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Old 11-22-2008, 03:22 PM   #1
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TV mount


I didn't plan on having a TV in the trailer. But, my 13 inch that I watch outside on the patio died. Wouldn't power up and I figured it had gotten damp and shorted, so I ran out and got a 15 LCD ( cheap, made in China ) so I wouldn't miss The Daily Show and Colbert Report.
After a couple days inside the house, the old TV is working just fine so now I have a spare LCD that weighs only 8 lbs.

I had a look at the Lee Valley Tools catalogue and they offer a half dozen mounts for small TVs, but most require a stud to screw to. They have a couple on arms that will clamp onto a table. I'd like to get away with the cheapest, most compact solution.

So, my question, finally, is, if you have a TV in your trailer, where do you have it mounted and how? I figure I'll just run a cable out a window if the park offers cable. Any advice on antennas would be appreciated too.

baglo
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Old 11-22-2008, 03:34 PM   #2
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Re: TV mount

You might want to check with Reace as he has an extendible wall mount arm available for mounting a 15" LCD TV.
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Old 11-22-2008, 05:09 PM   #3
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Re: TV mount

Hi,
Part of the solution may be dependent on where you watch and whether you want to tuck it away when traveling, and of course where the co-ax outlet or other outlets are located. One of the things I'm doing is arranging table top viewing from the wardrobe top, but I'm stealing Jeff's idea and using a tuner with my laptop.
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Old 11-22-2008, 05:21 PM   #4
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Re: TV mount


Yup, I would have gone with laptop too, but now I'm stuck with this extra TV. That makes five TVs with three people in the house. Maybe I'll run a cable into the kitchen instead, and forget having a TV in the trailer.

The appeal of the trailer and camping is getting away and leaving TV behind.

baglo
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Old 11-22-2008, 06:51 PM   #5
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Re: TV mount

I would imagine the safest area to mount the swing arm to would be on the microwave cabinet wall area on the bedside. You could probably reinforce the wall with a small piece of plywood on the inside of the cabinet.. Mounting it there woud give you the option of watching in bed or swinging it out and watching from the front dinette area.. If you don't have the coax cable outlet inside the trailer, do you have an outside hatch.. I think running the cable inside the trailer would be the hardest part if you have to drill a hole.. you might be able to see if you can snake a piece of speaker wire through the same spot were the power from the battery comes in and use one of those converter plug (from the old rabbit ears to coax) since coax is really just two wire system it should work fine.. Heck these are just crazy ideas..
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Old 11-22-2008, 07:46 PM   #6
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Re: TV mount


Well, the Old Bag ( Leslie ) nixed having the TV in the kitchen, and she's not that keen on having it in the trailer, but I have to put it somewhere. For now, I think I'll just use the stand and run a cable out the window. I'm trying to imagine what it is that I would need to watch to go to all that trouble.

A mount on the wall where a microwave goes, above the fridge ( we have a cupboard instead ) sounds like the solution. Maybe the cable could run out the grill for the fridge? And backing it up inside the cupboard makes sense and sounds easy enough.

bags

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Old 11-23-2008, 08:10 AM   #7
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Re: TV mount

Hi: bags...What to watch "The Weather Channel". We have the mount on the wall but alas no TV. "She, who must be obeyed" says "we don't go camping to watch TV". At times I find it difficult to think of anything else to do!!!
Escape Artist N.S.of Lake Erie
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Old 11-23-2008, 12:33 PM   #8
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Re: TV mount

The Escape 17' that I saw had the tv swingarm mounted on the microwave cabinet , on the edge facing the back, low enough for the tv to clear the overhanging cabinet, so that the tv could be viewed from either the bed (and with good eyes), the small dinette.
You might want to shoot a call to Reace.
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Old 01-10-2009, 12:47 AM   #9
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Re: TV mount

I posted on my mounting solution under factory mods. The antenna is the round omni-directional unit supplied by Escape. It really works well both on analog and digital signals, extremely sharp picture (who needs HD?).

