Author Topic: Replace Winegard, a DIY Job?  (Read 3767 times)

Bruce Sieloff

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Replace Winegard, a DIY Job?
« on: January 30, 2019, 02:12:52 AM »
Had a power interruption to the Winegard Traveler SK-SWM3, two months out of warranty, and it gives me an Elevation error which means that it no longer works as required, apparently in consultation with Winegard the turret elevation motor has malfunctioned. It will stow itself but won't depress to find the satellites. Diagnostics to date point to the need to replace the motor, corrosion apparently a common problem. Would you consider this a simple DIY job to R&R the motor, sourced from Winegard with a two year warranty? Or do I bite the bullet and have an installer do the job? :-\

Steve Huber Co-Admin

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Re: Replace Winegard, a DIY Job?
« Reply #1 on: January 30, 2019, 02:47:05 AM »
Bruce,
I replaced a motor on a Winegard dome unit a number of years ago Winegard supplied me with good instructions and a number to call a tech if needed. I called and he as very helpful.
Steve
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Bruce Sieloff

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Re: Replace Winegard, a DIY Job?
« Reply #2 on: February 03, 2019, 05:07:05 AM »
Replacement of the turret motor looks straight forward and probably not that infrequent since Winegard has a service bulletin telling you how. Does anyone know if the dish can be mounted on a tripod, I see single horn dishes all the time on the ground, so we can retain our service while we wait for a new motor?

Gerald Farris

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Re: Replace Winegard, a DIY Job?
« Reply #3 on: February 03, 2019, 03:02:44 PM »
Bruce,
Although it is probably possible to take your Winegard dish apart and convert it to a ground mounted tripod, it is not practical. Your Winegard has no mounting adjustments like the ones necessary for a tripod mount, so you would have to have a tripod, and virtually all of the ground mounting system except the LMBs to make it work.

Gerald 

Jim Edwards

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Re: Replace Winegard, a DIY Job?
« Reply #4 on: February 04, 2019, 02:28:53 PM »
Yes for me it was a dyi Job. Most difficult part was getting the turret on and off the roof. It did not take long for Wingard to get it to me. If you are in a hurry I might suggest a G2+ carryout. We travel with one for the times trees are in the way for the traveler.(one must watch their sports)  As a foot note the tripod mounted HD antennas are a bit harder to aim than the standard def units. Standard def requires azimuth and zenith adjustment. HD, in addition, requires skew adjustment. Just a thought.
Jim Edwards
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Bruce Sieloff

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Re: Replace Winegard, a DIY Job?
« Reply #5 on: February 05, 2019, 08:09:33 AM »
Removed and shipped off the turret motor today, it took maybe an hour and a half, what with running up and down the ladder to get tools I forgot/needed. Should be a quick reinstall, I'm hoping the turret is a dumb unit and takes all the instructions from the magic box. I may need to set the whole thing up again because I unplugged the transmitter as directed. I would still like to get a tripod unit for those times we are in the trees and need to get reception through the one clear spot two sites over... I will have to do some research and see if I can just plug a coax run into the existing feed, either through the turret or some other splitter. According to Winegard it should be 2 and a half to three weeks turnaround time. Yeah Roku.

Stan Simpson

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Re: Replace Winegard, a DIY Job?
« Reply #6 on: February 05, 2019, 07:19:57 PM »
I would still like to get a tripod unit for those times we are in the trees and need to get reception through the one clear spot two sites over...

Bruce,
We have a Winegard Trav'ler with DISH Network. There is an app that helps you see if you will get satellite at your site. Its available at the App Store or Google Play. The name is SAToolzDISH, and I'm sure there is a similar one for DirecTV. When the campground assigns the site, we go there and just open the app on the phone and point it south-southwest. It will show you where the satellites are in the sky based on where you are pointing the phone. I stand in the site at the approximate place where our dish is on the roof, and if they line up, we're good. If anything is in the way, it will show.
« Last Edit: February 05, 2019, 08:03:19 PM by Stan Simpson »
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Bruce Sieloff

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Re: Replace Winegard, a DIY Job?
« Reply #7 on: February 06, 2019, 08:05:14 PM »
Stan, I have used a similar app for DTV when I had a carry out unit. Winegard verifies that no tripod or conversion mount is available for their Trav'ler dish. Apparently that is a niche waiting to be filled by someone with a 3D printer. How hard could it be?

Dwight Lakusta

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Re: Replace Winegard, a DIY Job?
« Reply #8 on: February 21, 2019, 02:13:46 AM »
I did my own, used the existing satellite cable, the existing 12 volt wiring, and even kept the same unit inside.  Just new lag bolts through the roof and lots of proflex/lap sealant over the mounting holes! was fairly easy!

Bruce Sieloff

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Re: Replace Winegard, a DIY Job? You bet!
« Reply #9 on: February 21, 2019, 11:57:01 PM »
Motor replaced and Sat is working! Winegard stepped up and honored the repair as a warranty item even though we were a whole two months out of warranty and shipped it back on their dime. Much appreciated Winegard! Cost me $215 to get it to them but that beats the $1030 for a new motor. The install was easy, if you can turn a socket wrench and took pictures as you disassembled, it was a one hour job to reinstall. I did put a thin coat of white lithium grease (it was on hand) on the toothed gear and mechanism that turns the Sat as it looked to come with none at all (I assume they put a coat of dry lube on the mech at the factory but I'm taking no chances at this point). It took the Sat about twenty minutes to decide it wasn't a toaster and find the right direction to point the boom but it eventually connected on its own with no further input required from me. I was glad to avoid a lenghty session of phone support to get everything pointed correctly again. I'm going to call this a win. 8)