Doubly extended Airport network has become unstable

I have an ethernet-wired Airport Extreme generating a wireless network, extended twice by Airport Express units, with a TiVo wireless adapter getting feed from the 2nd AXpress. TiVo is located about 120' from AXtreme; that's the full length of the network. TiVo currently is receiving an IP address most of the time but is not receiving TiVo information, reporting "Gateway not found" (it has connected reliably in the past). All the Apple equipment is glowing green, both on the equipment itself and on the Airport Utility. All AX are running v7.6.3, my OS is 10.6.8 on a 2008 Mac Pro.
All stations are n-capable. AXtreme is currently set up to "Create a wireless network"; "Allow this network to be extended" is checked, Wireless security is WPA2 Personal.
Relay AXpress is set up to "Extend a wireless network." Should it be "Join a wireless network" or "Participate in a WDS network" instead? "Allow wireless clients" is checked. Security is WPA/WPA2 Personal.
Remote AXpress is set up identically to Relay; should it be different?

I have an ethernet-wired Airport Extreme generating a wireless network, extended twice by Airport Express units, with a TiVo wireless adapter getting feed from the 2nd AXpress.
You cannot extend twice. Apple's "extend a wireless network" function works like the hub and spokes of a wheel.
Your AirPort Extreme is the "hub" and each AirPort Express resides at the end of a "spoke".  The devices at the end of a "spoke" communicate directly to the "hub".....not to another device at the end of another "spoke".
You can have multiple devices extending, but each one resides at the end of a separate spoke, since it must communicate directly to the hub.
In your case, the 2nd  AirPort Express cannot "extend", but it can "join" the network. It provides no additional wireless coverage when it joins, but the Ethernet port is enabled if you clicked that option in AirPort Utility. 
The Express that is "joining" is going to have a tough time unless it is quite close the 1st AirPort Express so that it can get a good signal. If you think about it, you will realize that the wireless signal has to make two separate "hops" to get to the 2nd AirPort Express. Not good.
If you want the 2nd AirPort Express to "extend" the network, it must be physically located closer to the AirPort Exteme than it is to the 1st AirPort Express.
Never use the WDS option, (which Apple tries to hide for good reason) as it only operates at slower "g" wireless speeds and each relay or remote on the network cuts the bandwidth on the entire network in half. So, with a base station, relay and remote in a WDS setup, your network runs at about 14 Mbps.  That's about where wireless "b" operates....very, very slow....about 10 times slower than a basic "n" network.

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