New TV mount for camper

[vasnipe]

Our 2006 Sunseeker 3100LTD has a TV cabinet in the right front of the coach, just aft of the over cab bunk. The TV that was mounted there (kept by previous owner...) was at a horrible viewing angle from the couch and dinette. You'd get a serious crick in your neck in a very short time trying to watch anything. I decided to do a bit of research and one of the ideas came from here on the forum. Thanks guys!
I started with a small mount from Monoprice.com
For only $13.78 each when QTY 50+ purchased - Adjustable Tilting/Swiveling Wall Mount Bracket for LCD LED Plasma (Max 30Lbs, 10~24inch) | LCD Plasma Brackets - Tilting/Swiveling Type and it turned out that the extended arm (13.5") was too short to rotate the TV around to be seen. So I turned around and ordered the next size up For only $28.28 each when QTY 50+ purchased - Adjustable Tilting/Swiveling Wall Mount Bracket for LCD LED Plasma Corner Friendly (Max 80Lbs, 24~37inch) | LCD Plasma Brackets - Tilting/Swiveling Type and the arm length was just right at 16.5" full extension to stow the TV next to the bunk area and rotate for the TV to be seen more comfortably from the couch and dinette.
The cabinet is made of 3/4" MDF (Medium Density Fibreboard) and is not strong enough to hang a TV mounting bracket off of by itself and endure the pounding on the road. I used a 3/4" piece of plywood mounted inside the cabinet as a backer board to distribute the weight properly.
I notched the top corners 3/4" to allow for the mounting cleat on the front of the cabinet and the trim at the rear of the cabinet. I cut a 30 degree angle on the top and bottom to allow for the angled trim at the top and bottom. I knew there was a gap in between the cabinet wall and the inside plywood, and it turned out there is about a 1.5" void in there. I sized the plywood mounting screws (3" drywall) and the bracket bolts (4" 1/4-20) to account for that thickness and hold things together. I used "nylock" nuts on the 1/4-20 bolts since I don't things to come loose going down the road. After running the wires through the cabinet wall I wrapped them in wire loom and then used a cut down soda bottle cap to keep things from chafing.
Here are some photos:
Outside of cabinet from bunk

Inside of cabinet showing mounting cleat

[vasnipe]

Backer board with notches


Backer board mounting screws


Nylock nuts and washers

[vasnipe]

TV mount on wall


TV mount extended


TV on the mount and wired up

[vasnipe]

TV mounted with wires in spiral wire loom


TV as viewed from the couch now


Cabinet with DVD player showing bolts. I need to get some covers for them. Another trip to Home Depot.

[vasnipe]

TV in stowed position next to the bunk


Hope this helps some one.
Chris in Virginia

[backin15]

Very well done!
Does it lock into place when in the stowed position?

[vasnipe]

Figuring out hot to lock in place is next. Had to figure out how to get it there first.
I'll either use a bungee cord across the front of the TV or a nylon strap held closed with velcro.
Any other suggestions to hold it in place?

[New2Rvs]

Our motor home had a magnet attached to the cabinet to keep it in place when traveling. The magnet was about 1" round and the TV arm was steel.

[Herk7769]

Chris,
Pretty hard to tell from the down sampled photo, but it looks like you have a digital audio output on the TV (far right bottom).
I mentioned it in another thread on connecting those TVs to the Camper's Audio system.

[vasnipe]

Herk, for $120 I don't think I did too bad for the TV at HH Gregg. It has a 12v wall wart power supply plugged in the cabinet. Since there is a 12v outlet inside as well, all I would have to do is cobble a 12v plug onto one end of a cable and a size M (Radioshack size) 2.5mm connector on the other. The TV has an HDMI connection on the bottom with PC VGA video and audio. On the side there are the "Component" RCA connections.
Unfortunately this unit has no onboard entertainment system, so you are seeing the beginnings of a system here. I'll poke at that project as time and funds permit.
Chris

[GASPEDDLER]

Nice job!

[myredracer]

Nice job.

After checking out a lot of RVs at the last RV show, most dealers or manufacturers are using two 1" wide Velcro straps attached to a bracket to tie down TVs. This is what I did for ours. The struggle I had was finding brackets to attach the Velcro to. I tried to find out from a couple of local RV dealers but they were hopeless. I ended up getting a couple of plastic ones from THECLIP.COM - Better,... (under "the clip mount" on their site). They are made for a 1" wide strap.

I'd post a pic of our TV mount but we are actually just camping at the moment. If you can wade through all the photos in "My Photos" you will see a photo or two of what I did for the mount + Velcro tie-downs.

BTW, you don't say what size or weight your TV is. I'm wondering if you might want to structurally secure the sidewall section (that the mount is attached to) to the ceiling trusses. I've read that cabinets can fall off walls if too much weight is added.

