What to buy? Where to put it, How to mount it? Yes: I’m talking about the correct position and way to place a TV in your caravan. Here is a definitive guide to buying and fitting a TV into your caravan or motorhome.
Installing a TV in your caravan or motorhome is different from installing or mounting a TV on the wall of your home due to the lack of space and the wall material is lass stronger than the brickwork which you would normally use to fix your home TV too.
First we have to consider how much space you have to place a TV in your caravan. You need to consider the viewing position of your TV viewers and also the proximity of cooking devices. We suggest a flat surface on the side of a cupboard or an exterior wall. You must also consider where the power points are and if your caravan or motorhome has a pre fitted aerial how close is this to your mounting point.
Now that you have determined your ideal location for your caravan or motorhome you have a rough idea of the space you have and you can now think about buying a TV. We recommend that you buy a specialist 12v or 24v TV which are designed for caravan or motorhome use. Many have DVD players and come with Freeview as standard. If your TV has a DVD player this could impact of the location you place your TV as many DVD players load from the side and you will need enough room at the side to load the disc.
We have an Avtex L215DR 21.5″ 12v TV which we will mount and comes with M4 holes in the back which will fit any standard mounting bracket. We bought a Svensen SV0.5 quick release fixed wall bracket as we wanted a wall bracket which would let us remove the TV easily from the wall when we were out of the caravan.
Place the bracket in the centre of the wall and use a spirit level to make sure that the bracket will be level and mark the holes you will need to drill and the top of the bracket. Drill the holes with the appropriate size of drill and check that the holes line up the the holes in the bracket. You cannot use normal screws to mount your TV so either use nuts and bolts to secure the bracket to the wall or cupboard or use Cabinet Fixing Bolts. These open from the back when you screw them into the wall and this is the method that we used.
Position the bracket over the holes you have drilled and screw/bolt into place. Now you can fix the front plate of the bracket to the back of the TV and mount. As we are using a quick release fixed wall bracket, this makes it really easy to fit the two together as they have a quick release mechanism. Now you have fixed the TV to the wall you need to hide the wiring. We used some self-adhesive micro cable trunking to hide the wires from the TV to the plug and the wire from the TV to the aerial.
Now turn on your TV and enjoy, safe in the knowledge that it has been fixed correctly.