Kevin Means
Site Team
If you have a motorhome with a side-mounted TV in the living room, you might be interested in this redesign. Ours is a 2011 42QD Tour and, in our opinion, the living room/TV area is one of its best features. However, I always felt that space was wasted in the TV cabinet so, after being inspired by the new 2015 Grand Tour, I decided to redesign ours.
Picture 1 is the TV cabinet as it came from the factory. There?s about a foot of table space in front of the TV but you really can?t put anything there or it blocks your view of the TV. I decided to move the TV forward about five inches and change the viewing angle (slightly) for better viewing from the rotated front seats. This would also give me some additional storage space behind the TV.
I pretty much had to disassemble the entire TV cabinet and remove the false floor of the cabinets over the TV (Picture 3). The TV and mount were heavier than I thought they?d be and since they were now going to open like a door, their weight had to be supported firmly. After drilling a few exploratory holes in some un-viewable areas behind the overhead cabinets, I was able to determine that Winnie mounted the cabinets to some metal straps behind the walls. They?re very secure. I was able to tie into those straps with some aluminum angle-iron to spread the load over a wide area.
The top of the 4X4 you see in Picture 3, slides into a hole cut in the bottom of the overhead cabinets but it does not extend into the storage area above. The bottom of the 4X4 mounts to the top of the cabinet below with four 5-inch, very thick wood screws. It?s rock-solid, which is necessary to support the weight of the TV. Picture 4 shows the swivel-mount I built out of aluminum that the TV-mount bolts to. I used the existing fascia board for this project and I cut the center of it out for access to the storage area (Compare Picture 4 to Picture 2).
Picture 5 shows the support-structure for a sub-floor (I needed room for wiring). I also installed a Wi-Fi-equipped Blu-ray player, because our coach came only with a DVD player. The arrow in Picture 5 points to an opening that extends downward behind the fireplace. (More on that later) Picture 6 is the finished project with the TV closed. When compared to Picture 1, you can tell that the TV is farther forward, but unless you knew it opened, you?d never be able to tell. There are no visible latches or obvious hinges.
Picture 7 is the TV in the open position. When closed, it latches securely in place with a strong spring-ball latch on the bottom and two magnets on the top. You just tug on the right side of the TV to open it. The spring-ball latch has the added benefit of supporting the TV on the opposite side of the hinges.
I do a fair amount of shooting and, until now, I carried my rifles in a closet. In Picture 8, you can see that two rifles store nicely behind the TV. They extend down behind the fireplace through the cutout I mentioned earlier. The butts rest in a carpeted box-assembly I built. The safe you see is mounted to the cabinet structure.
This project took about 10 days and wasn?t hard to do. I just took my time.
Kev
Picture 1 is the TV cabinet as it came from the factory. There?s about a foot of table space in front of the TV but you really can?t put anything there or it blocks your view of the TV. I decided to move the TV forward about five inches and change the viewing angle (slightly) for better viewing from the rotated front seats. This would also give me some additional storage space behind the TV.
I pretty much had to disassemble the entire TV cabinet and remove the false floor of the cabinets over the TV (Picture 3). The TV and mount were heavier than I thought they?d be and since they were now going to open like a door, their weight had to be supported firmly. After drilling a few exploratory holes in some un-viewable areas behind the overhead cabinets, I was able to determine that Winnie mounted the cabinets to some metal straps behind the walls. They?re very secure. I was able to tie into those straps with some aluminum angle-iron to spread the load over a wide area.
The top of the 4X4 you see in Picture 3, slides into a hole cut in the bottom of the overhead cabinets but it does not extend into the storage area above. The bottom of the 4X4 mounts to the top of the cabinet below with four 5-inch, very thick wood screws. It?s rock-solid, which is necessary to support the weight of the TV. Picture 4 shows the swivel-mount I built out of aluminum that the TV-mount bolts to. I used the existing fascia board for this project and I cut the center of it out for access to the storage area (Compare Picture 4 to Picture 2).
Picture 5 shows the support-structure for a sub-floor (I needed room for wiring). I also installed a Wi-Fi-equipped Blu-ray player, because our coach came only with a DVD player. The arrow in Picture 5 points to an opening that extends downward behind the fireplace. (More on that later) Picture 6 is the finished project with the TV closed. When compared to Picture 1, you can tell that the TV is farther forward, but unless you knew it opened, you?d never be able to tell. There are no visible latches or obvious hinges.
Picture 7 is the TV in the open position. When closed, it latches securely in place with a strong spring-ball latch on the bottom and two magnets on the top. You just tug on the right side of the TV to open it. The spring-ball latch has the added benefit of supporting the TV on the opposite side of the hinges.
I do a fair amount of shooting and, until now, I carried my rifles in a closet. In Picture 8, you can see that two rifles store nicely behind the TV. They extend down behind the fireplace through the cutout I mentioned earlier. The butts rest in a carpeted box-assembly I built. The safe you see is mounted to the cabinet structure.
This project took about 10 days and wasn?t hard to do. I just took my time.
Kev
