Guides
Starlink V5 Mounts: Suction, Roof Mount, or Hail Guard?
The Starlink V5 — the Version 5 residential dish that started shipping in mid-2026 — is the biggest redesign the Standard line has had. It's about a third of the old dish's weight at 2.4 lb, and thin enough that mounting it feels less like installing an appliance and more like hanging a picture frame. What hasn't changed is the decision that comes right after unboxing: where is this dish going to live?
We make three mounts for the V5, and they map to three different answers. The suction cup mount is for a dish that travels with the vehicle. The flat screw-in roof mount is for a dish with a permanent address. And the hail guard is for the permanent dish that lives somewhere the sky occasionally throws things at it.
One thing to know before you compare: the roof mount and the hail guard don't combine — both hold the dish by its four corners, so you're picking one, not stacking them. It's the same pick-one-not-both rule as the Gen 3 pair, and deciding before you order beats finding out at install time.
The suction mount: the dish that rides along
The V5 suction cup mount holds the dish against the interior glass of a sunroof, windshield, or window with four locking suction cups. The dish stays inside the cabin, out of the airflow — which is why you can leave it mounted and drive. That's the design intent, not a workaround.
The V5 makes an unusually good suction candidate. At 2.4 lb it's barely heavier than a Starlink Mini, and the mounted stack is slim: from the glass to the furthest point of mount and dish is exactly 1.75 inches, low enough to clear most sunroof shades. Measure your shade clearance before ordering if you want the shade to close — clearance varies by vehicle. The full footprint is 12.5 × 21 inches, so check that your glass has the room.
Two ASA brackets slide over the top and bottom of the dish — no snapping, no tools, no adhesive, and nothing permanent about it. The step-by-step is in our V5 sunroof install guide.
The honest limit: suction mounts are interior glass only. Not painted roofs, not exterior glass, not textured surfaces. If your V5 is destined for a rooftop, that's the next two products.
The roof mount: the permanent address
The flat screw-in roof mount is for the dish that needs to be attached and forgotten — screwed down to shingle, metal, or flat roofing on a home, RV, or van, sitting low against the roofline.
Its four numbered brackets frame a 405 × 363 mm footprint (16" × 14.3") and stand 54 mm tall — just over two inches — so the dish sits low against the roofline with natural airflow underneath to keep it cool. Each corner takes two screws through 6 mm holes, and all eight 18-8 stainless steel oval head screws (#12 × 2") come in the kit — eight fasteners across four corners is deliberate redundancy for a mount meant to sit in wind.
It installs on shingle, metal, and flat roofs — home, RV, or van. Two install notes matter more than the rest: run a flexible sealant (something like Pro Flex RV sealant) under and around every mounting point, and don't over-tighten the screws.
Choose it when your weather is the kind the dish already handles — rain, snow, heat, UV. The V5's housing is built for all of that. What no dish is built for is impact, and a screwed-down dish is a dish you can't bring inside ahead of a storm.
The hail guard: armor for hail country
The V5 hail guard starts from a different premise: your dish sits somewhere the sky takes shots at it, and something else should take the hit.
That something is a 406 × 328 mm (16" × 12.9") shield of 4.5 mm polycarbonate — the material family sold under the Lexan® name, and half again the thickness of the 3 mm shield on our Mini enclosure. A 3 mm air gap keeps air moving between the dish face and the shield. The frame is four UV-resistant ASA corner brackets, and the split of materials is the point: the frame's job is surviving years of sun, the shield's job is surviving seconds of hail. (Why each material earned its spot is covered in UV Protection for Outdoor Starlink Mounts.)
Assembled, the enclosure stands 42.7 mm — under 1.7 inches — and the dish goes in and out through two corner pieces and six screws. All twelve included M4 screws thread into brass heat-set inserts rather than into the plastic itself, so seasonal assembly cycles don't wear anything out.
The shield is deliberately the wear part. After a serious storm, look the polycarbonate over; if it's cracked or chewed up, a replacement shield swaps in with a Phillips screwdriver and the frame keeps working. The who-needs-it checklist in our Mini hail guard guide applies to the V5 unchanged — the geography does the deciding, not the dish.
Pick by where the dish lives
| Suction mount | Roof mount | Hail guard | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | Interior glass mount, four locking suction cups | Screw-down brackets, low profile | Enclosure behind a 4.5 mm polycarbonate shield |
| Best for | A dish that travels with the vehicle | Permanent installs where impacts are rare | Permanent spots where hail or falling debris is real |
| The catch | Interior glass only — it's not a roof product | No impact protection, and the guard can't be added on top | Can't be combined with the roof mount |
The short version
If your V5 rides with the vehicle, take the suction mount and keep your roof unmodified. If it's going on a roof where the sky mostly behaves, take the roof mount. If hail where you live is an annual event, take the hail guard and let the shield do the aging. Just pick before you order — the roof mount and the hail guard share a dish, not an installation.
Like everything we make, all three are designed and printed in-house just outside Atlanta, Georgia — made in the USA in UV-resistant ASA, in any of 18 colors, printed in 1–3 business days with 3–5 business days domestic shipping. We ship worldwide.
