10' Winegard struts

[colbec]

I took down a 10 foot Winegard this morning. Of the 30 or so 7/16" bolts to come off, all but 3 were rusted on and snapped off. Good location for stainless hardware.

From a distance I thought it was a Channel Master, similar FD and size, but in fact it is slightly smaller than a 10' CM and there is a Winegard label on the mount. The panels look well constructed and are intact after what must be several years of neglect. What surprised me was the flimsiness of the struts to the lnbf. These are half inch diameter struts compared to the 7/8" struts on the CM. I realize a smaller dia. strut will give less shading of the dish, but is half inch the right material for a Winegard, which after all has the reputation of a high Q dish? I am concerned that this might be a reconstructed dish with incorrect struts.

 

[gabshere]

post up a couple of pictures
the struts to the lnbf should be ok there were usually three or four working together with the scaler to form a stronger frame when used together but the main concern would be the FD. if you feel these are not the original. so you can replace with whatever you feel would be the correct length & strenth to obtain the correct FD. was the dish c band only or c/ku.
still sounds like a good dish

 

[colbec]

Here ya go, George, 3 pics for you to examine.

The more I take this thing apart the more it seems to be a strange assembly of parts. As you can see from one of the pictures, the bolt for the sloping part of the mount which allows it to hinge on the cap below passes through the frame of the part. The sloping tube is about an inch narrower than the cap assembly which receives it, and on this occasion the part was centred in the cap with a bunch of washers and other non-original (I'm pretty sure) spacers.

The post is very heavy steel with thick walls mounted in a nicely finished concrete base. However parts of the assembly don't fit with the careful original install. Something must have happened to it.

 

[gabshere]

1st picture looks normal maybe if it was all together i could see something different , it actually looks like mine & Fred has a mount like it pictured here other than the rust the dish looks good maybe a few more will jump in if they see something out of the ordinary.

 

[linuxman]

Hey colbec,

Here are a couple of pictures of my old Winegard Quadstar 10 footer right after I first brought it home.

The front side and the backside of the mount:



Hope they help you identify yours.

One of the reasons I had to get rid of mine was that the support arms and outer rim would sway in the wind and would actually move enough to lose the Ku signal altogether.

Fred

 

[DK_Sat]

Colbec,

That does not look like a Winegard 10 ft dish it looks like a dish that is made by Perfect 10


DKSat

 

[colbec]

Thanks for the pictures, Fred, very useful. I see yours was put together with plain iron bolts as well.

I noted a number of differences right off the bat...

1. The pivoting part of the mount on yours looks like it fits correctly (width-wise)
2. The design of the pivoting part is quite different from mine. Mine is more like a Channel Master design.
3. The centre disk on yours has a hole in it for FD verification. Mine does not. I don't think this one is a made up job, the square holes are there to receive the carriage bolts that hold it in place. I would imagine these have to be stamped out, I don't have a drill bit that will make square holes.
4. The struts on yours attach to the rims through the bottom edge like both my CM dishes (imagine the panel vertical), these here attach at 90 deg to that and show no sign of ever being drilled for an alternate arrangement.
Edit:
5. The ring has only 4 attachment flanges, the double wide where the two panels slide in side by side. The single wide flanges at the 45 deg angles present on the CM are missing on this ring. Fred's Winegard has the same arrangement as the CM.

However - your pics clearly show that the half inch struts are right!

I'm thinking with the mismatched parts on the mount, the wrong bolt size holding the mount together, the wrong number of spacers to keep the pivot part centred, the wobbly half inch struts, the lnb cover totally gone in some slight breeze sometime, the lack of the plastic cover over the feedhorn, this must have been a most unreliable dish in operation. I see the post cap is designed for a 3.5" post too, the caps for CM I have seen are designed for 4.5" post.

Does anyone recognize the lnbf? It has "Precision" marked on the outside but apart from that there is nothing to indicate its capabilities. It is totally unlike other C-Band lnbfs I have seen.

Colin

 

[linuxman]

I agree with Dksat.

It looks like a Perfect 10 dish and mounting ring/elevation bar.

The only thing that looks like a Winegard is the mounting cap assembly.

The winegard cap has 4 bolts for tightening to the mast. A Perfect 10 cap has 6 bolts.

