New Upgrade Setup Question

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cohenri

Well-Known SatelliteGuys Member
Original poster
Feb 7, 2006
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I currently have an HD setup with the "old" dish and the HR10-250. Due to numerous trees in my area, my dish is mounted on a pole in order to get the HD signal. Last weekend I was scheduled to get the upgraded dish and the new HD-DVR. The installer came by and told me that the new larger dish cannot be mounted on a pole and that if he mounts the dish directly on my roof that I will not get a signal. He said that the dish would need to be mounted on a custom tripod mount because if it is mounted on a single pole it will tear my roof off.

He also told me that Direct TV will not provide me with such a mount. He told me to postpone my appointment due to the obstruction and tell Direct TV that I would have the trees trimmed. Then he offerred to build me the mount himself for $200 and install the dish. When the new service man comes back, the new dish would already be installed and on the new mount and he would only have to install the box in the house.

This seems kind of shady. Is $200 reasonable for a tripod mount? Do I have any other options? Will Direct TV do anything for me here? Direct TV had agreed to a free upgrade and installation of the new dish and the new box. This $200 custom charge is surprising, but if it is necessary, I guess I would pay it. Any advice?
 
I currently have an HD setup with the "old" dish and the HR10-250. Due to numerous trees in my area, my dish is mounted on a pole in order to get the HD signal. Last weekend I was scheduled to get the upgraded dish and the new HD-DVR. The installer came by and told me that the new larger dish cannot be mounted on a pole and that if he mounts the dish directly on my roof that I will not get a signal. He said that the dish would need to be mounted on a custom tripod mount because if it is mounted on a single pole it will tear my roof off.

He also told me that Direct TV will not provide me with such a mount. He told me to postpone my appointment due to the obstruction and tell Direct TV that I would have the trees trimmed. Then he offerred to build me the mount himself for $200 and install the dish. When the new service man comes back, the new dish would already be installed and on the new mount and he would only have to install the box in the house.

This seems kind of shady. Is $200 reasonable for a tripod mount? Do I have any other options? Will Direct TV do anything for me here? Direct TV had agreed to a free upgrade and installation of the new dish and the new box. This $200 custom charge is surprising, but if it is necessary, I guess I would pay it. Any advice?

Just install a 2" pole where the other one is and mount the new dish there.
 
Just install a 2" pole where the other one is and mount the new dish there.


Thanks for your response, but this does not seem realistic. If you are talking about a 2 inch pole, it will likely not be high enough to get the signal. If you are talking about a 2 FOOT pole, won't it cause a problem with the size of the new dish pulling off my roof?
 
I think the Raoul was talking about installing a 2" diameter pole.


Thanks for the response. I believe the current dish is mounted with a 2 inch diameter pole, but the new dish is much bigger and it will be on my roof, but it needs to be elevated a couple of feet from the normal height of the stand due to my tree line. My installer said that due to this, it would not work on my roof. If you are saying that the guy is full of c*** and that I should not listen to him, that's fine. I'd like to save the $200. But, that is not the response I have gotten from your collegues at DBS talk where I made this same post.
 
Thanks for the response. I believe the current dish is mounted with a 2 inch diameter pole, but the new dish is much bigger and it will be on my roof, but it needs to be elevated a couple of feet from the normal height of the stand due to my tree line. My installer said that due to this, it would not work on my roof. If you are saying that the guy is full of c*** and that I should not listen to him, that's fine. I'd like to save the $200. But, that is not the response I have gotten from your collegues at DBS talk where I made this same post.

I think he's full of BS., trying to make money off you.

