Portable vs. Roof Mount Satellite TV

[DKRITTER]

All I can say is it depends!

We’ve had Dish at the house for years so when I decided I wanted satellite in the trailer we naturally went with Dish. Our hardware has evolved over the last few years.

We first bought a 211Z and a Tailgater, we only kept the Tailgater a few days. We keep our trailer at the house and the signal strength of the Tailgater was much worse than the big dish on the house.

We returned the Tailgater for a Pathway X2 and used it for a little over a year, we were very happy with it and had almost no issues with it.

2015 was a good year for business and I bonused myself a Trav’ler. My wife and I installed it (the hardest part was getting it up on the roof) in a few hours. It works wonderfully, we get to our campsite push a button and in a couple of minutes we have full signal. We started taking our Hopper 2 from the house and using it, I found using the chat to change locals was by far the easiest. I decided I also wanted a Hopper 2 permanently in the trailer so I bought one off Amazon. Along with an OTA adapter for locals in the trailer.

We travel about 100 days a year in both business and pleasure and I want the convenience I have now with the Trav’ler and the Hopper2. One big thing is we don’t stay in one place long so I don’t want to manually point an antenna every time we set up.

We treat the trailer like an apartment on wheels and regularly move a few times a week and really like the advantages of the Hopper and the convenience of the Trav’ler.

That said if we stayed in 1 place for long periods we’d have a Hopper and a manual dish and if we just weekended occasionally we’d have a 211 and the Pathway X2. So like I said, it depends.

[spock123]

The longest we stay in one campsite is a week. If I stayed a week or longer I would get the portable one. I have a friend that normally stays for a month or more at the same campsite.

[Comanchecreek]

Originally Posted by spock123

What do you use when you don’t have a cell signal? Some places we camp our Verizon won’t work. Anyway the roof mounted satellite works best for us. Buy what you like and can afford that does the job

We don't worry about TV too much. If we have it great, but can live without it also. Most RV parks include cable, and when we dry camp in the mountains we fish and hike and enjoy the outdoors as much as we can. I agree that Cell phone coverage can stink. My guess is it will improve as time goes on. Just have to live long enough. Hassle of the satellite dish was just not worth the use we got out of it, and the cost to have it.

[Cathcartww]

Originally Posted by rvrobocop

Pathway X2 portable. Using a Wingard tripod and also a set of 2 foot legs from HD if needed for more pesky treelines. Tried the Tailgater for more than a year with terrible results. Adding DishPointer Pro App on your phone is a great resource as well.

We had the same experience - sold the Tailgater on ebay after I got fustrated trying to get a good signal. Pathway X2 works much better.

[DKRITTER]

Originally Posted by Comanchecreek

I ran a roof mount dish for years. Nice for setting up as everything is done inside, and the TV is right there for signal reception. That being said the tree issue was a huge problem. I moved the trailer several times to try and get reception. The portable units require additional storage space and cables are in the yard around the trailer, but they are cheaper, and I think many will self locate, (not sure as I've never used one). We finally abandoned DirecTV because of the cost and quit using the Dish. Traded the trailer in last year so don't even have a dish, and do not have any plans to get one. I've moved on to streaming, and hope to find a system with our phones and/or a data plan we can use in most places to stream Netflix etc. I think the Sat's are on the way out eventually, and would thus shy away from a permanently mounted unit on the roof. Good luck on your search as this is a very common issue among RV'ers.

I agree that satellite service is going to go away eventually and be replaced by streaming butttttt, I think for us that reality is years away. Again, to each his own.

[spock123]

Originally Posted by Comanchecreek

We don't worry about TV too much. If we have it great, but can live without it also. Most RV parks include cable, and when we dry camp in the mountains we fish and hike and enjoy the outdoors as much as we can. I agree that Cell phone coverage can stink. My guess is it will improve as time goes on. Just have to live long enough. Hassle of the satellite dish was just not worth the use we got out of it, and the cost to have it.

DW loves satellite more than me. DW likes NCIS and will watch it end on end. If something makes DW happy it makes me happy. I don’t worry about what Direct cost. DW will not hike unless it’s a long walk at the mall or leaving the truck for somewhere to eat. DW will go anywhere I want to go as long as we have satellite, we went to Alaska this year and we knew we wouldn’t have satellite service and we plan on going back one more time next year. But that’s only 75 days, I have all the seasons of NCIS on disk.

[NMWildcat]

Originally Posted by DKRITTER

I agree that satellite service is going to go away eventually and be replaced by streaming butttttt, I think for us that reality is years away. Again, to each his own.

Agreed. I also don't see it happening in the foreseeable future. Now, perhaps you can reliably stream if you only camp near large metro areas. Where we go in the southwest states, once you get away from the freeways, there is rarely decent cell coverage.

[Philkaty]

We have an old Direct tv dish on our house. Can I take it off and use it for the RV? Thanks

[Thurman]

When I first thought I wanted a portable set-up for the TT I called DISH as this is what I have in the house. I'm in SW GA. and every campsite for 200 miles have large pines and oaks. The lady at DISH actually talked me out of a DISH tailgater stating that it did not work so well with trees and if using more than 50 feet of cable the signal would weaken. So I bought a DISH Turbo HD portable antennae with tripod, Wally receiver, and I use an Android app "Satellite Dish Pointer" to find the satellite. A few months back my neighbor lost their cable TV signal and the tech guy who came out started a conversation with me about my TT. Further into the talk I mentioned that I use a portable set-up for DISH with 100 feet of RG-6 cable. He asked me to step over to his truck and gave me 100 feet of RG-6 with a bright orange outer jacket. They use this for temporary installations until the crew comes around to bury the cable. That is a nice cable for camping, everyone can see it well. So far this set-up has worked very well. I have read of others having to pay a monthly fee for using the portable set-up but was told by DISH that I would not have to pay this and have not so far. I have seen other campers with the tailgater type antennae having to move theirs often to find a signal. Once, and only once, could I not find a suitable signal and placed the antennae/tripod on top of my TT. I placed pads under the tripod feet and weighted the antennae with a boat anchor. Worked for us that one time.

[NMWildcat]

Originally Posted by Philkaty

We have an old Direct tv dish on our house. Can I take it off and use it for the RV? Thanks

Sure! I see lots of folks that do that. You just have to be able to aim it. And if you are going to do that, make sure it's an HD dish so you can take advantage of HD.

[NMWildcat]

Originally Posted by Thurman

The lady at DISH actually talked me out of a DISH tailgater stating that it did not work so well with trees and if using more than 50 feet of cable the signal would weaken.

True, trees cause reception problems for most satellite dishes of any kind. Are automatic portables more susceptible due to smaller dish size? Yep, that's why they are portable

As far as weak signal when using 50'+ of cable with a Tailgater, NOT true. You were misled. We have used 150' of RG6 (ours is not orange though) very successfully with our Tailgator. We have used it coast to coast for 6 years from wooded areas to deserts. Love it.

I am thinking of switching to the new King Tailgater as it has 2 outlets which would make it easier for us to have HD for both the inside and outside TV sets.