I would say that a wind storm took out the original Winegard, and the owner substituted the best he could find.

Fred

 

[linuxman]

Hey Colbec,

I just thought of something. Perfect 10 had their mesh panels screwed on.

Winegard had the mesh panels slide into a groove.

It looks like your mesh panels are screwed on.

Fred

 

[colbec]

Thanks guys, your comments make a lot of sense. If a storm takes out your dish and you have invested in a 3.5" post, you will live with a mongrel arrangement that will live on a 3.5" post. It's one of the reasons why I am not inclined to do a permanent footing for my BUDs. I'd be more inclined to weight down a non-penetrating or go with guy wires/supports.

I noted another difference from Fred's Winegard, the ring on the WG is a circle of angle iron with bolts attaching the flanges to the ring. Mine is just a piece of curved iron strap, considerably weaker. I've a feeling the ring is a home made job.

Now, is grey the right colour for a Perfect 10? As far as I can tell the dish has only been painted once, grey. The panels are well built - on the back there are screws where the round supporting tubes pass through the square tubes, and where the square tubes come to a point in the centre of the dish there is a cross-piece of angled aluminum welded in to prevent the points from separating from each other. This detail and the screws on the back are missing from the CM panels. This makes the panels (whatever brand they may be) very sturdy in my eyes.

These very good panels with the lousy ring seem to indicate that somebody had a bunch of parts and put them together the best they could. When I get around to mounting my BUDs I will likely try mounting these panels on a CM mount to see if they fit, and get the best of both.

 

[linuxman]

Now, is grey the right colour for a Perfect 10? As far as I can tell the dish has only been painted once, grey. The panels are well built - on the back there are screws where the round supporting tubes pass through the square tubes, and where the square tubes come to a point in the centre of the dish there is a cross-piece of angled aluminum welded in to prevent the points from separating from each other. This detail and the screws on the back are missing from the CM panels.

Here are a couple of shots of my Perfect 10, seven and a half footer when I first got it.



See if these pictures don't match more closely with the back of your dish.

Fred

 

[chefwan]

hey

i have a perfect 10 also its up now. here is what it looks like in the back

 

[colbec]

Yep, that's it, Fred, almost down to the rust marks. Thanks for taking the trouble to post the pics. It's the first time I saw a real Perfect 10.

The Perfect 10 dish is a curious mix of goo d and bad points. I like the panels, but I still don't like the struts, but might be stuck with them to ensure that the FD is correct.

 

[linuxman]

Your 10 footer should do very well for you.

Mine is a 7.5 footer and I am currently using it for my 4DTV receiver.

When I first set it up, I wasn't too thrilled with it's performance, but after working with it for a week fine tuning especially on the focal distance, it is doing fine now.

As long as yours isn't warped, or the surface damaged too much, it should be fine.

I got a brand new still in the box mounting cap, ring, hardware, feed-horn cover, support arms, and middle plate for a Perfect 10 dish as part of a dish hunting deal I found. I don't know whether it would fit a 10 footer or not. Heck, I even got an actuator. Everything but the dish.

Altogether, it probably weighs more than 100 Lbs. Shipping would kill you, especially into Canada even if I gave it to you for the shipping costs.

See the pic:



Fred

 

[colbec]

Thanks Fred, but I think those parts should stay with you or someone more local to you. I'm sure that other parts will come my way in the fullness of time.

I'm afraid the sideways design of the Perfect 10 mount has resulted in some ovaling of the holes in the pieces here. That and the fact that the bolt is too small for the WG cap.

How do you align these sideways designs with true south anyway? It is a bit more straightforward with the CM since the polar mount is centred and should line up directly with south. Does the perfect 10 point east-west or something?

PS: I checked the CM ring against the Perfect 10 ring and the latter is several inches larger in diameter, so I am pretty sure the P10 segments / panels will not fit on a CM ring unless I drill more holes, which I am not going to do.

 

[linuxman]

How do you align these sideways designs with true south anyway? It is a bit more straightforward with the CM since the polar mount is centred and should line up directly with south. Does the perfect 10 point east-west or something?

You do it the exact same way as you do with one that is centered. It is just a little harder to line up by sight.

Fred