Afraid to Mount TV bracket

[kelleyaynn]

Our travel trailer, a Starcraft 21FBS has an area marked on the wall where a TV mounting bracket should go. It is on an exterior wall. My husband is afraid to mount the TV bracket because the screws are longer than the wall is thick. He thought about using a piece of 1 x 4 to put between the bracket and the wall, but he is still afraid of drilling to the outside of the camper.

I don't really want to spend the money to pay the local RV dealer to install the TV mounting bracket. Any suggestions on what to do? I could only find info on installing the bracket on an inside wall in previous forum posts.

Thanks for any help!

Kelley

[kelleyaynn]

Thank-you all for your advice. Life got in the way, and I haven't been back for a while. We are bringing the camper home in a few weeks to get it ready for the season. I'm sure with all the suggestions we'll be able to figure out how to mount our TV without undue injury to our trailer.

Kelley

[kelleyaynn]

GrandpaKip wrote:

Travelin2 wrote:

kelleyaynn wrote:
Our travel trailer, a Starcraft 21FBS has an area marked on the wall where a TV mounting bracket should go. It is on an exterior wall. My husband is afraid to mount the TV bracket because the screws are longer than the wall is thick. He thought about using a piece of 1 x 4 to put between the bracket and the wall, but he is still afraid of drilling to the outside of the camper.

I don't really want to spend the money to pay the local RV dealer to install the TV mounting bracket. Any suggestions on what to do? I could only find info on installing the bracket on an inside wall in previous forum posts.

Thanks for any help!

Kelley

Borrow your girlfriends husband to do it. Yours is broken.

Not helpful and not nice.

Agreed.

[bob2194]

Lynnmor wrote:
Many brands of trailers have a piece of thin steel sheet metal just under the wallboard. Use a strong magnet to find and outline that piece of steel and then mount the TV using sheet metal screws that only penetrate the wall by about 1/2".

If there is no piece of sheet metal to be found, then you would need to use a stud finder and use screws that are less than wall thickness.

Before you do anything, we should know if you have laminated sidewalls with aluminum framing, or "stick & tin" walls with wood studs and aluminum siding.

Thank you for that piece of great info. I wanted to put a small tv in the bunkroom, but was concerned about where to put the bracket. With the info on the metal plate. I checked the back wall, and there was a piece of metal that I can mount a tv bracket on. Great info. thanks for that.

[nineoaks2004]

I cut a nice piece of 1/2" plywood to fill the area where the TV goes, I sanded and, stained it then mounted it with screws to the studs, I bought a TV bracket at HF for a few dollars, then mounted this on the plywood and installed the TV, works in the bracket works great and is sturdy

[Ralph_Cramden]

Huntindog wrote:

Ralph Cramden wrote:

Huntindog wrote:
A block of wood, such as 3/4 plywood can be used to span the distance between studs or other suitable attachment points. Use lag bolts to attach the wood to the wall, and bolts to attach the TV to the wood.

It might have to be a large piece. On a laminated wall panel the aluminum "studs" are not on any standard spacing as in a house. They could be as much as 4' or more apart. They only put them where absolutely necessary, most times the window openings dont have perimeter framing except on large windows. The luan panels do not necessarily break on the studs either. That's why they sandwich a piece of 20 gauge sheet metal between the inner plywood panel and foam core for mounting items.

In reality those panels are super strong as long as the adhesive bonds and something does not delaminate or the foam pulls apart.

I did not know that the construction type had been settled... One person asked about it, but the OP did not answer.

Still spreading the load over a large area with a piece of plywood can work well.... Plywood comes in 4 x 8 sheets, so that is not a limiting factor... Depending on the layout of the TT, the plywoods lower edge can rest on a solid surface, such as a countertop, or even the floor. One is really only limited by their imagination, or the ability to think outside of the box.

The OP did not have to answer, a Starcraft 21FBS is laminated.

[Huntindog]

Ralph Cramden wrote:

Huntindog wrote:
A block of wood, such as 3/4 plywood can be used to span the distance between studs or other suitable attachment points. Use lag bolts to attach the wood to the wall, and bolts to attach the TV to the wood.

It might have to be a large piece. On a laminated wall panel the aluminum "studs" are not on any standard spacing as in a house. They could be as much as 4' or more apart. They only put them where absolutely necessary, most times the window openings dont have perimeter framing except on large windows. The luan panels do not necessarily break on the studs either. That's why they sandwich a piece of 20 gauge sheet metal between the inner plywood panel and foam core for mounting items.

