King Tailgater Portable Dish Satellite

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?...

Bill & Kate wrote:
We had a Tailgater, but had a lot of trouble getting a consistently good signal - it seemed like you had to have a perfect view of the satellite without even a leaf or palm frond in the way. ....... ....

Must have been something else going on. If I can find a decent "hole" thru the tree canopy I can get the sats with my Tailgater. Although I do understand the x2 does an even better job.

We had a Tailgater, but had a lot of trouble getting a consistently good signal - it seemed like you had to have a perfect view of the satellite without even a leaf or palm frond in the way. It became frustrating to set up, so we got a Pathway X2 and sold the Tailgater. The X2, although more expensive is has a larger antenna, more robust construction, and side by side with the tailgater pulled in a 70% stronger signal. You can also run a second receiver off it if you want ....

BB_TX wrote:
Only guessing, but if you only have one external connection, it probably goes direct to the antenna/cable switch box first. I don't think the sat receiver/Tailgater combo will work thru that switch box no matter which position it is in. Someone may can disagree.

As I mentioned on mine, the one connection I have comes into a two connector wall plate before it goes to the switch box. I can remove that 6" coax jumper and connect a new short coax cable from the wall plate to my sat box and avoid going thru the switch. If you have such a dual coax wall plate somewhere, hidden in a cabinet maybe, you can probably do the same. If not, you will probably either have to run the coax from the Tailgater thru a window or maybe between a slide direct to the sat box. Or do as I did and add a new dedicated external coax connector for the sat.

I appreciate your help very much, when I bring the tt out of storage this spring I will definitely check that out.

Only guessing, but if you only have one external connection, it probably goes direct to the antenna/cable switch box first. I don't think the sat receiver/Tailgater combo will work thru that switch box no matter which position it is in. Someone may can disagree.

As I mentioned on mine, the one connection I have comes into a two connector wall plate before it goes to the switch box. I can remove that 6" coax jumper and connect a new short coax cable from the wall plate to my sat box and avoid going thru the switch. If you have such a dual coax wall plate somewhere, hidden in a cabinet maybe, you can probably do the same. If not, you will probably either have to run the coax from the Tailgater thru a window or maybe between a slide direct to the sat box. Or do as I did and add a new dedicated external coax connector for the sat.

I have a splitter on the one cable that enters the camper. One out says "power pass thru" and the other out does not. The one without power pass thru is for cable and the other I use for the VIP21K

BB_TX wrote:

dspencer wrote:
.......

That actually made me wonder about using the wiring in the RV. I know some RV's has 2 connections. Mine has a direct external connection and then of course the one internal connection and you just choose on the tv setup whether your using an antenna or cable-satellite. Keep in mind I'm not an electronics wiz....:h
...........

The coax from the Tailgater to the sat box should not go thru any intermediate devices such as a splitter, ant/cable switch box, etc. The internal wiring you use should go direct point to point from the external connector to an internal connector to the sat box. On mine I had only one external connection for cable/sat. And it came into a dual coax wall plate in a cabinet below the TV. That dual wall plate has a short 6" coax jumper from one connector to the other connector, which then goes thru the walls to the ant/cable switch box in the bedroom. To use the Tailgater, I had to remove the short jumper and install a new coax cable from the wall plate to the sat box. That way I had a direct connect from the Tailgater to the external coax connection to the internal coax connection to the sat box. And it worked fine, even using the old original internal coax cable. But to use park cable (when available) I had to put the coax jumper back in. To avoid having to change back and forth, I installed a new external coax connector with a new coax cable in the wall to a new wall plate below the TV, specifically for the sat connection. Now I can easily hookup for sat or cable (or both at the same time) without moving any jumpers.

Hasn't been mentioned, but I hope you know you must use a vip211k or vip211z receiver with the Tailgater.

And yes, the $7/mo is for the additional service, not a rental.

Okay yes I knew that I needed either the vip211k or vip 211z receiver.

Now I want to make sure this dumb ole country boy understands you correct. Like you I only have one external connection and it goes to the ceiling where also is a single point connection. Am I missing something here? My tt has only one plug in in the camper so I am assuming that I have a direct point to direct point connection. Am I wrong? By the way I truly appreciate all your advice BB_TX.

Doug

dspencer wrote:
.......

That actually made me wonder about using the wiring in the RV. I know some RV's has 2 connections. Mine has a direct external connection and then of course the one internal connection and you just choose on the tv setup whether your using an antenna or cable-satellite. Keep in mind I'm not an electronics wiz....:h
...........

The coax from the Tailgater to the sat box should not go thru any intermediate devices such as a splitter, ant/cable switch box, etc. The internal wiring you use should go direct point to point from the external connector to an internal connector to the sat box. On mine I had only one external connection for cable/sat. And it came into a dual coax wall plate in a cabinet below the TV. That dual wall plate has a short 6" coax jumper from one connector to the other connector, which then goes thru the walls to the ant/cable switch box in the bedroom. To use the Tailgater, I had to remove the short jumper and install a new coax cable from the wall plate to the sat box. That way I had a direct connect from the Tailgater to the external coax connection to the internal coax connection to the sat box. And it worked fine, even using the old original internal coax cable. But to use park cable (when available) I had to put the coax jumper back in. To avoid having to change back and forth, I installed a new external coax connector with a new coax cable in the wall to a new wall plate below the TV, specifically for the sat connection. Now I can easily hookup for sat or cable (or both at the same time) without moving any jumpers.

Hasn't been mentioned, but I hope you know you must use a vip211k or vip211z receiver with the Tailgater.

And yes, the $7/mo is for the additional service, not a rental.

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.

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.