me $3.00 to buy the shipping box big enough for it.