I hope this helps.

PS: It also took me a 2nd mount to get our setup to work. I initally bought a locking articulating mount from CW and it turned to be a piece of junk. I highly un-recommend it.

[vasnipe]

myredracer, thanks for the tip on the clips. That gave me another idea to try, now another trip to Home Depot - for the bolt/nut covers and the other items for the strap. I'll let y'all know what I come up with.
The new TV is a 19" diagonal LED Curtis model LED1930A LED1930A | Curtis 19" 720p LED HDTV | hhgregg
It must have been on sale when I bought it, only $119 vice the $139 they are asking now...
The TV mount is rated for a max of 80 lbs, so hopefully it will be able to handle an ~10 lbs TV hanging off of it...
As to the weight - Per the HH Gregg web site the TV weighs 9.3 lbs. Much less than the 19" TV/VHS VCR CRT combo that used to live in the cabinet. God alone knows how much it weighed, but I have its twin back in the bedroom to upgrade next. The smaller/shorter mount I ordered at first will work OK for that.

Chris in Virginia

[myredracer]

Don't forget to think about the weight of your articulating mount. The one we got weighs 11 lbs. You could have over 20 lbs hanging onto the cabinet sidewall and bouncing up and down while travelling. I screwed 3/4" plywood into the ceiling joists (two of them) and some 2" screws through the sidewall into the 3/4 ply. Easy to do - cheap insurance. Our 19" TV has a built in DVD player so has a little more weight overall. From anecdotal comments I've read about how cabinets get affixed to walls, I just didn't want our TV and cabinetry ending up on the floor.

I also used a little bit of red Loctite on the four screws holding the plate to the TV. Even more insurance....

I just noticed that you have a large mounting plate attaching the TV to the arm (for 100x100 or 200x200 screw spacing). It looks like you are blocking air ventilation? This is what I ran into on ours. I simply used an angle grinder with cutoff wheel and trimmed the excess off and touched it up with black spray paint.

On our first camping trip out this year, our fancy-dancy new TV did not work when hooked up to campground cable TV. Having just installed the TV, I pulled everthing apart to check the co-ax fittings I installed. Nothing helped. Then I turned off the amplifier. Got it. Leave amplifier off if hooked up to cg TV.

[vasnipe]

We took the camper out this weekend to Dam Neck, VA, great trip to be with son. We had so much fun with other activities we did not even rig the TV for viewing.
I did not weigh the mount prior to hanging it and of course they don't list a weight in the specifications, I think I'll sink a couple more screws into the overhead as insurance as you suggest. I noticed the outsized mounting plate and thought about trimming it down, if it becomes an issue I'll take that for action. Thanks for the suggestions and I hope your rig works out for you as well. This is one of the reasons I like the forum here, suggestions and comments can and do help out.
Chris in Virginia

[hailto]

Chris,
Thanks for the great pics and explanation of your install. My 2011 Sunseeker was just broken into and all tv's were stolen, including the mounting brackets/arms. I can't find the exact mounting arm to replace the one that was in the bunk (same location as your project), so unless I find one soon, I'm beginning my version of your project.

Sam in Illinois

[vasnipe]

Sam, my condolences on the break in. That is a violation of the psyche if not the person. Good luck with the new arm and mounting. Just remember to allow for the length of the screws and bolts to reach through that empty area and grab your backer board. Mine survived the trip last month to Virginia Beach, never even got pulled out for use... But then again, all the potholes on I-264 didn't even budge it from position.

[jd-ford-hd]

Hey Vasnipe, you stated the first mount purchased was $13.78 qty. of 50 and second mount purchased was $28.28 in qty. of 50. Does this mean you now have 99 tv mounts to get rid of..?!?

[vasnipe]

No, Boss!
Sorry, no extras for sale. The way their link parsed it made it look like I bought a truckload of the things.

[vasnipe]

Today after the yard work and other chores I had some time to complete the strap to hold the television and arm in place for storage and travel.
I got the Finishing Washers and #10 screws from my local Home Depot. The nylon strap was a backpacking sleeping bag strap bought at Walmart many moons ago. The cheap ladder locks broke on the second use so I kept the straps for other uses (like now). The buckle is available at most sewing or craft stores in the Notions section. I happened to have this one on hand from another project. I doubled the ends of the strap where the screws were to go through and used my wife's sewing machine to stitch around the edges and diagonally. Not the prettiest or most straight, but it won't come apart any time soon. It so happened that the television had a notch in the center of the bottom back section that the strap fit through nicely, stopping side to side movement. Running the strap vertically provides support for bumpy roads.

Strap before stitching


After doubling and stitching


I doubled and stitched the ends next to the buckle to prevent fraying