Dish Tailgater

[davidfrafaly]

Thinking about purchasing the Dish Tailgater. Does anyone have experience with this unit? Or other recommendations? CW has on sale for $349.99.

 

[sreigle]

We've been using it since January 2012. What we like most is we pay only for the months we want to use it. And the month begins when we pay the bill. No extra charge to restart it or stop it. Just don't pay the bill and it stops at the end of your month. Pay it when ready to start again. Does not have to be on a month boundary. For example, our current month runs out the 17th. We have good cable in this park so will not pay the bill and will let it expire. We leave here on June 1 and will restart it that day and it will then expire on July 1.

I like that I can just point the dish "generally south" and let it find the satellites (3 of them) automatically.

The bad part is that they discontinued the direct customer service line to the RV tech people. Those people still exist but you have to call the regular number and ask for an rv tech. We have the locals option so we call them when we get to a new location and give them our new service address. The non-rv techs sometimes don't understand and think you are moving your billing address and want to use their special moving package. Just ask for an rv tech support person. They understand. Not a big deal but I do with they'd go back to having a direct number for the rv techs.

The tailgater is light enough that if I need to put it on the roof of the Montana to clear obstacles I can carry it up the ladder with one hand by myself. It's a little awkward but I climb part way up and swing the tailgater on the roof and then get me the rest of the way up there. I've only done that a couple of times. Usually I can just set it on the ground.

The tailgater works only with the receiver you can buy with it or separately. VP211K I think it is. I think that's still true, anyhow. You can connect just one tv to it. I ran a separate connection for satellite and we put up the antenna or use cable for the bedroom tv.

The receiver does not have a dvr built in but it has that functionality if you connect a usb hard drive to it. You have to pay a one-time setup fee. No fees after that. Check the manual. There's a max size of usb hard drive it can handle.

We paid $439 for tailgater, receiver, 50' of coax. Retail at the time was $499. If your price includes those, it's a good price.

 

[BB_TX]

We bought one a year ago. Works great MOST of the time. Every once in a while it has a problem finding the sats and I have to go thru the reset process a couple extra times. But overall am happy with it.
We are not full timers. We have Dish at home so chose the $7/mo add on to the home account.
When we are out of our home area I just call Dish, give them the address of our current location as a new service address, and they reprogram us for the nearest local channels. Billing address does not change.

 

[Alwims-MOC]

We bought one a couple of months ago and over all we are happy with it. Keep in mind, CW has the sat dish, only, on sale. You'll need, if you don't already have it, a VIP 211, VIP 211K, or a 411 receiver. They are the only ones that will work with this dish. If you don't mind buying refurbished, I found a really good deal here. http://www.mobiledishmall.com/vmchk/PORTABLE-SATELLITE-ANTENNAS/DISH-Tailgater/flypage.tpl.html We've been thinking about ordering one as a back up and just mount the first one on the roof permanent.

Edit; I found out this week, if you have a hard drive connected to the receiver it takes about twice as long to initially find satellites. I was not happy with the whole thing as it was taking 25 mins. to setup. I unplug the hard drive and it takes about 10 mins to setup then I plug the hard drive back in.

 

[FR28footer]

We have it. Couple of issues with billing at first......didn't stop when requested. Had to go up the food chain to get the billing dropped.

If you go over 6 months without starting the service again it will cost you.

Works most of the time but you need a good clear south sky.

Wife loves it as she can watch her Seahawks on the road!!!

 

[johnp4191]

We have been happy with ours. We use it at a seasonal site. We bring the unit in each time we leave, so we have to go through set up each time. Sometime it sets up on its own and sometimes we have to call. DH is lost without his TV, so he loves it!

 

[7.3Ford]

I have 1TB USB Drive attached to my VIP211K. I can also record off-air programs on the VIP211K if needed or I can change it around so upstairs TV can watch same Dish program using the stock wiring.

