Some luck...

[lumpkin666]

So, I come home today and flip on the TV.. nothing... signal strength - 0... flip some more and nothing is coming in.. whats up now?!

Nothing seems to be out of place inside, so I go out back.. WHAT THE!?!? It "appears" that the neighbor was using his tractor to do a little leaf gathering and got a bit close.. completely knocked over my 36" dish (pole folded over, and dish looks to be a bit bent), ripped out some wiring, and knocked off one of the primestar dishes.

So it looks like I'm going to have to replace at least one dish, maybe two poles (more digging and cement pouring.. yippee!), and do some rewiring... with my luck, the motor probably got knackered up and the lnb and is in the dirt now is probably damaged.. what a nice evening. And of course the neighbor is no where to be found (conveniently all of the leaves are gone up to where the damage is.. *sigh*)

 

[Wescopc]

Looks like the neighbor needs to call his homeowners insurance agent. That is really too bad, sounds like when you are setting posts you better put in some big "bumper" posts on the far side of the dishes.
Bob

 

[Anole]

Might want to take some -insurance- pictures right now.

Also, call in the police or your insurance company and file a complaint.
Maybe call a sat installer, and get a quote on what the repairs will cost.

An honest neighbor would have come to see you and apologized for the mishap, and then offered to make good on it.

 

[gpat]

I agree
mess up
fess up
dont touch anything until alot of pics are taken and someone is notified.
its basically a crime scene.

 

[lumpkin666]

I tend to agree with you guys, but the guy is an elderly retired guy, and probably oblivious to the fact that he did it. The guy has always been helpful and friendly for all the years I've lived here, so I can't imagine that he realizes that he did this and didn't come over and talk to me about it.

The real expense will be my time redoing everything, so I probably won't bother the insurance company. I just dread going through all the work to dig up the bent post(s) and,haul all of the concrete out so that I can reset a new post, etc. I guess I just wanted to vent a bit... being that there was nothing that I was going to be able to get done last night anyhow....

now it's off to Menard's to buy some new posts and more concrete... yeah!

 

[rv1pop]

without pics, it is hard to tell, but if the pipes are bent above the concrete, and maybe at the concrete, you MAY be able to cut off the posts in the bend, force a new sleave inside and weld it then drop a new post over the sleave and weld that. You may be able to chisel out and inch of cement to make the welds if the bend is at the concrete. I have repaired fences this way, a dish mount is more critical than a fence, but rewelding - rebuilding can be easier and just as, or more accurate and faster then waiting for concrete to set.

 

[GreatFTA]

If the dishs are close to his property, maybe you need to back them away from the line. That way, it won't happen again.

 

[lumpkin666]

rv1pop - I was thinking about that, but will probably just bite the bullet and redo everything. Given the equipment I have available to me, it'll be easier for me just plant another pole.

MrFTAMan - My property sits between his home and an empty lot that he owns. So he cuts through my yard .. usually no big deal, cuz he normally mows my lawn for me while I'm gone at work.. so I can't hardly complain. I'm sure he just got too close to my dishes caught then with the trailer on his tractor or something. In the grand scheme of things, I don't think it's worth worrying about.. but it sure was irritating to see the mess initially :/

 

[lumpkin666]

Update: The Primestar dish seems to have a bent arm, I'll have to work on this one. The Fortec dish (bend pole) looked okay, so I simply bent the pole back and clamped the pole to a steel fence post to give it some rigidity, then used some guywires to level things out. With very little tweaking, signal looks about 10% less than before, but I can live with that until I get things fixed more permanently.

It's a good thing that I bought a spool of cable and compression fittings/tools, 10 mins and everything is reconnected like nothing happened (except for the missing primestar). All-in-all this little disaster didn't turn out as bad as it looked

 

[GreatFTA]

I'm sure your neighbor felt really bad about the incident and just been too embarrassed to let you know about it. Accidents do happen...

 

[turbosat]

At least he didnt drive it thru your house! That would make me want to put up some of those big posts like they put around gas pumps lol.