Reinforced Walls on 21' for TV Mount

[jumboscott]

Trying to finish my build sheet and would like to have the option of mounting a TV bracket (centered) on Frig wall or Closet wall (don't really care for the ETI Wall Mount Extendable TV Arm). Would it be necessary to pay ETI to reinforce the Closet\Microwave wall? Not getting the closet shelves, so I'm thinking I could put a backer plate in closet. However, I do want to install the ELFA closet organizer later and wouldn't want any additional wood to interfere. I'm guessing I would have to pay ETI to reinforce the Frig wall for a centered TV mount. thanks

[Chama]

We did not get a reinforced dinette/fridge wall in our 2019 E21 and that was a big mistake. We ordered the ETI TV mount, assuming it would be properly mounted. They installed the mount in such a fashion that the TV is at a 10 degree angle off horizontal when it is extended into viewing position. That was probably done so that all the mounting bolts in the odd shaped base plate would all hit the wall stud. Get that wall reinforced and mount your own articulating TV mount. I wish to heck I had done that. We do not like the ETI TV mounting solution at all.

[Ron in BC]

I didn't get the reinforced wall in my 19 and managed to mount the TV arm on solid framing.

I'm not ordering any reinforced walls in my new 21 and don't expect I'll have any problems with similar mounting situations.

Ron

[Perry Butler]

We didn't get the reinforced fridge wall and sometimes wish we had.

We're looking at getting a 17" hi-res laptop to download movies from Netflix and/or attach a dvd player. So far we have 122 nights in the camper (not counting the nights in the local campground where we have a seasonal site when not away truly camping) and haven't missed the TV even once! However we've only had to spend one day inside in the rain 80 miles from the nearest city with entertainment.

Enjoy,

Perry

[steve dunham]

I wish the wardrobe and bathroom / bedroom wall in my 21 were reinforced
The reinforcing would have allowed me to mount items where I wanted and not be limited by where the studs are located .

[CADreamin]

Wow Chama! The same thing happened with us! We didn't get the reinforced wall by the closet and now, the way the TV mount is installed, the TV is crooked when in a certain position. Now we're trying to figure out how to either remount it (hard because the new holes would be so close to the existing screw holes) or just get a new mount altogether and figure out how to secure it. Thankfully, it's only the closet on the other side so we could brace it with more wood but what a pain.

[splicer]

What is the thickness of reinforced vs non-reinforced?

[davidmurphy02]

Originally Posted by splicer

What is the thickness of reinforced vs non-reinforced?

The wall is the same thickness - when they reinforce it the inside of the wall is solid plywood rather than just the framing in a few spots.

[Dave Walter]

We didn't get any reinforced walls in our 19' and do not feel as if we missed out on anything. We did get the Escape supplied TV mount (which was somewhat disappointing in terms of quality) and installed it myself. It has worked fine. On our 15B, I did order a different mount from Amazon

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01F2OZ0VM/...709270_TE_item

which turned out to be much higher quality than the Escape supplied mount and which we really like. We paid around $45 CDN plus shipping for ours.

[Ron in BC]

Originally Posted by CADreamin

Now we're trying to figure out how to either remount it (hard because the new holes would be so close to the existing screw holes) or just get a new mount altogether and figure out how to secure it.

You can always use a piece of oak, large enough to attach to the existing framing and then attach the TV arm to it. Similar to what I did for my digital thermostat.

Ron

[War Eagle]

We reinforced both side walls of the closet in our 21' just in case we decided to add shelves in the future, and that allowed us to use machine bolts rather than wood screws to fasten our TV mount more solidly. I had to remove the microwave to get to the back side of the wall for the big fender washers and vinyl lock nuts I used, but that wasn't a big deal. We like the mount sold by ETI at the time of our purchase, and the location allows us to swivel the TV to view from the dinette and from the bed, and actually through the entry door if we want to keep an eye on the weather radar while outside. I wish we would have had ETI add a 12V DC outlet on the overhead cabinet along with the 120V AC outlet so we wouldn't have to dangle the power cord down to the drawer stack 12V outlet, but I'll add that some day when the weather makes us stay inside for a bit.