Main TV on a 3011DS.

[ETF]

I'm the proud new owner of a 3011 DS. It's our first MH after years in a 5th wheel.

I'm rigging it up for our first trip and I'm having a problem with the main TV in the living area. I need to be able to rig up the Wingard Carryout satellite but the way things are configured makes it very difficult if not impossible. The easy way would be to bring the satellite feed in to the back of the selector box but Forester, in their wisdom, built the box in to it's own little compartment under the the TV. When I say built in I mean built in. There is no way to get the box out to gain access to the back without breaking or dismantling the box. I could wire it straight to the HDMI slot on the TV but to do that I have to remove the TV from the wall. It seems to be mounted on a fixed bracket but there is only 1" of space around the TV. Not nearly enough to get your hand in there to unlock the latch that holds the TV in place in the bracket. I've pulled, jiggled and twisted but nothing seems to work so it's not on any sort of "arm" like the exterior TV.

This has to be problem that others have encountered and hopefully solved. I'd be grateful for any help or suggestions. How do you get the TV off the wall without ripping stuff apart.

[wesslvm]

Originally Posted by ETF

I'm the proud new owner of a 3011 DS. It's our first MH after years in a 5th wheel.

I'm rigging it up for our first trip and I'm having a problem with the main TV in the living area. I need to be able to rig up the Wingard Carryout satellite but the way things are configured makes it very difficult if not impossible. The easy way would be to bring the satellite feed in to the back of the selector box but Forester, in their wisdom, built the box in to it's own little compartment under the the TV. When I say built in I mean built in. There is no way to get the box out to gain access to the back without breaking or dismantling the box. I could wire it straight to the HDMI slot on the TV but to do that I have to remove the TV from the wall. It seems to be mounted on a fixed bracket but there is only 1" of space around the TV. Not nearly enough to get your hand in there to unlock the latch that holds the TV in place in the bracket. I've pulled, jiggled and twisted but nothing seems to work so it's not on any sort of "arm" like the exterior TV.

This has to be problem that others have encountered and hopefully solved. I'd be grateful for any help or suggestions. How do you get the TV off the wall without ripping stuff apart.

I've seen pics of this model for sale with the tv removed. Looks like eye hook type mount to me. Should just lift up and then out. That is my guess.

Wes

[ETF]

Nope, that won't work, tried it.

I did a search before I posted the query and found that many people had the same problem but there is such a variety of mounts used, they seem to change every few months, that most of the answers were of little use.

I did reach up both sides from the bottom and could just barely touch what felt like 2 rubber covered screw type nuts on what might be threaded legs braced against the wall. I think that their purpose might be to stop the TV from rattling going down the road. Unfortunately, it's physically impossible to get my hand far enough up the back of the TV to turn them. I'm just going to have to leave the TV on the wall and think of something else.

As an engineer I can say this without fear of rebuttal but whoever designed this horrible piece of crap should be taken out and shot or at least forced to mount and remove the TV 10 times a day for the rest of his life. I have never seen anything so unworkable in my life. It's obvious that whoever designed this never had to use it.

[bclemens]

The TV does in fact lift up and off. The rubber feet keep the TV from bouncing, which is also what is keeping it from sliding up and out of the bracket. I'll go see if I can get a picture of one today.

[ETF]

Thank you. I was hoping that you'd come on and reply. A picture would be great. I'll be able to see what I'm supposed to be looking at. Maybe my wife can get her hand far enough up the back to back-off those feet but I sure as heck can't and I'm sure that many, many other people can't either.

I appreciate what Forest River is trying to do, stop the rattling and secure the TV, but maybe it's time for a rethink. Nothing should be made this difficult.

[bclemens]

In years past, 90% of the buyers never planned on doing anything more with their TV's. Plus the comment is always "You're camping, why do you need a TV?". So there has not been a ton of effort to make them easy to work on...main focus has been "stay where we put you, don't rattle and don't fly away"

As an avid college football fan and A/V nut, I understand your frustration. When I first went to HD my wife was like "what's the big deal, I don't notice any difference". me "What? are you blind?".

