how much would it cost to get this disgusting pole mount fixed?

[Jim S.]

A local retailer put this dish in, I think about 10 years ago. I don't remember how long the pole was, but as you can see there's 4 feet above ground, so I'm sure there's no more than 2 feet underground, if it's even a 6-foot pole and not 5 feet. More to the point, the ground was very rocky, so he barely dug a hole wide enough for the pole and the J-mount foot he put on it to keep it from turning. I think he barely even used half a bag of cement. As a result, the pole has been leaning more and more over the years. When I start to lose signal I adjust the dish a bit. but it's now leaning in two dimensions, the hardware is getting rusty, and one bolt has even broken off somehow. I wish I had raised hell about it when it was done so I didn't have to pay to get it fixed later, but it seemed to be holding at the time. I'd like to get this fixed up properly before winter, because I don't know if it's going to survive another winter, and I really don't want to be adjusting it in the middle of winter.

 

[tjboston5676]

Dish should fix it for free if you have protection plan, just tell them you have signal loss and to make note it needs a new pole.
You could also do it yourself. The proper way would be a 7-8' pole with 3ft in the ground. A lot of times it's hard to get past 2' though but that's my personal minimum is 2'. And then you can drill holes in and insert 3" lag screws as well as hammer down the end and it will never spin. The outside diameter we use is 1-5/8". (Might be 1-7/8" I can't remember lol). I'd have them replace the whole dish too. That's a 1000.4 dish which we basically don't use anymore and it's bigger and heaver which puts more strain on the mount. Personally if it was me I'd put the pole in myself that way it has time for concrete to cure and it's done right then I'd call dish for a tech visit and the morning of tech visit I'd take a pole or bat and beat the crap out of the dish and lnb firing them to replace it because some of the techs won't replace unless absolutely necessary lol.

 

[tjboston5676]

There is also option of putting it on house if there is line of site from the house. That's always a better option because the dish is out of way, won't rust or sway, no buried cable that can be easily damaged, and just a much more secure mount.

 

[dishdude]

Dish should fix it for free if you have protection plan, just tell them you have signal loss and to make note it needs a new pole.
You could also do it yourself. The proper way would be a 7-8' pole with 3ft in the ground. A lot of times it's hard to get past 2' though but that's my personal minimum is 2'. And then you can drill holes in and insert 3" lag screws as well as hammer down the end and it will never spin. The outside diameter we use is 1-5/8". (Might be 1-7/8" I can't remember lol). I'd have them replace the whole dish too. That's a 1000.4 dish which we basically don't use anymore and it's bigger and heaver which puts more strain on the mount. Personally if it was me I'd put the pole in myself that way it has time for concrete to cure and it's done right then I'd call dish for a tech visit and the morning of tech visit I'd take a pole or bat and beat the crap out of the dish and lnb firing them to replace it because some of the techs won't replace unless absolutely necessary lol.

On my pole mounts, I would take the foot off the J mount I wasn't using and tighten it around the bottom of the pole to keep it from spinning. A lot faster and easier than drilling into the pole.

 

[tjboston5676]

On my pole mounts, I would take the foot off the J mount I wasn't using and tighten it around the bottom of the pole to keep it from spinning. A lot faster and easier than drilling into the pole.

The problem with that is unless there's a bolt going through both, over time it can still spin. It's not very likely but can still spin. My method is guaranteed 100% to never spin.

 

[Jim S.]

I don't have the protection plan, as I'm giving Dish way too much money as it is for what little I use these days. (Of course, their plans are arranged such that we need the Top 250 or whatever they call it now to get the channels we *do* watch.)

I could install a dish myself, including aiming it, but I'd rather have someone else do the work (that's how I ended up with this stupid piece of work in the first place...)

Mounting it on the house would be feasible for LOS reasons, but it's not going to happen because *someone* is paranoid about water leakage no matter how much I or anyone else point out all the other house mounts out there...

 

[Jim5506]

Fear of leakage, mount it on the eave of the roof over a rafter end and leakage won't matter.
A little silicone sealer or roof tar will satisfactorily seal the holes so water can't get in.

 

[dishdude]

I don't have the protection plan, as I'm giving Dish way too much money as it is for what little I use these days. (Of course, their plans are arranged such that we need the Top 250 or whatever they call it now to get the channels we *do* watch.)

I could install a dish myself, including aiming it, but I'd rather have someone else do the work (that's how I ended up with this stupid piece of work in the first place...)

Mounting it on the house would be feasible for LOS reasons, but it's not going to happen because *someone* is paranoid about water leakage no matter how much I or anyone else point out all the other house mounts out there...

The easiest way to get this fixed will be to call Dish and complain about signal loss and let them know the pole is leaning over. In the past they'll let you add the protection plan on, you just have to keep it for 6 months...I haven't heard that they have changed that policy. Trying to find a local guy to do this will be a lot more stressful and expensive.

 

[tjboston5676]

After 11 years of installing dish I've never once seen a properly mounted dish leak and out of the improperly mounted dishes I've only seen two leak and that was on roofs that weren't in good condition to begin with. All together that's over 10,000 dishes I've seen.

 

[NYDutch]

The cheap fix would be to re-plumb the pole and then anchor it by guying it at three points. Adding turnbuckles to each guy wire would make future re-plumbing if needed quite easy.

 

[dishdude]

The problem with that is unless there's a bolt going through both, over time it can still spin. It's not very likely but can still spin. My method is guaranteed 100% to never spin.

I'd run that long bolt that ran through the mast tightly around the pole with my drill/driver. There was no way that pole was spinning especially after it was encased in concrete. Never had a go back for the pole spinning.

 

[Bobby]

All this talk of spin. Jim S. doesn't have a spin issue, it's a lean problem. You can put all the bolts and such to prevent spin but a pole that doesn't have enough depth to anchor the top heavy dish needs a replacement.

 

[tjboston5676]

All this talk of spin. Jim S. doesn't have a spin issue, it's a lean problem. You can put all the bolts and such to prevent spin but a pole that doesn't have enough depth to anchor the top heavy dish needs a replacement.

We know that lol. It just turned into a side convo because I was explaining how to do it if he decided he wanted to put in a new pole himself.

 

[MikeD-C05]

I had to replace my pole mount a few years back - after 10 years the pole breaks off from the rust. I dug the old one up and chunked it and got a metal fence post at Lowes and a couple of bags of quickrete and put the new pole back in the hole poured the quickrete in and made sure the pole was level and plumb and sprayed it with water till it was soaked. Let it set up and within a few hours it was solid. I then put the dish back on the pole and peaked it with my $10 sat meter and locked it in. Reattached the cable to the pole with zip ties and cleaned up the excess and was watching my Satellite tv once again. Of course back then satellite TV was my hobby.

 

[jerryez]

Not changing the subject on you, but at the price of the top 250, I would take a look at the Flex pack plus any additional packs that you would need to get the programs that you watch. Might save you some monthly bucks.

 

[Jim S.]

Not changing the subject on you, but at the price of the top 250, I would take a look at the Flex pack plus any additional packs that you would need to get the programs that you watch. Might save you some monthly bucks.

If I'm not mistaken, there's no flex pack that has MTV Classic, which is the only MTV channel we watch.

The package lineups would seem to be deliberately designed to be useless if one wants anything other than the most insipid basic channels.