Where is the current dish located, it works fine, it is on a pole did you say, on the ground ?
There is NO REASON your new dish HAS to be on the roof, unless you want the worry of potential leaks.
He most definatly CAN mount the dish on a 2" OD pole.
I planted a 16" 2"OD schedule 40 (thick wall) (don't get sch 20 thin wall),placed a bolt thru the bottom so it would never turn, I buried 30" in concrete made sure it was level, made sure it was solid, supported it to the house, it sits 4 ft above the roof line.
When the guy can out to mount the dish, he was thrilled, nice easy job.
If you have a good LOS location and want it on the ground, you can have that done.
I would not want mine on the roof because I'm in a weather related area and don't want to have to get on the roof when too much snow builds up on it, with mine I can go out and smack the pole and usually clear the snow.

But, YES you can have it on the ground if you have a clear LOS.

Jimbo
 
Thanks for the response. I believe the current dish is mounted with a 2 inch diameter pole, but the new dish is much bigger and it will be on my roof, but it needs to be elevated a couple of feet from the normal height of the stand due to my tree line. My installer said that due to this, it would not work on my roof. If you are saying that the guy is full of c*** and that I should not listen to him, that's fine. I'd like to save the $200. But, that is not the response I have gotten from your collegues at DBS talk where I made this same post.

The original posts were 1 5/8", the new dishes need a 2" one.
 
Thanks for the response. I believe the current dish is mounted with a 2 inch diameter pole, but the new dish is much bigger and it will be on my roof, but it needs to be elevated a couple of feet from the normal height of the stand due to my tree line. My installer said that due to this, it would not work on my roof. If you are saying that the guy is full of c*** and that I should not listen to him, that's fine. I'd like to save the $200. But, that is not the response I have gotten from your collegues at DBS talk where I made this same post.

Let's go back to square one. Where is your current dish? If it's on the ground, just do what I suggested earlier with a new 2" pole. If it's a tripod roof mount, then that changes EVERYTHING! There are tripods that a 2" pole will fit in, but they are not cheap. Check the links that are on dbstalk.com from your other post. The new dishes are bigger enough that you can't go real high above the tripod without using guy wires due to the potential wind loads. Let us know what is going on. Good luck! BTW, the best way to mount the new dishes is with a pole in the ground.
 
I think he's full of BS., trying to make money off you.
+1
I planted a 16" 2"OD schedule 40 (thick wall) (don't get sch 20 thin wall),placed a bolt thru the bottom so it would never turn, I buried 30" in concrete made sure it was level, made sure it was solid, supported it to the house, it sits 4 ft above the roof line.
Schedule 40 is "standard" wall thickness. Schedule 80 is "heavy" wall. Schedules 20 and 30 don't usually show up until you get to 8" or larger pipe. Pipe OD remains constant for a particular pipe size. 1-1/2" pipe is pretty close to the 2" OD, but you can often go cheaper by buying fence post tubing. The wall thickness requirements are based almost entirely on how tall the mount needs to be with a factor wind loading.

I cannot recommend using adapters, but you could certainly use one to test the suitability of a pole in place of or near the existing one.
 
Thanks everyone for your responses. Since I am in a heavily wooded area, I can't get a signal if I do not put the dish on my roof. In addition, with my current dish, it was put on a pole on the roof to raise it a couple of feet (not 10) so that it's line of sight was over the tree line. Therefore, my current dish is at the highest point of the roof of my two story house and it is a couple of feet above that because it is on a pole. The installer said that the new dish will not work on the current pole and that he would recommend a tripod to hold the new dish in the same line of sight area as the current dish.

I am not the most handy of people and I am definitely not comfortable on my roof. I made this post merely to ask if this guy is trying to rip me off with the $200 tripod or if Direct TV would supply a suitable pole or Tripod for this use without a charge or with a lower charge. I am not going to do this on my own - so my choices are either to pay this guy or find out if there is another way to get the new dish to work.

Could I simply have the installer substitute a 2" diameter pole for the current pole and mount it directly on the roof without a tripod?
 
Thanks everyone for your responses. Since I am in a heavily wooded area, I can't get a signal if I do not put the dish on my roof. In addition, with my current dish, it was put on a pole on the roof to raise it a couple of feet (not 10) so that it's line of sight was over the tree line. Therefore, my current dish is at the highest point of the roof of my two story house and it is a couple of feet above that because it is on a pole. The installer said that the new dish will not work on the current pole and that he would recommend a tripod to hold the new dish in the same line of sight area as the current dish.

