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Old 10-07-2017, 06:17 PM   #1
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Dish Tailgater input and help

We made a trip this week and took our brand new Tailgater with us for the first time and we are not impressed with it at this point. The campground we stayed at this trip had quite a few trees and to get past them to get a clear view of the southern sky I used a 100 foot coax cable which Dish says the Tailgater will support and got the dome out to a spot of clear vision. Wife and I worked with it for hours moving it and rescanning over and over and even talking to Dish and everything seemed to be set up right and the dish aimed properly and we never got it find one satellite. The weather was also very nice and not a cloud in the sky. Have I wasted my money? What experience is here, please let me know how you have made out with this product. Thanks
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Old 10-07-2017, 06:45 PM   #2
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You must have a Clear View of the Southern Sky. Do you have an App that tells you where the Sat's are located. if not you need one. always point the handle to the North. Even a small limb will block it as it have a very small dish. I hope this helps, good luck.
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Old 10-07-2017, 08:41 PM   #3
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We made a trip this week and took our brand new Tailgater with us for the first time and we are not impressed with it at this point. The campground we stayed at this trip had quite a few trees and to get past them to get a clear view of the southern sky I used a 100 foot coax cable which Dish says the Tailgater will support and got the dome out to a spot of clear vision. Wife and I worked with it for hours moving it and rescanning over and over and even talking to Dish and everything seemed to be set up right and the dish aimed properly and we never got it find one satellite. The weather was also very nice and not a cloud in the sky. Have I wasted my money? What experience is here, please let me know how you have made out with this product. Thanks
Have you tried it at wherever you park your unit. All you need is AC power to the rig. Maybe there's an issue with the antenna. I've used over 150 feet of cable for the antenna (tailgater) with no issues. Yes a pretty clear view of the southern sky is required but all 3 satellites are not required for viewing. That 3rd satellite appears to be more southwesterly. A hard reset (unplugging for 10 seconds) is usually required when a soft reset (depressing the power button for 10 seconds) does not work. Just some thoughts. One other thought if you have one of the new tailgaters that has dual outputs maybe one of the outputs is primary and must be used with a single receiver.
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Old 10-08-2017, 09:49 AM   #4
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Sounds like something is defective or you are not getting power to the unit. Is it making noise when searching for sats?
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Old 10-08-2017, 10:18 AM   #5
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I had one and was never able to get a signal at any of the campgrounds we camped this year. It would work at home so I knew it was working.
Finally sold it and will not buy another one.
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Old 10-08-2017, 10:27 AM   #6
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Our Tailgater is six years old and it works everywhere, every time. We have used up to 150' of RG6 cable. Use the Satellite AR app to find a clear view of the satellites. Easy Peasy.
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Old 10-08-2017, 12:20 PM   #7
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We have had ours since 2012. I have a compass app on the phone and have found, most times I put it on the roof to get a clear sky. We have a home CG that we go to once a month and figured out which sites to get. We have also been to a lot of CGs around the country. I even have an app for OTA.
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Old 10-08-2017, 01:16 PM   #8
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We have had a Tailgater for years as well and used it from Florida to Michigan to Maine. Always got a sat or two. Seems like best reception is a little to the West of South (SSW).Last August it got flooded at the FROG Rally and that was the end Of it. Decided to replace it so I will have Dish Network in Fla this winter.

