Hidden Television Mount

10.4K The location of your television in your RV is always a difficult decision unless you are satisfied with the stock location. In the older rigs there are not many choices. By default, the manufacturer places the TV over the captain’s chairs. This tends to be an uncomfortable viewing angle for most people. Being a 2003 model Bounder owner, the television provided by Fleetwood was a hulking tube model which added a lot of weight suspended above the driver.  This accounted for some squeaking and rattling as you drove the rig.  I opted to remove the TV completely and build my own matching cabinet to replace it (more on this in another post). A couple of things to note:

1. I had no desire to use the satellite TV setup in the rig.
2. I did not intend to move the antenna connection either.
3. All shows will be streamed over the internet or played via USB drive of some type.

Rerouting the above signal sources would not be a difficult endeavor since you will have access to behind the cabinets once you remove the old TV. As for the location of the new TV, I wanted it at eye level so it would be easy to view from a chair or sitting on the sofa and could also be manipulated in a variety of positions to account for where we were seated.  The use of a full-motion television mount was the key. We decided the forgo the little recliner and small fold-out table Fleetwood provided and locate the TV there.  I wanted to protect it while driving since it was so low and easily bumped so building a cabinet to house it in in its stowed position was the way to go. The first step was to mount the TV in some way that it would lift out of the planned cabinet.  It occurred to me that utilizing heavy-duty drawer slides should provide the movement I wanted.  Attaching the TV mount to a piece of wood that is in turn attached to the drawer slides worked out perfectly.  The slides travel vertically (instead of horizontally) mounted against the wall and allowed about 20 inches of movement.  Since the TV was, itself, 18 inches tall, it worked out great! I used two small .75 x 1.5-inch strips/braces to hold the drawer slide mounted against the wall and a simple .75” thick piece of oak to “slide” up and down with the TV mount attached to it.  Eventually I added an oval “handle” to the top to assist in pulling the TV out of its cabinet. I chose a 42” LED TV to fit in this area.  It fit the wall nicely and left plenty of room for the forthcoming cabinet.  As you can see, it attached to the slide very well. The final step was to build a rudimentary cabinet to cover the TV while traveling.  Cabinet will have a removable top to allow for the TV to be pulled up into the viewing position and the cabinet top replaced.  The inside of the cabinet has a bit of foam rubber padding to secure the TV while driving. As you can imagine, in this position, watching a movie is much more comfortable from the couch or dinette.  Since there is only 2 or 3 of us using the RV at any one time, the recliner will not be missed. As for the space above the captains chairs: You can view the cabinet process here: The Big Hole Above the Dash