King Tailgater Portable Dish Satellite

They may have changed the manual. Mine, from several years ago, does say to point the handle to the north. Maybe they decided it was not necessary after all.

"the manual does say to point it north."

From my manual: "Your Tailgater requires an unobstructed view of the southern sky for the best signal reception. Be sure to place the Tailgater in a location free from obstructions such as people, trees, buildings or vehicles. This will allow for the strongest signal and will help prevent any interruption to your programming." That's all it says about the placement of the Tailgater, no mention of the handle pointing north.

KRumm wrote:
I am interested in buying one of these and mounting it permanently on the roof of my RV... But some of you have mentioned the King needs to be pointed handle North?... Is this required?...

I have removed the cover from mine a few times just to watch it function. ( I am a retired engineer and my mind works that way. :p) Here is how mine works. When I initiate a scan, the dish (antenna) starts slowly rotating counter clockwise until it reaches the area of the handle (doesn't matter which way the handle is pointing). Then it rotates clockwise until it reaches the area of the handle from the other direction. Then it slowly rotates back to a generally south/southwest direction until it is at the approximate correct direction of the sats. Then it begins a series of small up/down and side to side movements as it is apparently homing in on the 3 satellites. When that is done it stops moving and the next screen comes up on the TV.

Based on what I see, it appears the antenna cannot rotate past the area of the handle before it has to reverse direction. That would indicate that if the handle were pointed directly in the direction of the satellites the antenna may not be able to align correctly with those sats. From that I would guess that as long as the handle is not pointed toward the sats you would be ok. But pointing it toward the north is always safe. And the manual does say to point it north.

I have a Dish plan where the 1st receiver is no charge and the second receiver is $7/month. Since I take one of the receivers from home, I don't pay anything extra to have satellite reception when camping away from home.

dspencer wrote:

ICamel wrote:
On our 3rd year using the Tailgater with Dish.
Of course they would love to rent you a receiver for an additional $7/month.
You could always take a receiver from your home when you travel and use it and not pay any additional charges.

Actually you don't rent the receiver, you buy it. There basic receiver is $100. The $7.00 per month is for the channels your viewing which is everything you have at home.

azjeffh wrote:
You should also be aware that since the dish is so small, you may lose reception during heavy thunderstorms.

True. But also true with our standard roof mounted dish at home.

You should also be aware that since the dish is so small, you may lose reception during heavy thunderstorms.

I have the Taligater for my Camper, I take one of my receivers from the house with me for use with the Tailgater,No aditional charges. I use the App Dish for my Rv to find the Sats. It all works great but the Local ch are in SD with the Tailgater.

Be aware that some of the channels you receive will not be in high definition with the Tailgater.
If the satellite channel signal is weak- the 211z will switch to SD.
In order to get HD on all channels, I bought a dish antenna and a tripod that I could place on the ground.

The handle does not have to be pointed north. As long as the Tailgater has clear view to the south, it doesn't matter which way it is pointed.

I'm about to do the same thing. I too am wondering about the 'handle north' when you permanently mount the dish. Anyone had experience using the coach wiring for the receiver-to-dish run? My Winnebago has a plate in the driver overhead compartment marked 'sat to roof'. Haven't scaled the roof yet to see what's up there. Anyone have luck using those connections with a Dish receiver?