Soooo, we're working on making them easier to access, but the RV supply side is also way behind the times in HD technology and support hardware.

[bclemens]

Here is a shot of the H-bracket.

There are nylon feet that mount to the TV, which in turn slide into these (4) holes. In the 2nd picture, you can see how the back is machined. There is a slight ridge (to keep the TV from hopping back out) so you sort of need to "bump" the TV up and past that ridge. Then it will slide up freely.

Wiring directly into the TV will get you the best picture. You can always run out a 2nd connection into the switch box, but then it converts the signal to analog

[ETF]

Thank you sir. Now I can see what I should be looking at and doing.

It's not that I mean to be totally negative but as a retired lifelong engineer when you run into something like this your natural instinct is to say, "OK, this isn't working too well, how can we make it better?".

Actually today, my wife with her smaller hands managed to get her hand up the back of the TV and insert the HDMI cable in one of the slots after about a dozen attempts. So, in effect, I really don't need to take the TV off the wall but you know how that goes, it's still going to come off. It's a guy thing. but I'll need female help. I'll have to get her to back off those rubber feet so I can get enough wiggle room to get it off.

Can't get in to the switch box as it's totally enclosed and can't be removed without physically breaking apart the small cabinet that contains it and I don't want to start doing that on a brand new MH. I'll maybe save that one for later.

Once again, thank you for your help. It's been invaluable.

[MikeRP]

I have worked in a bunch of AV equipment in enclosed cabinetry before. I'll check out my 3010 and see if i can get a solution or access to the rear.

They way FR does this tying stuff into the radio, long term this will need to get modified probably with AC Tv's, different electronics.

[Claude C]

To the fact. Rep., I have about the same problem with my 2013 3011DS, I tried to connect my satellite in the main cable line and nothing is working. Do I have to made a special connection, I don't want to run an other cable, there surely is something to do ??? Thanks.

[bclemens]

You can't run the Satellite through the switch box...it is powered and for some reason that does not like Satellite signals. We have Winegard looking into this.

Depends on your set up...but if you hook into the park cable...you need to disconnect the "from antenna" coax line and hook that directly into the receiver. Then you can run a feed from the receiver into the switch box to watch it on multiple TV's. Again, it depends on your setup on how I would run it.

ETF...personally I wouldn't run anything through the switch box anyway...not unless it was an HD switch box. I've been watching HD for way to long to turn back now.

[Claude C]

Excellent tanks !!!

[ETF]

Originally Posted by bclemens

ETF...personally I wouldn't run anything through the switch box anyway...not unless it was an HD switch box. I've been watching HD for way to long to turn back now.

I think that you're right and I've decided to take your advice. I'll get a couple of DVD players for the living area and bedroom and connect the satellite control box directly to the TV.

The ironic thing about this is that I very seldom watch any TV while we're camping. My wife however, has certain shows that she "just can't miss". You know what they say, "If momma ain't happy ........".

[drreimer]

We finally got the TV off the wall of our 3010. I could screw the rubber feet in by putting both hands behind the TV and pushing up on one side of the foot while dragging down on the other side (of course the lock nut needs to be backed way off so you can screw the feet in). Then we just had to have the confidence to push up hard on the TV and it did lift out. Then we discovered what the problem was. For some reason the installer put two of those lock washers between the nylon stud bushing instead of one. That meant they had to loosen the screws that hold the nylon stud bushing. Then in the process of installing it, they only engaged the upper set of studs and used the rubber feet to wedge the TV and take of the slack caused by the lower studs not being engaged. To reinstall we removed one of the lock washers (between the nylon bushing and the TV which allowed us to tighten the stud screws. The TV slides on and off easily now and the rubber feet need to be screwed out only a little to put "anti-rattle" pressure against the TV. Maybe some others we installed the same way.

[dklane012]

Originally Posted by bclemens

ETF...personally I wouldn't run anything through the switch box anyway...not unless it was an HD switch box. I've been watching HD for way to long to turn back now.

Totally agree. Just picked up my 3170DS today - went through the systems with the dealer - the TVs seem to be the least understood - most people just want the camping experience, but with a ton of kids and fall football tailgating planned I want to do some more research on this part of the rig.

