Well I took the time finally to grab a few photos of the Mystery project.
This started out as a residential refrigerator replacement for my gas the Dometic unit. After I had completed the conversion I still had the vent on the backside of the refrigerator for gas operation which let a lot of cold air in on those brisk days. The refrigerator didn't much care for 40° or below air coming into the backside of the refrigerator. Had a problem to solve, short term solved it with insulation.
Also when I travel to NASCAR events I had to Drag a TV out from the basement hook it up to coax, set it on the table hook it up to a power supply. (This was to watch the associated event coverage while there is downtime during the race weekend.) Looking at that big hole on the backside of the refrigerator that wasn't needed anymore gave me an idea. When I was at Xtreme I spoke with Rance about about taking out that refrigerator vent in the sidewall of my coach and creating an opening for a TV. The standard exterior pre-made fiber glass enclosures made for RV's do not fit in the amount of space available (they are all too deep.) So Rance set about building a custom one in place of that refrigerator vent.
My existing 32 inch TV wouldn't quite fit in the space available between the two supports that form the side of the coach. What you see in the pictures is Rance is custom enclosure with hinged top opening and sealed for water intrusion. It maximizes the opening without changing the in place sidewall supports. The door is waterproof and hinges upward. We decided to go this route because the opening of the door creates shade on the television screen increasing visibility in bright conditions. Rance also fabricated this stone simple bent metal door support - clean and effective (see photo).
Since my 32 inch TV wouldn't quite fit I ordered 28 Samsung and Rance installed it with little space to spare. It is quite a thin TV and as you can see the opening is just about exactly the size of the TV. As is often the case one thing leads to another and the speakers are on the backside of the TV pointing at the back of the refrigerator and they are minuscule. So very low volume using the TV speakers. To solve for that problem I got a small portable speaker which connects via a mini headset style jack which has been threaded out from the TV enclosure into the lower bay. I just pull out the cord and plug it into my amazing speaker. Had I bought a TV with Bluetooth capability I could have just Bluetooth to my small speaker system which I bought online at Amazon. Here is a link to speaker:
Amazon.com: UE BOOM Wireless Bluetooth Speaker - Bounce: Computers & Accessories (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00S9SHU1M?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00)
I guess the most important thing is a you want to have an outside TV on one of these Fortravels, that you already have converted to a residential refrigerator, and finally that that residential refrigerator is on the curbside not the street side of your coach. Since everybody has an awning and hangs out on the curb side of the coach, a street side refrigerator does not lend itself to this application.
When I get a chance I'll post pictures of my interior remodel which includes flooring, a new dinette to replace the J lounge, taking out the scissor couch and replacing it with a queen fold out Villa couch, reupholstering the pilot, copilot, Ekornes chair, sofa and dinette booth with Ultra-leather. We added a leaf to the small table opposite the couch, and added a custom Walnut dinette table. Finally we replaced the ceramic tile with a new Armstrong Adura premium groutable vinyl floor.
James and Rance at Xtreme will be happy to build another TV Enclosure if anyone is interested. Not sure what the charges would be, mine was part of a package deal including new entry steps and delimitation repairs on the slide.
Tim,
Great to see the final product. Looks marvelous.
Rich
I looked Tim'scoach over when he was next to me at MOT. I loved the TV idea but mine is on the wrong side. His coach looks very good though. I loved the work he did inside as well. I have a picture of his new TV door as well. I was just thinking to use that to close off the hole.
What a great use of that space! I love the door, it looks so clean. And having it flip up is perfect, that should really help.
One easy thing I can see to make it even cleaner would be to place some type of black wood or other material in the space behind the TV (or just paint the stuff black) to minimize the reveal of wiring/metal, etc.
But, wow, I just love your idea!
No truer adage...necessity being the mother of invention. Congratulations on the completion of a very forward-thinking project. Well worth the suspenseful wait. Coach bucks well spent.
Great idea!
Very nice. ;D
Looks great, not that I would ever care about having a TV outside the coach (heck we don't have one in the coach :o ), but it definitely showcases Xtreme's ability to realize a customer's vision for their rig. I bet Rance had fun figuring out how to 'git-er-dun' :D It looks like OEM quality or better...
Don
Great job Tim. DW can't wait to see the interior.
He and the boys did a lot of "table racing" figuring it out
Tim, the TV idea is awesome and the finished product even better!
I have been thinking of replacing our jackknife couch with a fold out queen and was curious how it worked with the raised slide out. Were the folding legs of the sofa extended? Maybe blocks? I think the fold out with air mattress would be much more comfortable than the jackknife.
I look forward to more pictures!
Great questions. Came with 4 blocks to put under bed legs to kee he'd levvel
Bill you are so right about the legs. David Flanigan had taken the dinette booths out of one coach and the 60 inch Villa queen sleeper sofa out of a different coach. David just had to recover all those items and install them with the newly made walnut dinette table.
The bed came with the inflatable mattress and the pump for the inflatable mattress and four blocks one for each leg so that the bed sleeps level. David tells me now from Villa you can order one with the right length legs so the blocks are unnecessary, but at the price I paid (which was free) I'm fine with the four blocks in the drawer under the dinette for when I use the pull out. We have the same inflatable mattress in some of our rental properties and it sleeps very well, it has to be a world of improvement over the scissor couch.
The couch itself is very comfortable to sit on and is covered in a red ultra leather product.
I'm slammed right now but intend to take pictures either this weekend or next week and share the results of the remodel with the forum.