Dish placement - does anyone travel with their Dish Satellite hanging on the ladder?

[GD22RBE]

Mine has been mounted for years and I travel mounted. Suggestion. Mount as high as possible with the dish more over the roof. Check periodically to see if the mount isn't slipping down the latter. You may have to tighten a few time but eventually will stay. I use the space between the roof and dish to determine this. Readjust your height consideration although it is fine. I use 11 feet just for peace of mind.

[Silverbeard]

I got a question. If you use the ladder mount but remove it to travel, why not just set it on the roof?

I have in the past put the dish on the roof. But I decided that was okay for short stays of a few days. For long term stays, I wanted it more permanently mounted. The pluses of doing that for me are that if I wash the roof, it’s out of the way; when it was mounted on the tripod, it was sometimes tricky to get a clear view of the satellites; when on the ground or tripod, it would be way easier for it to develop legs and walk away; if on the roof, it was easy for someone to pull on the cable and pull it off the roof.

[more tired since retired]

I have the same antenna, but have been using it on the ground. However I am looking at the King DISH Tailgater Pro Premium Satellite Antenna, Model# DTP4900. You can get a roof mount that will let you easily remove the antenna from the roof and use it on the ground. Another plus is the dome is transparent, so you can see where the antenna is pointed.

[boyscout]

I got a question. If you use the ladder mount but remove it to travel, why not just set it on the roof?

I'll be swimming against the tide here...

I've hovered over that ladder mount several times in RV stores. I've each time decided not to buy it *OR* to mount the satellite dome on the roof because we park in campgrounds with trees.

Having the satellite antenna in a fixed position means that the trailer must always be parked in a way that lets the antenna "see" the satellites. Not a problem in Arizona deserts but a challenge in Florida, Ontario, Pennsylvania, etc.

It's certainly a pain to take out and hook up the satellite dome when we arrive at a camp. Sometimes it ends up on the roof, but at times I've used the full 50 feet of cable I have for it to get it into a position from which it can see the satellites from our campsite.

Each to their own. Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

[GD22RBE]

Solution, ask for satellite friendly site. Have compass app. First thing I do when assign a somewhat problem site, I plug in and a slight move of the trailer either forward or back usually solves it. Then I go forward and unhitch and setup.

[mageorge]

Good shot as to how you have it up over the roof, thanks. Mike George

[Clanker24]

I'll be swimming against the tide here...

I've hovered over that ladder mount several times in RV stores. I've each time decided not to buy it *OR* to mount the satellite dome on the roof because we park in campgrounds with trees.

Having the satellite antenna in a fixed position means that the trailer must always be parked in a way that lets the antenna "see" the satellites. Not a problem in Arizona deserts but a challenge in Florida, Ontario, Pennsylvania, etc.

It's certainly a pain to take out and hook up the satellite dome when we arrive at a camp. Sometimes it ends up on the roof, but at times I've used the full 50 feet of cable I have for it to get it into a position from which it can see the satellites from our campsite.

Each to their own. Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Boyscout which dish do us have and how does the dome work. I have a Shaw dish and use a tripod which works very good for us. Thought about the dome style but a lot of money and not sure how it works with Shaw. I’ve seen people with bell that have had good success

[morningside119]

Attachment 25334

I just installed this and it seems pretty sturdy, is it safe to travel with it like this? Anyone else do this? Pic needs to be flipped. Thanks

I had the same concerns, I installed this several years back maybe 2014 or 2015. We have traveled with ours over 60,000 miles with not problems, works fantastic and allows you to take if if need be to find signal. That being said I did beef mine up a little bit as I was concerned as you are. If you do a google search on forums for dome antenna ladder mounts or homemade dome antenna you will find a great instructions on how to beef this mount up with some u bolts and 2 adjustable bars used in permanent dish installatio on house roofs. Mine is solid as a rock, just be sure to get most of dish above roof line. I will try to attach photo.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]25636[/ATTACH

[boyscout]

Boyscout which dish do us have and how does the dome work. I have a Shaw dish and use a tripod which works very good for us. Thought about the dome style but a lot of money and not sure how it works with Shaw. I’ve seen people with bell that have had good success

We have the Winegard Carryout G2+. There is now a later version of it called the Carryout G3.

While I did buy it because it supports both DishTV and DirectTV in the U.S. as well as BellTV in Canada, we've used it only on DishTV**.

It only works with one of those carriers at at time but it's easy to change which one - just flip some switches and give it a few minutes to resettle on the satellite(s) it needs.

It works very well when it has the necessary clear view of the sky.

It "magically" powers itself from the same cable that feeds it, which is very convenient. Connect the coax cable, set it on a level surface, turn on the included power box near the TV, and a few minutes later it's locked on with (usually) solid clear signal. (Heavy rain interferes - I believe nearly all satellite antennas suffer from that.) Some big dishes - maybe like yours - can get shaky signals from partially-obstructed sky but ours (and probably most dome antennas) can't. The Carryout G3 boasts a 20% (IIRC) larger dish inside which probably improves its signal-capturing ability.

I just looked at the Winegard web site and they're showing the G2+ at a much higher price than the newer G3. I don't understand that - you'll have to call them with questions about differences. Their customer service was memorably very good when I needed it at the beginning (turned out the problem was with our Dish receiver).

Finally, I bought this antenna nearly three years ago. There may well now be other better options to consider.

Good luck with your choices.


** A couple of observations about carriers:

- When we last used the antenna in the spring of last year, we were finding that Dish TV was getting very thin on content. Even though paying a premium for more than basic service, and paying another premium to give us local stations wherever we were, we were finding less and less to watch on it. Especially local stations - it became clear that the big networks were pushing back on Dish and refusing to sell it content, at least not at a price Dish was willing to pay. One of the most-frequently seen things on the satellite became a long commercial by the president of Dish essentially begging for mercy from customers and blaming his thinning content roster on the networks. We didn't bother renewing Dish service during our 5 weeks in the U.S. this year. We got lots of local TV on our Winegard 360, a fixed dome antenna for over-the-air TV that is now standard equipment on many Grand Design trailers.

- We tried to set up Bell TV service when we got home to Canada in the spring last year. However Bell - as always intently focused on customer satisfaction - will / would only provide satellite service to a fixed address. Since our fixed address has a small forest behind it obstructing any view of the satellites in the southern sky, they could not install there and would not provide service to anywhere else including the trailer parked in clear space down the road.

[Bill G]

More important to me is how do you get reception with a fixed mount. Not always facing southern sky? Usually in wooded area.