Satellite Ladder Mount

[jbhiggins]

I fashioned this mount from an existing roof mount and some 2 inch diameter exhaust pipe from the local muffler shop. Cleaned and then painted gray to somewhat match the Directv mount. Make sure the pipe is long enough to allow 360 degree rotation. Purchased 4 - 3/4" split ring pipe hangers and 4 - 3/8" threaded knobs at the local hardware store. The hangers were galvanized which should not rust but I painted them black to match the knobs. I made 2 cross mounts out of 3/4" angle iron from an old real estate sign I had as scrap. I cut in a curved area to fit around the ladder structure. (Shown in photo of all of the parts)

I used a thin strip of rubber to wrap the ladder tube to insure a tight fit and to eliminate any scratching of the ladder, but electrical tape would work as well.

Put all of the clamps on the ladder loosely and tighten each slowly when level.

Luckily the installer of the room mount left the round bubble level in the original mount and I transferred it to the new 2" pipe.

A step ladder in the bed of the truck gave me enough height to see the round bubble level in the upright.

Our trailer has the self-leveling system and if the trailer is self-leveled and the mount is then attached to the ladder and level, there is no need to re-level the mount when we get to the park. Just place the dish on the pipe, connect the coax cable to the satelite connector on the rear of the rv, adjust to get a signal and tighten down the screws. I am working on a modification to make the large dish fold up for transport as it takes up a lot of room inside the unit when on the road.

I hope the photos are somewhat self explanatory. We purchased a satelite finder meter on Ebay for under $10 that works great but does not pass the satelite signal through to the tuner, so must be disconnected when watching the dish. Also I downloaded satelite finder app to get the settings for the dish of each park we will stay in. You can preset the angles at the dish before placing it on the post. Some fine tuning may be necessary. It takes maybe 10 minutes to set up each time.

[jbhiggins]

Here is a couple of more photos of the mount. The middle photo is how it looks on the road. And the last photo shows how the angle iron was cut to fit around the ladder tubes. I forgot to mention the tubes on our trailer were 1" diameter and the 3/4" split ring fits really tight when the thin rubber (inner tube scrap) is wrapped once around the tubing.

Good luck and enjoy!

[Dinostop]

Would you be willing who make another setup minus the dish of course?


Eastlake, Ohio
2013 F-350 Turbo Diesel
2016 Heritage Glen 368rlbh

[spock123]

It looks good. I'm a little afraid of heights so climbing a ladder holding a satellite dish is out for me. I set mine on a tripod on the ground.


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[OldCoot]

Originally Posted by spock123

It looks good. I'm a little afraid of heights so climbing a ladder holding a satellite dish is out for me. I set mine on a tripod on the ground.

I agree, it looks great, but at 75 yrs old, I don't like to climb the ladder on the 5er and TOWTA gets a little irate. I made one that hooks on the ladder supports in 2 positions and also on the very top of the ladder. Made another one to fit on the pin box. Ran the coax to both ends of the trailer so there is nothing for old folks (us) to trip over.

[spock123]

I have a Tailgator and I brought a ladder mount from somewhere and I brought extra aluminum pipe and I could put that Tailgator 20ft in the air with the ladder mount. I have Direct now but I still have my Tailgator and I may go back to Dish. The Tailgator was nice


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[memsu]

I'm going to steal your idea.

I was going to basically do the same thing, but I was going to use 1" square aluminum tubing and clamp it to the ladder.

With your way you can leave the pipe clamps on and if they were set properly when level then when you level the trailer you won't have to relevel the entire satellite mount.

[jbhiggins]

Thats right MEMSU, everything will come off except the split ring pipe clamps with just a few turns on the four black knobs. This also gives full use of the ladder and like you said with the self-leveling system it will always be plumb if mounted that way. I leave the upright pipe on the trailer most of the time, but will be taking it off now as we bought a cover for the trailer and it would probably go through the soft material in no time. I am working on a design to fold the Directv HD dish so it can be stored in a smaller space. I'll get that worked out in the next week or so.

Good luck with yours.