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Old 10-08-2017, 01:22 PM   #9
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Have had a tailgator for 5 years and had similar experience. Very poor in NE US. Can't deal with leaves very well. Quite often only gets only 1 of 3 satellites - even in clear skies in the Rockies. Thinking about the King so can get Eastern and Western arc.
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Old 10-08-2017, 01:31 PM   #10
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The SatFinderLite app works great on androids smart phones. Can you tell us what you watching during the booting process? IE. The green bar should move at three segments. What is the TV showing you during the long load?
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Old 10-08-2017, 01:37 PM   #11
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We had a Tailgater and finally got so frustrated we sold it on eBay. The slightest twig or rain drop would cause it to drop the signal. Got a Windgard Pathway X2, and it is much much better.
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Old 10-08-2017, 02:33 PM   #12
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Are you trying to feed it through the cable input or the ant. booster?
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Old 10-08-2017, 02:46 PM   #13
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We have the pathway 2 also. It's Winegard not Windgard. It works from coast to coast. You can watch 2 tv's on different channels with that dish. We are full-time so I bought a portable memory for the bedroom TV. We can watch one show in the living room and record one in the bedroom.
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Old 10-08-2017, 03:22 PM   #14
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Kfountain, I recently bought a Tailgater used with no manuals. Had a terrible time with it. I finally went on Utube. There is a power inserter that is either connected internally or externally. This inserter has several dip switches .The settings of these switches determine whether it is set up to receive Dish,DirecTV or Bell. I found my inserter mounted internally. You have to remove the dome to access it. My switches were set correctly but I flipped each switch off or on depending on how they wee set. It started working almost immediately. Hope this helps.
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Old 10-08-2017, 06:13 PM   #15
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Tailgater

I have had mine for years. On a couple of replies I noticed a few of you mention having a clear shot to the southern sky. This is not correct. You need clear sky to the SouthWestern Sky. Just make sure the "handle" is pointing North and the device will handle the rest.

Yes leaves will block the signal. I have placed mine many times on the roof of my rig in order to get better signal & clear some distant trees. Never had a problem. I just returned from a month long trip to Maine and the only issue encountered was the absence of the third satellite #129. It is very low on the horizon on the SW sky and it cannot be picked up that far east and north. However the other 2 #110 & 119 were found and worked great. 129 is only for HD channels and we can live without it for a few nights.

A new issue however has surfaced on the last 4 nights of the trip. The cable connection to RV always has worked great. Now, I have to bypass the connection and go directly to the receiver. I have not had time to troubleshoot and determine what has gone wrong with the RV connections.

This however is not a Tailgater issue. Mine has worked great and continues to do so after many years.
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Old 10-08-2017, 07:00 PM   #16
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Medic97 View Post
I have had mine for years. On a couple of replies I noticed a few of you mention having a clear shot to the southern sky. This is not correct. You need clear sky to the SouthWestern Sky. Just make sure the "handle" is pointing North and the device will handle the rest.
The reference to the southern sky being a clear shot by we'uns is right out of the tailgater manual. The manual makes no reference to the handle side of the antenna being used for placement (mine doesn't) and coincidently, if you point the handle to the north the business end of the antenna will be situated to the southern sky (southern being Southeast to Southwest) I too typically put my antenna on the roof.
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Old 10-08-2017, 09:00 PM   #17
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Old 10-08-2017, 09:50 PM   #18
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Have had our tailgater for a couple of years and no problems once we got it figured out.

Did you use the cable/sat connection on outside of your unit? If so, try taking the cable direct to the receiver (through a window).
The outside connection will often not work for sat. There may be a splitter in the line that sat doesn't work with.

Had an independent tech come out and rewire our connection. For the cost of a service call he got the outside connection working and our second tv working also. Didn't have to add any additional wiring but just redirect what was already there through the connection in the motorhome. It looked like if you know what you're doing it's relatively easy.
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Old 10-08-2017, 09:53 PM   #19
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When I first set up our tailgater at home, I couldn’t get all of our channels, just the pay movie channels. I had it pointed to the south was not successful. I called Dish and they re-set it twice. Finally, I was transferred to a Tailgater “expert,” who was actually just a salesman for it. Anyway, he asked me where I had placed the antenna. I had it on the back of our pickup on the bed cover. The cab of the pickup was pointing south. The cab was blocking the signal. When I turned the pickup around, it worked.

Most of the campgrounds we go to in Oregon have too many trees, so I have left the Tailgater at home the last two summers.
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Old 10-09-2017, 04:59 PM   #20
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tailgater

Check the voltage coming out of your receiver. The tailgater requires 13-18 volts at the tailgater. I had to replace a receiver that only put out 12 volts.

good luck. We have used a tailgater for several years now.
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