October 2, 2009

TV or not TV, That is the Question

I'm not generally the kind who likes to watch TV on a camping trip, but during fire season, there are no campfires allowed, so once the sun goes down, it is easy to end up inside instead of at the fire ring.

We have a digital TV, DVD and antenna, but the location of the TV doesn't work well for viewing. In the drawing to the right, the Blue line is the factory installed TV. As you can see, forget about watching it from the single chair or the cab-half the dinette.

Andy likes that location well enough for playing video games, but everyone else gets a sore neck. One possibility is moving it to the green line, above the single chair and then putting a separate monitor for video games on the cab-over bed.

Another option is to get a set of those back-of-headrest monitors and mount them by the back bed and above the door. The selector switch already mounted in the cupboard allows each of two TVs to choose their source: Antenna, Cable or VCR/DVD.

The issue with the headrest monitors is that they're 12v so they can be powered by the interior lighting circuit, however the tuner and selector are 110v so they wouldn't work without shore power anyway. I could find a 12v DVD player and use it during boondocking.

At this point, I'm thinking I can put the existing TV above the chair, but reverse the mount so that it will pivot toward the cab-over bed. That way, there is only one TV on board, and if Andy is going to play video games, it can be pivoted toward his bed (the cabinet is too small for the existing TV). The only person who gets left out is whoever is sitting in the single chair, but a mirror mounted on the other wall could solve that problem. I'm going to need to ponder this for a while.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

In the 10 years we have had a TV in our trailer, it has been used twice. Why bother. DS and IPod touch for the games, IPOD for tunes, forget the TV. If you want to watch TV, then get a roonm!!!
------Jake

Ed said...

If it were just me, I'd agree with you, but the family has different ideas... Ed

'Round the Chuckbox said...

I agree with anonymous. However, like you, if my wife cuaght wind of an idea to install a TV in the trailer, then ...