I am not the most handy of people and I am definitely not comfortable on my roof. I made this post merely to ask if this guy is trying to rip me off with the $200 tripod or if Direct TV would supply a suitable pole or Tripod for this use without a charge or with a lower charge. I am not going to do this on my own - so my choices are either to pay this guy or find out if there is another way to get the new dish to work.

Could I simply have the installer substitute a 2" diameter pole for the current pole and mount it directly on the roof without a tripod?

My buddy was in the same situation,
They ended up running the line out to the dish at the end of the property line when there was no LOS issue, looking over the neighbors yard.
Is this possible ?
He ran his probably 150 feet into the house.

Jimbo
 

Jimbo/Raoul - thanks a bunch for your quick responses. There are unfortunately no options on my property to run a line and mount the dish on the ground. I am in a rather forested area and the only way I have found to get LOS to the satellites is a couple of feet above the top point on the roof pointing the dish in a space through a couple of trees.

I think what I am hearing is that if I need to mount it on the roof, I should probably buck up and get a tripod to make sure it doesn't blow over and tear off my roof. AND, it will be on my own dime. I just wanted to make sure that this guy wasn't trying to scam me when Direct TV would cover these kinds of custom situations - but it seems like I am out of luck and that's fine. $200 won't break the bank for me, I just wanted to make sure he wasn't taking me for a ride.

Thanks again fellas.
 
In that case, it sounds like the installer was correct. You won't be able to substitute a 2" pole for your current one without some method of bracing it correctly. The 5 LNB dish is subject to much more wind loading than the current dish, and an unsupported pole in that situation will cause intermittent loss of signal as it flexes in the wind.
 
Jimbo/Raoul - thanks a bunch for your quick responses. There are unfortunately no options on my property to run a line and mount the dish on the ground. I am in a rather forested area and the only way I have found to get LOS to the satellites is a couple of feet above the top point on the roof pointing the dish in a space through a couple of trees.

I think what I am hearing is that if I need to mount it on the roof, I should probably buck up and get a tripod to make sure it doesn't blow over and tear off my roof. AND, it will be on my own dime. I just wanted to make sure that this guy wasn't trying to scam me when Direct TV would cover these kinds of custom situations - but it seems like I am out of luck and that's fine. $200 won't break the bank for me, I just wanted to make sure he wasn't taking me for a ride.

Thanks again fellas.

$200 seems a bit steep, but he may be using a more expensive tripod. I had a similar install done with a less expensive tripod. It ran about $150. It is definitely a custom job, not standard at all.
 
Jimbo/Raoul - thanks a bunch for your quick responses. There are unfortunately no options on my property to run a line and mount the dish on the ground. I am in a rather forested area and the only way I have found to get LOS to the satellites is a couple of feet above the top point on the roof pointing the dish in a space through a couple of trees.

I think what I am hearing is that if I need to mount it on the roof, I should probably buck up and get a tripod to make sure it doesn't blow over and tear off my roof. AND, it will be on my own dime. I just wanted to make sure that this guy wasn't trying to scam me when Direct TV would cover these kinds of custom situations - but it seems like I am out of luck and that's fine. $200 won't break the bank for me, I just wanted to make sure he wasn't taking me for a ride.

Thanks again fellas.

What about planting the pole like I did and support it to the house, this could possibly keep it off your roof .
 
What about planting the pole like I did and support it to the house, this could possibly keep it off your roof .

I'm not sure what you mean. But, the installer came out last weekend and installed the tripod on the roof with the new dish. The new dish IS really much bigger than the old one. the Tripod is pretty huge and ugly up on the roof, but it looks sturdy and I am getting a signal from all of the satellites. Thanks again everyone for your advice. Happy New Year!!
 
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