Tailgater vs Winegard

[Kenc_AL]

I have been a Dish customer for 10 years; have two VIP211k receivers in our stick house which I carry one on road and subscribe to HD service which is very important. I stay on the road about 20 weeks a year setting up a 1000.2 antenna at each stop more than 2-3 days or when something is on we really want to see.

Now to the question; I am looking at doing away with the 1000.2 and going to a
1) Tailgater $349 or
2) Winegard GM -1518 - $650

Why should I pay an extra three hundred bucks for the Winegard? What do I buy that the tailgater does not deliver?

[Bumpyroad]

ol Bombero-JC wrote:

469whj469 wrote:
I got the Tailgater, 211 receiver and fifty feet of cable for $199, FedExed to my house, two day service. The catch is a new two year contract at about $40 per month, not pay for the months that you want. Also no sales tax because it came from Florida and I am in Texas.

Sometime a deal isn't a deal - sometimes it is.
Depends on whether you get the $40 per month value out of it at home - when not RVing.:@

For some (me too) the 2 year contract would nix the deal..:(

.

since I have had Dish for over 10 years and currently pay more than $100 a month, I certainly think it is worth $40 a month.
bumpy

[ol_Bombero-JC]

469whj469 wrote:
I got the Tailgater, 211 receiver and fifty feet of cable for $199, FedExed to my house, two day service. The catch is a new two year contract at about $40 per month, not pay for the months that you want. Also no sales tax because it came from Florida and I am in Texas.

Sometime a deal isn't a deal - sometimes it is.
Depends on whether you get the $40 per month value out of it at home - when not RVing.:@

For some (me too) the 2 year contract would nix the deal..:(

.

[469whj469]

I got the Tailgater, 211 receiver and fifty feet of cable for $199, FedExed to my house, two day service. The catch is a new two year contract at about $40 per month, not pay for the months that you want. Also no sales tax because it came from Florida and I am in Texas.

[jimmac28]

Tom_Diane wrote:
We will go to the TG for price and we have Dish network. I was told by our camping friends that the dealer that sold them the TG said that if it gets moved before unhooking it, that the whole unit has to be sent back in for repair. Is this true? The friends like their TG by the way.

No that's not true, I've moved mine many times, you just have to pull out the power for the receiver for 10 seconds and let it find the sat's again. By the way, the rain doesn't effect it as much as you would think.

[Tom_Diane]

We will go to the TG for price and we have Dish network. I was told by our camping friends that the dealer that sold them the TG said that if it gets moved before unhooking it, that the whole unit has to be sent back in for repair. Is this true? The friends like their TG by the way.

[Kenc_AL]

Thank you all for your comments. Very informative.

Now I have to decide between the Pathway and Tailgater. I found the Pathway on Amazon for $415.

Wonder if their is any difference in the quality of the moving parts (i.e. the wheel mechanisms) between the two units. I understand the Tailgater is all plastic.

[JTrac]

BB_TX wrote:
We are also long time Dish customers and bought a vip211k/Tailgater for the RV.
I can only speak for the Tailgater. Works great with the vip211k. Automatically finds the sats and has signal within 10 minutes or so.
It believe it only searches for the western satellites. Don't know if that is a problem as you go too far east or not.
The vip211k is a single channel receiver so you can only get one station at a time. But you can send the SD signal to a second TV via coax.
I call Dish each time we are outside our home area and have them change the service address so we can get local (to that area) network channels. However since the RV receiver is part of our home Dish package, changing the service address means the home receiver will not pick up home locals until we change the service address back to our home. Not a problem as long as the DW is along. But if for any reason she stayed at home she would not be pleased if I disabled her local channels.

We have a Dish Tailgater and I've tried to connect the bedroom tv to the 211k so it will get the same channel as the main tv but can't seem to make it work. How do you make that happen?

[Vulcaneer]

We just bought the TG. Part of the new install deal for us with Dish Network. They installed the dish on the house, connected up 6 TV's in the house, and the total cost was $300 for the TG. The rest was "free". The Dish HD is AMAZING. Better than the cable we had.

