I've contracted the 'mod' bug

[dave961]

I've been reading these posts for a few days and have gotten a bunch of great ideas - and now I want to take action!

Starting small, I put a 2nd fire extinguisher in the garage (DW calls it the man cave). Next to it (and the original by front door), I put clips on the wall to hold small LED flashlights with rechargeable batteries. Also installed a 40" smart TV in the living area and a 29" in the man cave.

This being my second toy hauler, I made sure it came with a pre-wired generator compartment. So, bought a generator and started learning how to do the install myself - no small undertaking. Will be wrestling it in tomorrow and will post more pics of the (hopefully) completed job.

[Wiscampsin]

Nice mods but be careful, they are addicting .

[dave961]

Yes, I've got a list of things I want to do but need to finish the generator first. I keep asking myself, "Do I really need it?" and that little voice says, "No, but I want it!" I think the next one - also not as home-grown as some I've seen - will be an onboard surge suppression system.

[shadow7663]

Nice mods. How did you secure the TV mounts to the walls?

[dave961]

I bought the big TV to fill my available space. There was a sticker on the wall - so I gently pushed on the wall to find the edges or the support square and made some light pencil lines. When holding the bracket up I could see exactly where the behind wall support would be. You will also want to put the bracket on the TV and hold it up to be sure you're OK (this would have been easier with 2 guys). The toughest part of this one was hiding all the wiring. My slide covers this TV when in, and I read a great idea on another post - pack pillows between the TV and the slide wall to support it while travelling.

For the garage, the other side of the wall was the bathroom. So I measured the depth of the medicine cabinet and made sure two of the middle screws (one top and on bottom) went through the wall into the frame of the medicine cabinet. Gently pushing on the garage wall showed me where another 'stud' was and so I got four solid screws into the bracket. This TV is small enough that I'm not too worried about wobbling during travel.

For both TV's I pugged in an HDMI cable before tightening down all mounting bolts, coiled it up and dropped it inside the top of the bracket. This way I can easily plug in the tablets or laptops without taking the TV down.

Hope this helps!

[shadow7663]

Thanks for the info and tips. I'm always afraid to hang anything on the camper walls but we plan on having our new unit for a looooong time and want to install some creature conference items.

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[dave961]

Ugh... that was as tough as I thought but the genie is in. Need a second battery and fill the on-board tank before trying it out. Here's the rest of the pics.