In reality those panels are super strong as long as the adhesive bonds and something does not delaminate or the foam pulls apart.

I did not know that the construction type had been settled... One person asked about it, but the OP did not answer.

Still spreading the load over a large area with a piece of plywood can work well.... Plywood comes in 4 x 8 sheets, so that is not a limiting factor... Depending on the layout of the TT, the plywoods lower edge can rest on a solid surface, such as a countertop, or even the floor. One is really only limited by their imagination, or the ability to think outside of the box.

[Ralph_Cramden]

Huntindog wrote:
A block of wood, such as 3/4 plywood can be used to span the distance between studs or other suitable attachment points. Use lag bolts to attach the wood to the wall, and bolts to attach the TV to the wood.

It might have to be a large piece. On a laminated wall panel the aluminum "studs" are not on any standard spacing as in a house. They could be as much as 4' or more apart. They only put them where absolutely necessary, most times the window openings dont have perimeter framing except on large windows. The luan panels do not necessarily break on the studs either. That's why they sandwich a piece of 20 gauge sheet metal between the inner plywood panel and foam core for mounting items.

In reality those panels are super strong as long as the adhesive bonds and something does not delaminate or the foam pulls apart.

[Huntindog]

A block of wood, such as 3/4 plywood can be used to span the distance between studs or other suitable attachment points. Use lag bolts to attach the wood to the wall, and bolts to attach the TV to the wood.

[GrandpaKip]

Travelin2 wrote:

kelleyaynn wrote:
Our travel trailer, a Starcraft 21FBS has an area marked on the wall where a TV mounting bracket should go. It is on an exterior wall. My husband is afraid to mount the TV bracket because the screws are longer than the wall is thick. He thought about using a piece of 1 x 4 to put between the bracket and the wall, but he is still afraid of drilling to the outside of the camper.

I don't really want to spend the money to pay the local RV dealer to install the TV mounting bracket. Any suggestions on what to do? I could only find info on installing the bracket on an inside wall in previous forum posts.

Thanks for any help!

Kelley

Borrow your girlfriends husband to do it. Yours is broken.

Not helpful and not nice.

[Travelin2]

kelleyaynn wrote:
Our travel trailer, a Starcraft 21FBS has an area marked on the wall where a TV mounting bracket should go. It is on an exterior wall. My husband is afraid to mount the TV bracket because the screws are longer than the wall is thick. He thought about using a piece of 1 x 4 to put between the bracket and the wall, but he is still afraid of drilling to the outside of the camper.

I don't really want to spend the money to pay the local RV dealer to install the TV mounting bracket. Any suggestions on what to do? I could only find info on installing the bracket on an inside wall in previous forum posts.

Thanks for any help!

Kelley

Borrow your girlfriends husband to do it. Yours is broken.

[Atlee]

kelleyaynn wrote:
Our travel trailer, a Starcraft 21FBS has an area marked on the wall where a TV mounting bracket should go. It is on an exterior wall. My husband is afraid to mount the TV bracket because the screws are longer than the wall is thick. He thought about using a piece of 1 x 4 to put between the bracket and the wall, but he is still afraid of drilling to the outside of the camper.

I don't really want to spend the money to pay the local RV dealer to install the TV mounting bracket. Any suggestions on what to do? I could only find info on installing the bracket on an inside wall in previous forum posts.

Thanks for any help!

Kelley

Is your Starcraft 21FBS a "stick and tin" model or the laminated fiberglass and aluminum frame? Not sure if that would make a difference with the type of screws you used to mount the TV.

My Jayco Jay Flight 23RB is "stick and tin" so I'd probably used wood screws to mount a TV, unless Jayco advised differently.

You may want to double check with the manufacturer to make sure.

[Lynnmor]

Did you do the magnet test yet?

[OleManOleCan]

1 1/4" screws are plenty long enough to hold most TVs.
I've mounted TVs in my last couple trailers. Piece of cake.
Save the longer screws for some job at home.

[GrandpaKip]

In another camper, I attached a piece of 3/4” finished plywood to the aluminum wall studs with sheet metal screws, then attached the bracket to the plywood. It was a 19” flat panel that stayed on the wall until we got our present camper.