On the way home from Mexico we bought two Sharp flat screen LCD TV’s to replace the old fashioned ones we had that would not receive the digital off-air signals the USA is presently converting to. They are 20 inch, wide screen and high definition. The price was very good at $198 each with no tax in the State we bought them.
The front one I installed as soon as we got home using some strong angle brackets that I painted black and bolted to the turntable the original TV sat on. This has been in for a few weeks now and is very solid.
The bedroom TV I installed today and it was more difficult. It had to be attached to the wall and tilted out a little towards the center of the room. The old TV sat on a flip down shelf mounted to (and partly inside) the wall. The shelf did not look all that securely mounted so we always took the TV down and set it on the floor when we traveled. This was not the best solution because it was always in the way and it was only a matter of time until I forgot to take it down and either the TV would fall off the shelf or, worse yet, the shelf would pull out of the wall and everything would fall! The lowered shelf also provided a great place for Norma to bang her head as she made the bed.
Commercial brackets require lag bolting them to studs in the wall and RV’s have none of those. RV walls are quite thin and made with a couple of sheets of paneling and 1X2’s for studs. Mine actually have a sheet of thin plywood on each side under the paneling. I solved the problem by combining a cheap but strong wall mounting bracket from Wal Mart with a strong angle adapter piece that I made from 3/4 inch plywood and a piece of 2X4. I cut out the pieces and glued and screwed them together. I then mounted my adapter to the front of the old flip down shelf using six screws through the shelf. I then drilled a 3/8 inch hole through the shelf and the wall and into a medicine cabinet on the other side of the wall. I placed a 3/8 inch bolt through everything and hid the large washer and nut inside the medicine cabinet. I wrapped all the cables out of sight around the mount and strapped an inverter to the top of the adapter behind the TV. Nice job if I must say so myself!
Bedroom TV:
Front TV:
Looks good!
ReplyDeleteI have a list of stuff for you to do before you leave for Mexico (or I leave for the Yukon). ;)
Bring it on Rae!
ReplyDeleteMay I ask where you found those TV sets??
ReplyDeleteThe TV's were on sale at WalMart. We bought one to replace the rear TV that did not work properly and after we saw how nice it was, bought another a few days later.
ReplyDelete