Any Maintenance needed on a Tailgater?

[jeffo]

Does anyone lube or any other maintenance on their Tailgater? There are a lot of moving parts and they do sit idle a lot. I have never had the cover off of mine and maybe I should not.

[Tennessee_Nomad]

DutchmenSport wrote:
I've NEVER done anything to mine either. Works OK. If it's not broke, don't mess with it!

Ditto

[billyboy]

I'd like to know how to make the motor run without having to hook it all up to the satellite receiver

[B_O__Plenty]

lj2654 wrote:
if you open it while under warranty it will void the warranty. I had my first tailgater for only 4 months and it quite working. I called dish and they trouble shot for over an hour on the phone with me. didn't get anywhere. They gave me King Controls number(manufacturer) and they had me open it up while on the phone....
The horizontal movement was ok but no vertical movement...motor was shot....sent it back to them and they decided to send me a new one under warranty as repairs were backlogged for a month. been fine for 2 1/2 years now.

Not much inside one to see...mostly plastic gears and a couple small motors and the antenna. Nothing to really lubricate.

One of the motors in mine quit. I don't live too far from them so I went a picked up the parts. They told me how to replace them. Pretty simple inside. I don't know how they could tell if you opened it up or not. Looks rather delicate inside. I treat mine a little more gently since I saw what was in it.

B.O.

[1L243]

steveh27 wrote:
I dropped mine & the case broke in a few places. I picked up the pieces & super glued & clear taped it back together (after watching it work without the cover - cool). It still works OK after all that.

I might have to try that the next time mine don't work LOL!

[steveh27]

I dropped mine & the case broke in a few places. I picked up the pieces & super glued & clear taped it back together (after watching it work without the cover - cool). It still works OK after all that.

[shepcal]

Don't know if it helps or hinders, but I will move it every once in awhile so it has to search again.

[1L243]

First one went bad after 6 months, replaced under warranty. That one went bad at about 14 months. Bought the third one and it came with instructions use it every 3 months to keep things working. PINTA but I got a 3 year warranty with this one so I am prepared...

[lj2654]

if you open it while under warranty it will void the warranty. I had my first tailgater for only 4 months and it quite working. I called dish and they trouble shot for over an hour on the phone with me. didn't get anywhere. They gave me King Controls number(manufacturer) and they had me open it up while on the phone....
The horizontal movement was ok but no vertical movement...motor was shot....sent it back to them and they decided to send me a new one under warranty as repairs were backlogged for a month. been fine for 2 1/2 years now.

Not much inside one to see...mostly plastic gears and a couple small motors and the antenna. Nothing to really lubricate.

[BB_TX]

I have had mine for 5 years. Never any maintenance. Sits idle from Sept until April. Since the warranty has long since expired I take the cover off the first time I power up each year just to watch and see that the dish inside works properly.

When first powered up my dish will rotate clockwise to end of travel, about half turn. Then it will rotate back counter clockwise 360 degrees. Then it will rotate back to a southerly direction and begin a series of short up, down, and side to side movements trying to home in on sats. After a few minutes determining it has not found the correct sats, it turns back east and tries. After a few more minutes and another failure it rotates back to a slightly southwest direction and begins the subtle movements. SUCCESS! Completes other checks, loads the program guide, and good to go. But may take 10 minutes or more to find the sats and another 10 minutes to load the guide.

[dbbls]

Opening it up will void the warranty.

[mikebreeze]

On this last trip that I took mine worked well. I have never done any maintenance to mine either. I believe the literature may have said something about not opening it up.

[DutchmenSport]

I've NEVER done anything to mine either. Works OK. If it's not broke, don't mess with it!