Square Ladder & Starlink Gen 3

[EB1959]

Our Gen 2 Starlink worked fine for the past 4 years. Our 2025 30BH has the stupid square tube ladder and we bought the Flag Pole Buddy adapter for it. About 2 weeks ago, our Gen 2 started acting strange by trying to point straight UP and couldn't connect to any satellite. Tech support told us the gen 2's can't work well with the added sats in space, so they gave us for free, a "refurb" Gen 3 Standard 4 system.

Waited till we knew it worked ok before we bought the gen 3 adapter from FPB. Got the new adapter, got it all rigged up, put it up on the pole and set it into the mounts. Soon as the system connected, I turned the pole/dish to point the right way, and it said the "TILT" was off. Now, I am VERY fussy with leveling our rig, and it's in our yard, LEVEL 100%.

I was baffled as to why the tilt is so far off. I pulled the pole out of the bottom bracket, and set it on the edge and the TILT was corrected.


So I had to figure out why and I put a level on the ladder. Side to side, front to back, and the LADDER it self was OFF front to back, as if the horizontal brackets attached to the trailer were of different lengths. The ladder was off just enough, like 6 degrees, to throw off the tilt on the dish, which only has a 5 degree margin of error. Yes, that 1 degree was enough to cause a poorer signal.

Solution: On the flag pole buddy lower mount, you can adjust the "tilt" by losing up the screw, and moving forward or backward and locking in the next set of teeth.


This fixed my issue. So, when at a camp site and we are off level just a bit (never ) I can adjust this again provided we're also facing a decent direction.
Using my yard isn't the perfect test but it did give me the means of fixing the ladder being off that much.

With a ROUND tube ladder, like you normally find on other RV's, this isn't as much of a problem as you can simply loosen the mount screws enough to rotate the bottom mount to get the tilt right.



I might add that Flag Pole Buddy carries the pole brackets for round or square tube ladders.
Hope this might help someone who falls into this issue.

 

[Oregon_Camper]

Do you use your Flagpole buddy on every trip? I have one and have used it maybe...2-3 times over that last 4 years. It is so easy to just put the starlink on the ground and use app to line it up. If you camp in areas with tree limbs over the RV, moving the starlink away from RV to find clear line of site is key.

 

[Lantley]

Do you use your Flagpole buddy on every trip? I have one and have used it maybe...2-3 times over that last 4 years. It is so easy to just put the starlink on the ground and use app to line it up. If you camp in areas with tree limbs over the RV, moving the starlink away from RV to find clear line of site is key.

In the RV world often keeping it simple is the best approach. I have found that the best solution is the one that requires no set up or break down.
I don't have starlink but I do have T-Mobile wireless internet router.
Amazingly it works everywhere I camp.
I'm not claiming it works world wide like starlink. But it works wherever I camp. I don't camp in what I consider remote areas, but I do camp in rural areas. T mobile follows me wherever I go.
Starlink has come a long way since its introduction, I thought I saw an ad for $50.00 a month plans (not sure of the details).
Being able to just sit the unit on the ground is a huge plus vs. setting up a pole or anything else

 

[Oregon_Camper]

.....I thought I saw an ad for $50.00 a month plans (not sure of the details).

Yep...$50 per month for 100gb

 

[Socal-Paul]

Recently attached a 1 1/2" x 20" ABS with the bottom caped using hose clamps to the ladder. I go up the ladder and slip the antenna which is attached to a 1" electrical conduit. Then I point it north and wedge it in with one side of a wooden close pin. I haven't had to adjust every time but when I do it isn't more than a little twist. I do have a small step ladder that takes me up almost as far as need be and realize not everyone wants to make a trip up a ladder. I thank you for bringing this to my attention and hope this old brain will remember if the ever is a problem.