We travel with our kids and use the tv for the occasional family movie, and the original TV location in the 179 was not well suited for that (or much else in our thinking....) We found that mounted next to the microwave improves things. Four can lie down using both beds with plenty of personal space and watch without fear of neck aches. This is not a desirable change if you watch TV while you eat.
This location allows for what sounds like a marginally larger 28" TV, but it is more than twice the area original (weighs less and is less than $200 on amazon):
After taking the original TV down and sliding the radio out to get at the wires, I discovered a large unused space behind the radio, so I moved the connections behind the TV over (adding a 12V oultlet) cut this opening for a new storage space.
Then I slid in a box I made to fit this space. In this photo at the bottom what you see is some other shelving I later added for even more storage (kids clothes...).

After sliding out the 179 fuse panel I found the cable and satellite in wires easily accessible, on their way from the r-pod outside inputs to the original TV location. I pulled the orange cable satellite wire back from the original TV location, after first taping its end o a 25 ft RCA cable (that I bought), so I would end up with RCA's going from the Jensen to the new TV location (for watching DVD's). Then I pulled this orange cable and the new RCA wires under the floor from the the dinette bench where they are also accessible. It pulls OK under the floor once you use enough force to break it free of the spray foam. I found I had just enough slack i the white "cable-in" line to pull about a 18" of slack into the dinette bench. Then I cut that line and added female connectors to each end. Now one of those is the cable in from campground, and the other is now a connection up to the r-pod's powered TV antenna. (Although I no longer use the coax outlets in the above photo (they are not connected to anything), I must still push its little button to power up the antenna, which is why I kept the wall outlet -maybe there was a smarter way but I could not figure out how to get rid of that switch and my antenna seems not to work without that 12v power.?.) Here is what the wiring under the dinette bench looks like when your done. I bought this selector box on Amazon. The TV in its new location has one coax coming to this, which selects between cable or satellite from the r-pod's external connections, or the r-pod's antenna. (Why does the r-pod have 2 coax cables coming from the campground? Do some people use cable and satellite at the same time?)

The RCA and coax cables that go to the new TV from exit the dinette bench near the floor (with pre-existing r-pod wires & hoses as shown in the next photo. The TV cabling is the ribbed cable. (My r-pod had an issue with these hoses and wires getting smashed between the wood panel that hangs down below the fridge (removed in this photo) and the luan trim coming up from the floor that these wires are supposed to fit behind. So I added the bungees you see here to fold the wires away properly as the slide out opens and creates slack, -and so I did the same with the new TV cabling.)
Before installing the TV I decided to add a wood support for its mounting bracket inside the box where the microwave sits and I also swapped the microwave outlet to dual outlets (so I could plug the TV in there.) Both are shown here.
Then I mounted the TV in its new location and put the microwave back.
And I admit moving the TV was a bit more work than I had imagined when I undertook the project- it always is, but at least we are happy with the change.
If anyone else tries this, be warned if you are thinking you can run the TV cabling up under the fridge to get into the wall the TV is mounted on (instead of over the face of the bench). This might be be possible and it was my initial plan, but I could not make it work. The fridge is built into that slide out in a way that leaves little room to get under it, and there is no way to know what your drilling into without ripping out the fridge, -which is hopefully not part of this project. If you try it, - be careful you don't drill any holes under the fridge that you then end up watching in amazement disappear to the outside of the camper as the slide out opens. Every project of mine has at-least one brilliant maneuver such as this. I spent a full day epoxying this one closed, what was I thinking!!! .....
------------- Jay
r-pod179
05 Tacoma PreRunner
|