Mystery Project Unveiled
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
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.
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Topic: Mystery Project Unveiled