Dish Tailgater on a TC - looking for custom mount ideas

If you have a white one like mine you can take the cover off and drill through where the rubber feet are , bolt it to a base , make the base removable from the surface you have it on
Mine un bolts with wing nuts from a piece of alum box that's mounted to my ladder , locked also , bungee corded to luggage rack for extra support up high

I always thought that one could build a platform that was anchored to the horizontal bars of the ladder at it's top.
bumpy

Wish I'd documented the build, but here's mine.



Basically it's just aluminum angle bolted together forming the two side triangles with an aluminum plate bolted on top with the assembly then u-bolted to the ladder. I also use wing nuts to hold the tailgater to the platform so it's easily removable if I need to relocate for better signal.

I prefer this to mounting on a roof rack since it reduces the height vs roof mount.

Wish I had taken a picture but I recently saw a mount that was a flat square panel that the Tailgator mounted to but it was welded on to a pole about 8 or 10 feet long. This pole was then slipped into a "flag pole buddy" mounting on the ladder rack. Looked pretty slick and it would get your gator up in the air but it could all be done from the ground- no need to climb the ladder.

DWeikert wrote:
Wish I'd documented the build, but here's mine.



Basically it's just aluminum angle bolted together forming the two side triangles with an aluminum plate bolted on top with the assembly then u-bolted to the ladder. I also use wing nuts to hold the tailgater to the platform so it's easily removable if I need to relocate for better signal.

I prefer this to mounting on a roof rack since it reduces the height vs roof mount.

I am a new Dish owner and read in the directions you need to point it south, the rear being the handle. So do you always have to park facing north or does it matter?

We've found that yes it does need to face South, handle to the north, to get reception. I use a velcro strap on the handle and attach it to the ladder when I set it up in the rubber coated chair hanger we have on the ladder. We've had it on the roof as well and attach that same strap to the roof rack. Also on the truck hood, picnic tables, large rocks as well as just on the ground. It doesn't need a very wide view, but a clear view of the southern sky. If I remember right these units aren't designed to take the vibration of going down the road mounted. Mine rides in the camper on the bed surrounded by pillows. Love the simplicity of set up with receiver and TV.

I am looking to do the same type mount, but with the X2 (I need Dish eastern Arch). and like TrailGranny, I plan to remove it for travel

~DJ~ wrote:
I am a new Dish owner and read in the directions you need to point it south, the rear being the handle. So do you always have to park facing north or does it matter?

That's news to me. I just scrolled through the manual (download here) and the only reference I see to south is having an unobstructed view of the southern sky.

The internal dish rotates 360*, or very near 360* at least. I suppose it's possible that if the handle was aligned with the satellite that would be the one possible orientation where the Tailgater couldn't point to the satellite. But I've yet to have any problem parking in random orientations.

You don't need to point it , its automatic , but with the white ones the handle may interfere with the signal of one sat of the three if its exactly in that direction , the new black ones look like they are built with the handle out of the way

:). I always wondered why they wanted the handle north. I read too much theory into these things, I thought it was maybe so it kind of new which direction north was when it started looking for sats.

Thanks