The guys set up the TG in our trailer so we can run three TV's off the TG. But all see the same station. To change the station we go change the receiver box, and they all change to that channel. Not a problem for us.

We take our 211K out of the house and off we go. That receiver also has the Over-the-air module built in. So for local network programming we can use the OTA and bring in the locals...AND it puts those locals automatically into the channel guide too. All I need to do is punch the amplifier button on my Jack antenna. The OTA jack antenna brings in a very clear picture. By doing that we don't need to call Dish and ask for address change. And my daughter who lives at home gets no interruption in her local network service.

They tell me that here in the North East we won't see satellite 129. Too low. I have hooked it up in my heavily treed driveway just to try it out. Initial set up took about 15 minutes. Found Sat 110, 119. I did have to run 100' (two fifty footers connected together) of coax to find an open spot to the west, thru the trees. And the only connector I had was old and corroded. But it did pull in plenty of channels. Picture was a little fuzzy (due to corroded connector???) but very watchable on our 42" TV in a small living space. Didn't try the OTA module. But I assume it works.

Overall, I think the TG will work out OK for us. We bought it for snowbirding in south or southwest. So the western sat's shouldn't be a problem for us. I cannot vouch for the Winegard Anser, or Pathways. But I think the Tailgater is a good deal, and works pretty well with Dish Network. The Direct TV doesn't do HD, so I would recommend Dish over Direct. But that is just me.

[harley_hitchike]

Ihave had the winegard carryout for 4 years and it has worked without any problems. I know it will work with eastern and western arc satelites and can be used with direct or bell systems with simple switch changes. I live in pa. and use eastern arc because of trees at home sat. 129 on western arc is to close to horizon so I don't have a clear shot at 129 for dish HD service and the same condition could limit use from central pa' to new England depending on elevation and tree height. and it appears that tailgater does not receive eastern arc satelites so depending on your travels this could be a consideration. I also think the carryout uses other recievers that have DVR capability.But double check that I think 722 is the model but am not sure.
The winegard also supports 2 recievers running different stations for a 2nd tv as long as stations are on the same satelite On the other side the tailgater is cheaper and only requires a coax cable not a separate power cord so simpler to set up and can be set up further away from trailer to avoid obstructions without the need to extend the 50 ft. power cord supplied with winegard I am sure picture and ability to receive tv is the same .So decide which serves your needs and get one ,you won't ever regret not having to aim that manual dish .

[Bumpyroad]

walmart sells an auto dish and receiver for $452. don't know if it meets your "need" for HD however.
bumpy

[MTPockets1]

Been using tailgater 2 years full time from Florida to Washington State, no problems. I like the fact that all It requires is the coax cable to work. Automatically finds the satellite and a simple phone call to switch service address for local Chanel's if you want them.

[amandasgramma]

We just bought the Tailgater. Took 10 minutes to set up the first time and that included a phone call to activate the receiver. Because we're boondocking, we have to turn it off at night, and that involves it searching for sat and getting the programming the next day. That takes all of 5 minutes. We get everything that we get at home.....and HD....sats 129, 119 and 110. 🙂

[B_O__Plenty]

I have a Tailgater. It's worked from Indiana to Minnesota to Arizona and everywhere in between. I have it added to my home home system as a second receiver. It costs $7.00 a month. Dish will get HD programs if that matters, I can't really tell the difference. The only downside is it will only work with 1 television. That doesn't matter to me.

B.O.

[BB_TX]

We are also long time Dish customers and bought a vip211k/Tailgater for the RV.
I can only speak for the Tailgater. Works great with the vip211k. Automatically finds the sats and has signal within 10 minutes or so.
It believe it only searches for the western satellites. Don't know if that is a problem as you go too far east or not.
The vip211k is a single channel receiver so you can only get one station at a time. But you can send the SD signal to a second TV via coax.
I call Dish each time we are outside our home area and have them change the service address so we can get local (to that area) network channels. However since the RV receiver is part of our home Dish package, changing the service address means the home receiver will not pick up home locals until we change the service address back to our home. Not a problem as long as the DW is along. But if for any reason she stayed at home she would not be pleased if I disabled her local channels.