Well, it's official ;D. My wife & I closed on Moose yesterday. George & Sandy were great to deal with and we wish them well on their next adventure. Moose is in great shape and we look forward to meeting people in the Foretravel group down the road!
I have a few "tweaks" I want to do and the 1st one is to add a 25"-27" LCD TV ( whatever will fit) in the basement as we spend a lot of time outside when we're camping. I'm looking for ideas, pictures, and sources from anyone who has this mod done in their coach. I'm thinking of putting one in the bay that doesn't have big slide in it. Any help/advice would be appreciated!
1. Can I mount a TV on the walls that separate each bay? They seem sturdy enough. I don't want to drill into the floor of the basement.
2. One member says they had a TV mounted on a tripod. That's a good idea because it's really portable. Trying to picture how he mounted a TV to a camera tripod though.
You can email me direct if you'd like to STEVEBXL @ yahoo.com
Cheers!
Congrats on becoming an owner! Now, don't forget about the year of Motorcade Club (even if you don't do the events, the parts/labor savings at FOT are well worth it.)
You reminded me (doh!) that I was supposed to take photos of our outdoor TV installation (and promptly forgot). Steve did install an articulating arm mount on the sidewall of one bay (mount likely purchased from Newegg or Buy.com). We don't travel with the TV mounted in it, though, we keep it in the original packaging (really, not much bigger than the TV) when mobile. All it takes is 1 screw to attach it to the mount when we're parked. Ours is a 26" LCD from Costco (cheapest one they had with the smallest bezel and bottom speakers for maximum screen size).
I'll try to get some photos soon (the coach is about 20 minutes away at the storage facility).
Michelle
My wife and I are about to close on a U 320 also. We, too, are putting a TV in the basement and are interested in how large a TV will go in there. The dealer is putting the actual mount in the coach. Any information would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
It pretty much depends on the clearances and the TV design.
Here's how we went about it: we measured the height of the space first (ours is in the bay with the Joey bed, since that's where hookups already existed). We then bought the largest (in screen size) LCD TV that fit that vertical dimension (giving cost a consideration; there are only a handful of LCD panel manufacturers the rest is just the packaging). Then we bought the mount, attached the TV to it, and measured the assembly to see where the mount had to be located so the TV would clear the Joey bed and the bay opening (so we could tuck the TV away when not in use).
Each coach may be different, and it also depends on what else you have in that bay and how the mount articulates or slides.
Measure twice, cut once :)
Michelle
It's going to depend on the mount style (side slide, side articulating, top slide and drop) and if there is a slide.
Our coach came with a basement TV, which we have never used. Anne is always pestering me to remove it. I can take a picture if you would like. It is mounted to the rear wall of the first curb side bay.
We have a 32" LCD installed in our basement bin. I posted pix of this in the album "New LCD in a 2002 U320 " by TXForetravel.
We have a 42' coach so we have a larger bin area but the 32" should fit any '02 coach. It was/is a tight fit but what we wanted to do was use the exact same TV inside as outside so that if either TV failed, we had an exact copy for a back up. We've gone one step further and have yet a 3rd TV in the workshop at the house that could also be swapped out.
We used a standard "Best Buy" mounting bracket and mounted it to a wall we built in the outside bin. In the bin, we have a portable ice maker, a wine chiller, TV, chair storage and a Weber gas grill, all of which you can see in the photo album.
http://www.foreforums.com/index.php?action=media;sa=album;in=249 (http://www.foreforums.com/index.php?action=media;sa=album;in=249)
;)
Michelle
Michelle, how and where do you find the URL for a photo album. I would have posted it, but wasn't paying that much attention to how to get the url's. Of course, I'm doing 15 different things at once!
Thanks for posting this!
txforetravel, some people are just too cool. That layout is great. Nice work.
Wow Steve. That's some set up! Thanks for the pics. Did you do all that cabinet work?
I think you meant Tom (txforetravel). I just linked their album ;) Our installation is MUCH more basic.
Click Photos/Files->My Albums->the album you want then either copy/paste the URL from the browser OR look copy and paste the BBCode (including the square brackets) that's after "Insert in Message tag" (the latter will actually put the album's photos in the message).
Michelle
Steve & Kathy,
Our coach is a 2003, 42-320. We have a 37 in. panosonic (plasma) in the coach as well as the basement. Given the fact that this is a 9 year old coach, and the technology existing at the time, this was probably the best they had. I am in the process of upgrading these TV's and found a Samsung Model UN40D6400 is a 40" LED TV with more modern technology that will fit in the existing space. The basement TV is located in the 2nd compartment from the front, right into the joey bed. Hope this helps you in your quest. 37 in TV's are getting hard to find, and although I have not had any problems with these 37 in plasmas, the outside TV is difficult to watch in bright light. I am sure an LED is much better.
Gregory S
2003 Designer
Temporary fix for a TV in the basement - or actually out of the basement.
Until I can build one of those great cabinets to permanently mount a TV, grill and other stuff, here's what I got:
1. I bought a Winegard antenna stand from Camping World for $35. ( Winegard Co - Winegard Antenna Tripod - Satellite Antenna Accessories - Camping (http://www.campingworld.com/shopping/item/winegard-antenna-tripod/17091) )
2. Bought a pole mount for a LCD TV from here: LCD Panel Mount - Pole Mount Brackets, Provide Pole and Monitor Pivot Adjustment (http://www.ergoindemand.com/pole-mount-bracket.htm) for $85. It attaches to the 1 1/2" pole on the antenna stand. I WAS going to build one, but took a chunk of finger off with my pruning shears today & my finger is sore! :o Note to self: Always watch where your hands are when pruning!
Now I can quickly set up the TV and if the suns too bright I can turn it in any direction to avoid glare. The down side is I'll have a power cord and coax cable hanging out on the ground. Have lot's to do getting geared up...
When you get time would you please show me a pic of your TV mount in the basement???
Steve,
I'm sorry. We drove to Cape Cod for Thanksgiving and won't be back to the coach until December 7. It's at the factory getting new bedroom carpeting.
that's fine :). I'm out of town for Thanksgiving as well. When you get the time. Thank you so much!
Inquiring minds want to see pics! :P
Yes you can mount to the side wall that separates the storage bays, I used bolts all the way through with fender washers, it's been there for 3 years now. I used an inexpensive swing out mount and 26" LCD TV, 2 eye bolts and bungee cord to secure the TV from moving while under way ( about $80.00 for the whole deal), and we still have the bay for storage, I also installed a foot for the bottom of the TV to rest on while stowed. the whole deal once the bolts and stuff where rounded up took about 1 hour to install. With that said I could likely go to a 32" by moving the mount. Depends on how much you want to spend on mounts they make some that slide and swing but they can get pricey, also keep in mind that if you go with LED they weight very little, I just changed out the front TV to a 26" Visio LED that weights less then 10lbs without the mount.
I'm sorry I forgot my promise. Here are some pics of my factory install. The lag bolts penetrate the bulkhead wall. I don't use any supports or bungee cords and it is very stable after all this time.
Oops. I'm bad at multiple pics.
Nice! I'm hoping to do something similar soon!
Thanks!!!
Yea bungie coards are likely overkill, but the support foot works great.