Winegard Pinnancle install - need advice

[glater]

Winegard Pinnacle install - need advice

I started this project about 2 weeks ago and can only work on it occasionally, because my wife & I take care of her mom (87) & dad (91) and my wife's sister just had major surgery and needs our help also. The pole has been in the ground for about 2 weeks (should have painted it gray to match the dish), also should have put in a conduit elbow before pouring concrete. But I'll have to live with that. I started putting the reflector together this morning and all went well, until I tried to put in the last panel. Unlike the picture, I had the dish flipped over trying to get that last panel to slide into place. I turned it over so I could get under it, because the center hub is where I can't get it to fit. (called my wife out to help -- not a great idea unless you're ready for some suggestions, but I needed help). We even stood the dish upright, but couldn't get the center hub to snap in. It's not bent anywhere. Is there something I'm missing? Suggestions please!!! Also, as you can see in the pictures (for Anole), I've already put the mount on the pole. Should it be put on the reflector before placing it on the pole? Thanks to Iceberg & dfergie, I've downloaded the manual from the manual section, but unless I missed something, I couldn't tell if the pole should be mounted to the reflector on the ground or like I have it. It might take me months to finish this project, but the commitments limit my time. Thanks!

 

[glater]

Ok, I went back out this evening. It's hot down here in South Texas. I loosened all of the bolts on the opposite side of the panel and eventually got the panel to fall in placed. So, I'm good with that problem, but still would like advice on whether I should put the mount on the reflector on the ground or try to get the dish up to the mount on the pole & try to align the bolt holes. Either way it's going to take a lot of grunt work and help from my friends.

 

[Lak7]

It doesn't really matter how you do it.
I would try with the mount on the pole first, just lighter.

 

[glater]

Thanks, I'm kind of leaning that way. I put that mount up there myself with the help of a step ladder. It's really heavy. The pole is only about 5 foot out of the ground, but the mount kicks it up . True south is right at 55 degrees elevation. Hope I can get to the lnb from a ladder for adjustment. The manual says that the pole should be out of the ground 44" minimum. I've thought about cutting the pole down some, maybe 48" since I'm so far south. Any thoughts?

 

[Anole]

sounds good:

Assuming there are no extenuating circumstances to putting the mount on the pole, and then the dish onto the mount, that's how I'd approach it.
It's how I took two dishes apart.
And as suggested above, then you are dealing with more but lighter sub assemblies.

You don't have to have the mount at top-dead-center when you put the dish on it.
Swinging the mount to one side, with the motor not even connected, might make putting the dish onto it easier.
Just mark the top of the dish and the top of the mount before you start.
We don't want you installing the dish sideways.

 

[glater]

I'll leave it where it is in picture 2 & tie the mount to the pole so it doesn't swing, then try to get the dish up & start a bolt. First one will be the hardest, then I would think I can swing it up to start the other bolts. No sideways mounts!! Man, glad it's not 12 foot. The hard part is yet to come --150 foot of trench for pvc & cable. A ghetto move Sadoun's 6 footer closer to the house, might have been a better option for me. But, I've started it, so I guess I'll finish it.

 

[pendragon]

My Pinnacle pole is 5.5' above ground level. There's no problem working on the feeds with a stepladder, although I usually steer it pretty far east beforehand. For the installation, I put the mount on the pole first and adjusted the elevation to the maximum. It took a couple of people to lower the dish down, nearly horizontally, while I ran around and inserted the bolts. I'm sure there are plenty of other good ways to do this.

 

[glater]

Pendragon, that'll work too. The reason I was thinking about cutting off some of the pole was just looking at the mount on the pole, it looks like, with the dish on the mount, it would be hard to get to the lnb from a 6 ft ladder because of having to reach over the edge of the dish to get to it. But glad to hear that it shouldn't be a problem. Thanks for sharing your experience with the Pinnancle.

 

[Lak7]

For easier access to the LNB, I usually drive the Dish far west.

 

[glater]

Thanks, that was my biggest concern. Now I will have to go to the store & buy stuff to grill steaks. That's the only way I can get my brother-in-laws out here to help hoist that dish up.

 

[glater]

Whoo-hoo!!! My wife and I got the dish on the mount with no outside help. She's the best helper I could ask for on any project that we undertake. I left the mount on the pole like many suggested & swung the mount against the pole and tied it off. Then, like Anole suggested rolled the dish against the mount, positioned 1 hole (didn't take as long as I thought it would), had my wife on the ladder, then I moved the dish until she could get a bolt through & start a nut. The next part was easier. I swung the dish up to the final position & she got another bolt in. The last 2 were a piece of cake. My thanks, for all of the suggestions. As always, Satelliteguys people came through again. Pics attached. By the way pole is dead on level - bad camera angle on pic2.
More good news, my Visionsat IV PVR Plus arrived in the mail today. So overall this has been a great day! Thanks again to everyone.

 

[turbosat]

Good job! Now you can start the fun stuff, like getting aligned to the arc, positioning the polarotor , etc.

 

[glater]

Thanks Turbosat, I got a long way to go, but I'll get there with help from all of the satelliteguys. The satisfaction today was almost as good as when I blind scanned 97.0w the 1st time, on my first fta system, a little more than 3 years ago and saw all of that foreign tv.

 

[AntAltMike]

Pinnacles are very deep, so you have to hit a focal length bullseye for the Ku gain to be maximized. I once was called out to service a Pinnacle that had the wrong length quad support arms installed, and had to jury-rig something to move the feedhorn two inches closer to the reflector than was possible with the feed support arms that they had used.

When you screwed the panels together, did you put a screwdriver or something in the adjacent vacant boltholes that you used as a lever to make sure that the panels were flush before you tightened each bolt? It makes a bigger difference for Ku than it does for C-band.

 

[Cadsulfide]

That is one sweet dish, I like the curb for the post mount!

A few more days and the skies are yours.

 

[glater]

Yes I used a phillips screw driver. I'm really please how the panels came together. I had a little bit of trouble with the last panel but eventually got it flush. It has a buttonhook feed that has a cband lnb on it. At this time, I don't intend to use it for ku. Speaking of the f/d the manual says that it is .278. Will the bsc-421 or the geosat pro c2 lnbf work on a deep dish like mine. I already have a bsc-421 Sorry, if it's a dumb question, but I don't have a clue about the technicals.

 

[glater]

Thanks Calsulfide, I used a lot of rebar, even put a piece through the pipe (learned that from you guys) to keep the pole from turning.