Question on Roof Mounts

[sidekick]

I'm in my new house and about to mount the sat dish. I really can't mount it on the chimney or the top eave due to line of sight issues. Has anyone mounted a motorized dish on a slanted roof? Note that the slant does not face due south. Thanks for any help I can get!!

 

[Mr Tony]

Mine is mounted to a sloped roof. Heck, mine is on the backside of the house (on the north side)...has worked great for 3 years now

I can't put it on the front part of the roof (even though that is almost flat) because its up too high and would need too much cable

 

[sidekick]

Have you heard any reviews of those slant roof mounts that Sadoun has?

 

[updatelee]

I just cut a hole and used a 8ft electrical mast, put it through the roof on the north side and bolted it to the outside wall. seems to be working really well.

 

[mastermesh]

I've got a soudon mount... the universal II I think... can't remember if it's the I or II that has the promise to be plumb - Whichever it is, that's the one I got. I have mine mounted on a slope facing south, but I think it should set up ok on a non-south facing slope. You'll need a drill if you don't already have one in order to mount it... also, even though it promised to be plumb, I found that after several months it started going just a tad off of plumb due to the weight of the motor and dish. It comes darn close to plumb, but since there's only 2 bolts holding up the main part and those are on a slider, I think that it tends to slide a little more than it should. I worked around that by getting it as level and plumb as possible and then adding two screws to the roof itself, one about 2-3 feet above the slope where the mount was and one about 1-2 feet just to the right of the mount (it was tending to lean to the left a and down a little - could be maybe I didn't get exact level when I put the mount in and somehow gravity was making the slider not work right?)... then I ran some copper wire through the hole in the top of the mount, down to each screw, and wrapped the wire around the screw several times... and ran the wire back and forth like that a few times to make it add just a little more tension firmness to hold the mount, that is already stable in place so that it won't slide any. Not sure if that's the best way to make darn sure it's mount or not, but seemed to work for me. If you do go with a roof mount, be sure to buy some tar to cover up the screw holes and stuff... but don't put all of that on til after you are darn sure you got everything just right and perfect, and have the full arc in as tweaked as it'll go. Otherwise things could get messy.

 

[Reinhold]

I have a slanted roof.I stuck a 10' piece of conduit thrue the roof and secured it with a floorphlange to the floor below and strapped it to the rafter just before it went thrue the roof.About 6' sticking thrue the roof.I put a 120cm dish on it with HH120 motor.Very stable.By putting on a weather cap and drilling a hole in the pipe below the roofline you can use the same conduit for your cable.
Don't forget to ground everything to your service ground.
Reinhold.

 

[sidekick]

Thanks for the feedback, I was looking at that one and the tripod model he has as well. I thought the slant of the house had to face south for the model you have?

I've got a soudon mount... the universal II I think... can't remember if it's the I or II that has the promise to be plumb - Whichever it is, that's the one I got. I have mine mounted on a slope facing south, but I think it should set up ok on a non-south facing slope. You'll need a drill if you don't already have one in order to mount it... also, even though it promised to be plumb, I found that after several months it started going just a tad off of plumb due to the weight of the motor and dish. It comes darn close to plumb, but since there's only 2 bolts holding up the main part and those are on a slider, I think that it tends to slide a little more than it should. I worked around that by getting it as level and plumb as possible and then adding two screws to the roof itself, one about 2-3 feet above the slope where the mount was and one about 1-2 feet just to the right of the mount (it was tending to lean to the left a and down a little - could be maybe I didn't get exact level when I put the mount in and somehow gravity was making the slider not work right?)... then I ran some copper wire through the hole in the top of the mount, down to each screw, and wrapped the wire around the screw several times... and ran the wire back and forth like that a few times to make it add just a little more tension firmness to hold the mount, that is already stable in place so that it won't slide any. Not sure if that's the best way to make darn sure it's mount or not, but seemed to work for me. If you do go with a roof mount, be sure to buy some tar to cover up the screw holes and stuff... but don't put all of that on til after you are darn sure you got everything just right and perfect, and have the full arc in as tweaked as it'll go. Otherwise things could get messy.

 

[sidekick]

Do you have any photos of your set-up? I'd love to see them if you do.

I have a slanted roof.I stuck a 10' piece of conduit thrue the roof and secured it with a floorphlange to the floor below and strapped it to the rafter just before it went thrue the roof.About 6' sticking thrue the roof.I put a 120cm dish on it with HH120 motor.Very stable.By putting on a weather cap and drilling a hole in the pipe below the roofline you can use the same conduit for your cable.
Don't forget to ground everything to your service ground.
Reinhold.

 

[sidekick]

Interesting idea, perhaps I could put a post up along one side of the house. The east side has a lot of high palm trees so it won't work on that side, but the other side might work. Thanks for the idea.

I just cut a hole and used a 8ft electrical mast, put it through the roof on the north side and bolted it to the outside wall. seems to be working really well.

 

[GrumpyGuy]

A pic of one of my setups, similar to Reinhold's, but with no floor flange. U-bolts clamp the pipe to the top and bottom chords of the roof truss. The pipe is also pinned to the bottom chord to prevent rotation.

 

[mastermesh]

I think with the Soudon roof mounts you are suppossed to do it on the south slope, but if you are using a motor it shouldn't really matter I would think since you are using the c-clamp to hold motor to the pole, so it shouldn't matter which way the pole's holes face as long as it's plumb.

 

[GrumpyGuy]

South slope installation is often recommended because it provides maximum clearance between the plane of the roof and the LNB. The higher the latitude and the steeper the roof pitch the higher the dish must be mounted if the LNB is to clear the roof as the dish tracks the arc ... unless it is on a south facing slope.

It's not always necessary, it's not always most practical or most aestheticlly pleasing, but it's the easiest way to ensure LNB clearance does not become an issue when using an off-the-shelf one-size-fits-all mount.

 

[updatelee]

its not every day you see a motorized dish setup and an observatory in someones back yard, nice setup

 

[sidekick]

I'm curious ... do you have the pipe going through the roof to the room below? Is it attached to a vent? How is the pipe attached to the roof. This looks really stable and I'm very interested in learning more. Thanks.

A pic of one of my setups, similar to Reinhold's, but with no floor flange. U-bolts clamp the pipe to the top and bottom chords of the roof truss. The pipe is also pinned to the bottom chord to prevent rotation.

 

[GrumpyGuy]

The pipe is 10 ft. long. It passes through a hole in the roof which is weather proofed using a piece of plastic and rubber known as a "vent sleave". Vent sleaves come in various sizes and can be found at most any building supply. The sleave must be installed correctly in relation to the shingles or it is sure to leak.

Other than where the gasket of the sleave touches the pipe, the pipe is not really attached to the roof at all. The pipe is secured to the truss by u-bolts top and bottom.

Mine is located above an attached garage. Here is a view of the bottom half of the pipe, looking up, from inside the garage.

 

[Reinhold]

Nice pics grumpy.
Mine too is above the garage on a loft I build there and is bolted to the deck of the loft.Basically the same setup
Reinhold

 

[sidekick]

Thanks for the photo. It really "is" worth a 1000 words!

The pipe is 10 ft. long. It passes through a hole in the roof which is weather proofed using a piece of plastic and rubber known as a "vent sleave". Vent sleaves come in various sizes and can be found at most any building supply. The sleave must be installed correctly in relation to the shingles or it is sure to leak.

Other than where the gasket of the sleave touches the pipe, the pipe is not really attached to the roof at all. The pipe is secured to the truss by u-bolts top and bottom.

Mine is located above an attached garage. Here is a view of the bottom half of the pipe, looking up, from inside the garage.