As for location I had mine mounted on the fridge wall with a swing away like the factory does, but as I sleep with my head at the drivers side it was too close for comfort, and too far away for good viewing from the front dinette. By mounting it under the overhead cabinets at my feet it is just right for distance and the evlevated position is quite comfortable while viewing in bed.

As for what to watch I have about 50 DVD's and every time I stop in Walmart I see whats available in the $5.00 bins.

Ace

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Old 01-10-2009, 12:28 PM   #10
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Re: TV mount

Am I correct in thinking that the factory mount is on the sink side? I've only seen the mounting on the fridge/micro side underneath the large dinette cabinet and that was working well for the Eureka owners.
Glad to hear about the television reception. Jeff also has some great ideas for using his lap top as a tv.
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Old 01-10-2009, 02:27 PM   #11
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Re: TV mount

Ace, do you find that you get many channels with the antenna, and how close do you have to be to the towers? I was thinking of just unsing a laptop as a TV and getting a cable to USB tuner. I don't watch much TV, mostly news, hockey and the odd sitcom.
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Old 01-10-2009, 03:22 PM   #12
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Re: TV mount

A quick update.. we been using the laptop as the TV for a while now.. and the verdict is.. we love it.. Since the battery life is about 2-3 hours we can watch a DVD or TV w/o being plugged in.. Plus we use Netflix at home which allows for instant watch feature.. So if you're staying at a place that has wi-fi you can watch a movie via the internet or any of the networks that have their programming online, plus sites like justin.tv or TVUnetworks that have a ton of programming..

anyway just a couple of thoughts..

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Old 01-11-2009, 12:33 AM   #13
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Re: TV mount

I posted on my mounting solution under factory mods. The antenna is the round omni-directional unit supplied by Escape. It really works well both on analog and digital signals, extremely sharp picture (who needs HD?).

Ace,

Are you able to post the brand and model # ?

I've done the Google, but I'm not sure what I'm looking for.

Don't want to bug Reace and Tammy, with all they have to do.

baglo
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Old 01-11-2009, 10:50 PM   #14
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Re: TV mount

The antenna is a Wineguard Roadstar 1500. It is about 12" diamater, 3" thick and mounted on about an 6" mast. It looks like a small flying saucer. My only complaint is that I can see it hooking a low branch and actually tearing up the roof. I expect the mounting area is well reinforced, but still it nags me some. I planned to add some type of small branch deflector but just have not GATI.

I was near Birmingham a few days back and got around 15 channels, but not all were good. Today I am about 50 miles north of Pennsacola and cant get anything well enough to really watch. I am receiving about 12 signals but none are strong enough to enjoy. There is something peculiar about the reception, which I attribute to the future digital switch. I may recieve the same channel on three or four different frequencies. Example could be channel 3 analog, then 3.001, 3.002, 3.003 each digital and all with the same program. The digital signals always come in better.

I use an invertor to power the TV when w/o AC.

I had considered using my laptop but decided not to for this reason: my laptop cost about $2400 before adding the TV adaptor. My TV/DVD costs about $420 and is always ready to play w/o any uncasing, attachments, batteries, etc. When it dies, as it certainly will some day, I would much rather spend the $420 over the $2400 for a replacement. Also there are many neat things I like such as closed captioning, sleep mode and more which I don't think is possible with a laptop/adaptor combo.

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Old 01-12-2009, 04:47 PM   #15
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Re: TV mount

Hi: Ace... We have the same antenna set up for our 5.0. Are you using the power amp for the antenna There is a very tiny, almost invisable, button on the plate where the cable from the TV screws into and if I remember a green indicator light on the plate as well. This boosts the recption of the antenna!!!
Escape Artist N.S. of Lake Erie
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Old 01-19-2009, 09:57 PM   #16
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Re: TV mount

Quote:
Originally Posted by escape artist
Hi: Ace... We have the same antenna set up for our 5.0. Are you using the power amp for the antenna There is a very tiny, almost invisable, button on the plate where the cable from the TV screws into and if I remember a green indicator light on the plate as well. This boosts the recption of the antenna!!!
Escape Artist N.S. of Lake Erie
Well yes. Without it you get nearly nothing. Be sure to switch it off when not using it and not on shore-power as it drains the battery some.

Ace


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