This is from disk web site, so 349.99 isn't really a sale.

http://www.dish.com/technology/tv-outdoors/?WT.svl=gsearch_results

Carry our Tailgater® Portable Satellite Antenna to the park, the mountains, or the parking lot before the big game, and enjoy live HD TV wherever the fun takes you.
With Pay-As-You-Go TV, there is no contract required, so you pay only for the months you use. When the season is over, simply stop your service without penalty.
$350.00 (Tailgater Antenna only)
$499.00 (Tailgater System, includes receiver)

 

[DonandJudy_12]

We looked into aquiring a Tailgater but decided to go with a Winegard Anser because we can watch one channel while recording a second channel on our dvr- JMHO- Don

 

[sreigle]

quote:Originally posted by Bigsky3625RE

We have it. Couple of issues with billing at first......didn't stop when requested. Had to go up the food chain to get the billing dropped.

If you go over 6 months without starting the service again it will cost you.

Works most of the time but you need a good clear south sky.

Wife loves it as she can watch her Seahawks on the road!!!

Bigsky, you must have yours on automatic payments? We don't. This way we just don't pay the bill and it is stopped without us doing anything. That's what they told us to do.

There is nothing in the contract about being charged if you don't use it for more than six months. We have gone longer than six months and there was no charge for restarting and no additional fees. Do you maybe have a home Dish setup and this runs off of it? Ours is the tailgater only so maybe that's the difference.

I've been able to get the satellites even when there are trees, etc. It has to have a clear shot at the satellites, of course, but so long as there's a hole in the right place it's fine. When there are obstacles I use a website to determine the correct elevation and direction and make sure I place the tailgater where it can find that hole. The site I use is http://www.dishpointer.com/ and I select the multi-lnb Dish 1000.2. I know the multi-lnb draws a question but the satellites are the correct ones. 110, 119, 129. Lower in the list is "110W, 119W, 129W" Selecting that one works, also.

 

[davidfrafaly]

Thanks for the input. We are weekend warriors at present but starting to get some longer weekends!!! Some of our favorite campgrounds have no tv reception without satellite. Think we will add the tailgater to the experience real soon. We have dish and the compatible receiver at home now. Thanks again for comments.

 

[sreigle]

davidfrafaly, if you have a receiver already, as you noted, then that price is higher than buying directly from Dish. You should be able to beat Dish's $250 price by googling online. Good luck.

 

[jgavin65]

Our Tailgater (antenna & receiver ViP211K) arrived yesterday. I unpacked the unit, read the instructions and climbed up and put the antenna on the roof (had low angle trees); temporarily ran the feed in through the back window.

Upon power-up the system spent about 7 min acquiring the signal and getting the program guide downloaded.

The call-in for activation was a bit long (20 min) but was completed at least partially. Since we ordered the 120+ package & HD Option I would have expected that they would have turned on what was ordered. The Dish rep said it would take 30 min to get everything set. Nice idea no cigar.

I gave it an hour and then rechecked it, only partial channels. The instructions said to unplug wait 10 seconds (I gave in 60 to drain the power supply) and plug back in and let system restart. No luck.

Went to dinner came back with same results and then called support line. The Dish tech reset my receiver and in a matter of 20 minutes, it was perfect!

I'm going to be watching closely to see if the $10/mo HD option is really worth it or not.

But for now, it's working as advertised. In comparison of my old 3 headed antenna and tripod, this is a massive upgrade!

 

[BB_TX]

Hopefully now that it is all configured, activated, and working it will be easier next time.
Mine occasionally fails to find the satellites the first time I power it up at a new RV park. Was always told by the Dish rep to unplug the receiver, wait 10 seconds, then plug back in and let it cycle thru again. Sometimes it would work, sometimes I had to do it 2-3 times. But I decided to try just holding the power switch down 5-10 seconds to cause a reset instead of unplugging the receiver. When doing that it has always recycled and found the sats the first try.
Also, I though HD was always free now. We have had Dish for many years at home and I was paying for HD until I saw a Dish ad touting the new free HD offering. Went in to my account on-line and signed up for free HD and no longer get charged for it. They did not take it upon themselves to automatically drop the monthly charge. It did extend my contract, but no problem as we plan to keep it long term anyway.