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In general I try not to waste a lot of time watching TV. (They call it the one-eyed monster for a reason.) According to Nielsen the average American spends 1,456 hours every year watching TV - imagine all the other things you could be doing with that time??
But I digress. It is nice to be able to take the edge off after a long day. It helps you feel at home to kick back and catch up with your favorite shows over dinner. So I have a TV - if it can be called that. It's basically just a portable monitor with a Firestick. And it's tiny. I certainly won't be hosting any Super Bowl parties with it. (If you're a fan of The Office it might remind you of Michael's plasma TV.) I've seen some people who have large pull-down projector in their van, which is an idea I might explore for the future. But for now, this is sufficient for my needs.
On the plus side, it seems to use very little power draw, so it isn't a strain on my electrical system. I was not able to find anything with a larger screen that was compact enough for my needs. I'm pleased with the location where I placed it, it doesn't really get in the way of anything else, and it's convenient to watch TV either from my Desk or my Bed.
On my early test trips I wasn't completely happy with the audio. My Sound System is great for music, when I'm in the mood to blast a smooth reggae mixtape to get moving in the morning, but when I'm sitting at my Desk trying to watch a movie with dialogue it's tough to hear sometimes because of the positioning of the speakers (design flaw on my part). So I have recently been experimenting with an alternative: I hook my Anker SoundCore speaker up to the aux cable in the kitchen (I had prewired this with my laptop audio in mind). I haven't had the chance to real-world test this new system yet but I will try it out and report back.
Parts & tools:
Amazon Fire Stick - $35
Lepow 15" monitor - $169
TV monitor wall mount - $20
Anker SoundCore - $45
Mirror - $22
Misc Wood leftovers
Plastic clamps - $16
Titebond wood glue - $0 - leftover from the Bike Rack
Zip ties - $10
Velcro straps - $10
Black paint - $0 - leftover from the Electrical Box build
Barn door lock - $19 - this 'opens' the mirror TV cover to reveal the TV/monitor
Sliding door lock - $8 - this "locks" the TV to the wall to prevent it from jiggling around while I'm driving
Velcro strap - $6 - extra reinforcement for the sliding door lock
Aux cord splitter - $8
Stereo/auxilary jack - $20 for 2
Cost = $410 + sweat equity
Here was my first attempt at a TV mount to cover the ugly exposed pillar in the middle of my wall panels. I overlooked one crucial part of my design, however. The opening at the top was intended for my House Sound System, but I realized too late that there was no way to actually secure the sound system to the wood. I ended up using this under-dash enclosure to attach the stereo system directly to the ceiling (I'll discuss this more in detail in my House Sound System section), which worked fine, but it threw off my dimensions for the wood portion that I had already cut. I had to start over from scratch.
I was pretty pleased with the LePow monitor. It's super lightweight and thin. I connected it to a Fire Stick with a small HDMI adapter. With low-cost streaming apps like Netflix, Philo, and Hulu I can stay fairly entertained on the road.
I went with this small wall-mount bracket to mount it. However, I wasn't sure how to attach the monitor to the mount.
Looking back, I think Loctite or JB Weld probably would have done the trick and looked a bit cleaner. But what I ended up doing was building a wood 'box' for the monitor and screwing the mount into the box.
I cut out three different layers of thin plywood and painted them black.
The monitor fit in nice and snug.
Because the wood was so thin I relied on wood glue instead of screws or nails to hold it all together. This Titebond wood glue is incredibly strong and one bottle lasted me the whole build. Here the wood is held in place with these clamps while the glue takes hold.
I added a cover with a cheap mirror on it. The mirror is kind of ugly too and I've toyed with the idea of removing it. But it's not a bad idea to keep a mirror in the van, to ensure I don't look too crazy before emerging in public.
I used some small velcro straps and zip ties to wrangle all the loose wiring. (This is a bit later in the build after I'd added a cushion and fixed the electrical box, discussed below)
A closer look. These plastic clamps are also handy for directing wiring where you want it to go.
The mount is screwed into a small piece of wood which is attached to the vehicle's pillar using the same crossnut/rivnut method described in the Paneling section.
Aesthetically, I'm not sure how pleased I was with the finished product. It looks a bit amateurish. (Because it is.)
Since the mount can be moved, I had to figure out a way to secure it to the wall to keep it from jiggling around when I'm driving. I attached this lock to the back of the TV box and the wall, which only worked halfway. I've since added a stretchy velcro strap and it stays in place now.
To secure the cover, I toyed around with a few options before settling on some tiny hinges and this barn door lock. I congratulated myself on this creative solution.
Another creative solution I came up with is the fact that the TV is connected to an aux cord splitter. One end stays secured to my House Sound System if I want to play the audio over the main speakers, but I also have the alternative of connecting to one of two aux cord jacks on either side of the 'kitchen.' I've already talked about this a bit in the House Sound System section, but basically, the system is great for music but sometimes not-so-great for movies with low noise or dialogue, so I've experimented with using my Anker SoundCore instead.
Here's a look at the semi-finished TV mount midway through the build. This is how it appears when closed with the mirror.
And here it is opened to view the monitor.
Even after my TV mount was "finished" a good portion of this ugly pillar was still showing and I wasn't exactly sure what to do with it. It stayed that way for the first few trips.
Here's what I ended up building to cover the ugly exposed pillar still visible under the TV. I wanted a bunch of outlets, and especially USB outlets, to be abe to recharge camera batteries and headphones and other electronics easily. Four of the outlets run off my inverter and only one runs off shore power (not sure what I was thinking there) so I have a couple gadgets that plug into the one shore power outlet when I'm hooked up at an RV park.
We're nearing the end of the build. Are you exhausted yet?!? Or just excited to hit the road!?? I'm both. Let's talk about the biggest headache of all: the Water System!
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