Mounting Flat Screen In Bedroom

I put one in my 38' DP a few years back, and am about to put one in my C. For the DP, I over-engineered it, took a piece of 3/4" plywood, cut to reach the studs, and about a foot tall. I painted it white, so it wouldn't stick out like a sore thumb, and mounted it with self-tapping screws along the studs and wood screws in between. I then used a pair of short lag bolts to hold the mount to the new mounting surface I created on the wall. In the front of the coach, I cut a piece of 3/4" plywood and stained it to be similar to the wooden housing for the 12V CRT television. I mounted a small inverter inside the housing, and ran a 2x6 across the housing to be right behind the plywood at the mount height. This was held in at the ends by 6 screws, and then the stained plywood was screwed in all around the perimeter and through the 2x6 as well. Once again, lag bolts into the mount, plywood, and 2x6. This one held a 42" TV.

Both were full-motion mounts as well. I stowed them for travel by pushing them in as far as I could and I used long pieces of velcro that were screwed into the wall behind the TV to wrap over and under, velcroing to each other in front of the screen. This kept them against the walls and prevented them from tilting down on bumps as well. I ran that setup for a couple years (and thousands of miles of full-timing) before selling the coach.

The plan for the install next week is to mount it to a cabinet side. Once again, I'll use a 2x6 on the back side of the cabinet wall (inside the cabinet) to spread out the load, and lag bolts through the wood to secure it. I'm going to try out a different approach to the velcro this time, by putting two small pieces on the top corners of the TV, and screwing the larger pieces to the wall behind it. this would probably be a bit more aesthetically pleasing than a long "strap" of velcro around the TV when not in use.

The bedroom wall where our TV is mounted had plywood backers because it originally had a full length mirror. Didn't want to see that sight in the morning so took down the mirror and put up the television. DW claimed the cubby where the old Sony tube beast was as more storage for her stuff.

Grit dog wrote:
If there truly is 1/2" plywood behind the paneling on the "inside" of the wall (this does not sound right, sounds too heavy to be true. Outside should have plywood, but, anyway...)
Then just some good mollys into the plywood will hold up a little TV, especially if it's direct mount and not on a swivel mount, which will exert more bending moment on the connection. What you have done is more than sufficient and will never come loose from the rv wall. You're good.

It's quite possible that there are plywood backers behind the luan in various places but not the entire wall. Perhaps it was put in there because they expected someone may want to mount a television in that spot, or something like that. :)

myredracer wrote:
I can't imagine it looking very attractive either.

IIRC, the mounting plywood piece I used was about 34" long x 8" High. When the screen is parallel to the wall (or close to that), the plywood can't be seen, the screen blocks it. I made the plywood backer to capture three wall studs. Since I had mount in hand and wanted a good attachment, I counterbored the mount's installation bolt holes and installed the bolts from the back of the plywood. With that schedule, I was able to use two 5/16" bolts for the articulating mount. It is very sturdy and I have no fear that the screen can become deattached during transport.

If there truly is 1/2" plywood behind the paneling on the "inside" of the wall (this does not sound right, sounds too heavy to be true. Outside should have plywood, but, anyway...)
Then just some good mollys into the plywood will hold up a little TV, especially if it's direct mount and not on a swivel mount, which will exert more bending moment on the connection. What you have done is more than sufficient and will never come loose from the rv wall. You're good.

I can't imagine it looking very attractive either.

The 1/8" luan paneling typically used in RVs is pretty strong in itself. Maybe consider a piece of thin sheet metal like say 16 or 18 ga., paint it a color to blend in, and use some Oscar rivets (a type of blind rivet) to attach the sheet metal to the wall. Use some sheet metal screws to attach the mount. RV manufacturers use a sheet metal backing behind wall paneling. If you can do this over a stud, it might reduce any flexing in the paneling.

If you did happen to find the luan paneling showing signs of staples pulling out (unlikely), could always add more staples or use small finishing washers & screws.

There could be some other methods. Are you using a locking TV mount? Some of them as well as non-locking ones can be heavy and add more weight to the wall.

Thanks folks, y'all reaffirmed my thoughts, but DW is totally paranoid about this, I'll get her to read your posts, maybe she won't want to ride back there holding on to the TV. :B

I have a 32" screen hung in a similar manner (used 5/8" plywood instead of plank). It is on an articulating mount and I don't do anything for transport except swing the screen parallel with the wall. It weighs 8 lbs.

Nice space saver, a combination TV mount and barbell rack.

The mount for our flat screens would rattle when we drove down the roads. TVs never came off, but was annoying. Put a couple of 4" memory foam cubes between the TV and wall, making sure not to cover any ventilation holes. No more rattling.