One thing that would be great for this is to use conduit to the mount points - then I could just tie an HDMI cable to the coax, yank and convert. Or, for really easy cut to length solutions, check out Cat5e/6 HDMI solutions, sound options, etc. - LeGrand's OnQ brand does a lot in this area - mainly DC power transmitted from a central box, too. Cat5/6 will get you MUCH better quality than RG6 and be all digital. May have to revamp my rig with this eventually.

[osgood]

Let me start by saying "I Love my SunSeeker", but I am very disappointed with the AV quality. "Its 2013... WTF".

I did disassemble the AV system just to see how it was hooked up as I wanted to add my sat receiver to the mix.

1. Removed the TV from the mount "Draw in the rubber feet to releve the pressure".

2. Removed the small piece of trim in front of the switch box "I found a nice filler at Lowes to touch up the staple holes after the reinstall".

3. There are 2 small pieces of velcro that hold the switch box to the shelf "I ran 2 small putty knives in between the box and shelf so I could slide the box out".

4. The video line for the DVD from the dash is AV not Digital, but on the back of the switch box is a video out for AV. I ran a new set of AV cables from those jacks on the switch box to the tv. This will give a much better picture for DVD on the large tv and you can still watch the same DVD on the bedroom tv.

5. For Satellite... I disconnected the cable in feed (this is the line that comes from the cubby where you plug in the park cable) from the back of the switch box and drilled a 1"1/2 hole through the bottom of the shelf that the switch box sits in. I then ran the cable through the hole I drilled "this will be the feed for my satellite receiver. I will plug my satellite dish in to the park cable connector". I then ran a set of AV cables, and a small piece of coax back through the hole I drilled. The AV cable will go straight to the tv and the coax goes back to the cable in on the switch box. The reason I ran the AV cable and the coax was that the AV cables offer a much better picture on the large tv, and the coax allows me to still use the switch box to send the satellite broadcast to the bedroom tv.... This procedure would be the same for HDMI satellite hi-Def. My Directv service is SD so I use AV cable...

6. I also ran 2 HDMI cables from the tv down and trough the hole I drilled for my AppleTV and any future HDMI device.

7. I carefully tucked the wires back in the shelf and slid the switch box back into place. I refastened the small strip of trim to the shelf in front of the switch box and filled the holes with the Cherry wood filler.

8. With a buddys help... I held the tv up and connected all the cables and remounted the tv.

9. The power for the sat receiver and my AppleTv came from the outlet right inside the door. I used a short extension cable with 3 outlets. I then coiled all my power cables up to hide behind the equipment.


The Picture shows the almost finished product. In this pic my cables I added are ran in front of the shelf. I was waiting on my buddy to help me route then back behind the tv and through the cabinet.

This seems to work pretty well. If anyone has a good idea of getting my 110 power into the back cabinet where the tv hangs I'm all ears... bc?

[bclemens]

Should be an outlet on then underside of that long cabinet there somewhere...you've come this far, not sure why you couldn't add another outlet. Or plug an extension cord in behind the microwave and run it in that rear.

To be honest...our engineers design these things for camping, with maybe a TV as a back up for when its raining. Not Apple TV's and home theaters.

I have asked them to make the A/V sytems more accessible....and maybe run the A/V wiring past me for a final pair of eyes (since I have an apple TV, mac mini hooked to TV, Roku, home theater, multi-zone speakers, home media network, etc etc).

But it looks like you're doing just fine.

[ETF]

Osgood, that was an interesting post. Thank you for the information and the ideas. Right now we are just enjoying the MH and the TV seems to have taken a back seat but I'm sure that I'll have to get round to modifying it one of these days .... soon and before Colorado in August.

[patted1571]

We have a 3011 DS and our dealer took the switch box out and hooked up co-ax cables to it so when the satellite guy comes today he can hook up the receiver and dish for us. Apparently the little switch box will come out - it is velcroed in and you have to get a little hook or something around it to pull it out. I agree fingers don't work. But I know they took it out without breaking the cabinet to hook up the co-ax cables.
pat