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Upgrading TV's to LED in RV

My latest project is to upgrade the TV's in my 2005 Winnebago class "A" to LED. I have wanted to do this for awhile for viewing pleasure, and to update the look of the coach (most 2007's and newer have flat screens). I forgot to take some "before" pictures, but a found a few of the front TV.

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You can see how the old TV mount hung down and partially blocked the view out the windshield when standing in the coach.

I picked up a 32" Samsung today from Costco that appears to fit the width of the space left from the old TV, slightly overlapping the opening 1/2" on each side. This particular model has a flat lip that should rest against the cabinet nicely. It has rear mounted speakers, but they are aimed down instead of to the rear like most new flat screens. I also ordered a marine grade 22" LED/DVD combo for the bed room that runs on 12 or 110 volts.

I have done this update on my parent's Dolphin and my sister's Dameon with success so I thought this would be easy. Until I removed the old TV from the front panel. The other two coaches had the TV framed with wood and bolted in metal supports. Good old Winnebago has a heavy welded frame supporting the TV that goes behind the cabinets to both sides and the roof of the RV. It is bolted in several places and I would have to pull the cabinets to get it out.

Old TV removed:
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I never liked that big, heavy TV hanging over my head while driving.

Winnebago TV frame pics;
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The bedroom TV was a 10 or 11" portable that sat on a wood shelf in the corner near the ceiling. A real head knocker when trying to sneak into bed at 2am without waking the wife after a great time around the fire. The shelf was fairly easy to remove, I just pried the front trim off, removed the bottom paneling and unscrewed eight large wood screws (need to fill some holes)

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Front TV: The plan is to cut out the bottom flat part of the mount and the three supports out so they end slightly above the bottom of the cabinets. I can then use the supports and the top portion to mount a fabricated hinged mount for the LED (still working on the design of the mount). The LED TV is much lighter and does not have to rest on anything, so I will not need that flat steel plate. I will need to trim down the cover for the removed plate so it fits flush with the bottom of the cabinet, with a cut-out behind the TV for access and sound. I want to reinforce it to securely hold the rear facing camera monitor, more for peace of mind than actual necessity. For that, I picked up some 1/4" plywood.

Since the ceiling is curved, and there are existing screw holes to cover on the cabinet face, I will also need to cut-down the original trim around the old TV to match the new. If the ceiling was flat, I could have mounted the new TV flush against it, like I did with my parents and sisters coach.

The bedroom TV is just going to be mounted with a pull-out type wall mount, the smallest one I can find.

More to come.
 



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Did more LED related upgrades to the RV, but this time it was the lights. I replaced all of the interior lights, and the porch light for around $40. All ebay purchased.

20 of these.
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Light output is nearly the same, but all of them combined are pulling about as many amps as two of the fixtures with incandescent bulbs (2 each, approximately 1.5 amps per bulb).

4 of these

Have not received them yet, but they are for the bedroom reading lights. They look like the lights above, but have a different bottom.

2 of these
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Night light over stove and porch step light. Now I can leave the night light on all night. I am also going to use two of them for the map lights in the Explorer and maybe the rest in my low voltage accent lights in front of the house.

2 of these

Have not received them yet, but they are for the lights over the dinette because the smaller LED's listed above are not bright enough for that location. Sorry about the tiny picture. If the smaller LED's are not bright enough for the low voltage accent lights out front, I will use these.

Now I won't have to worry as much about the family running the battery down by leaving all the lights on. They are all the "warm white" LED's because they seem to look the closest to incandescent lights.
 



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I want to put those in my travel trailer one of these days... Love that idea..

Also my front port lights on my house!!! Need to find something similar shape to a regular bulb that puts out the equivalent of 100W bulb. Thats my preference anyway...
 






I ordered some more bulbs and two 4-way switches for the bedroom reading lamps. They have two 1076 bulbs each and are way too bright for reading if someone (the wife) is trying to sleep.

I also ordered new T-10 blade type automotive plugs and some more LED bulbs. I can use one lower output and one higher output bulb on each lamp. The new switches will allow the bulbs to be used individually or together. Should help keep the complaining down to a minimum and be more versatile.

Replaced all the interior bulbs for the Explorer with LED. The rear cargo lamp has a interesting bulb. I removed the blade type plug on a LED bulb and soldiered the wires to the existing tabs.



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Also, am planning on re-wiring my outdoor lamps for the same T-10 blade type.
 






The 4 1076 bulbs I bought were defective. They blew fuses, then shorted out. The vendor refunded my payment without returning the bulbs. I removed the bases and all the grounds were not wired to the terminal points. Two of the four bulbs functioned when hot wired (the others had some burned out LED's) so I modified them to work off a T10 plug. They are now in the fixture above the dinette as the bulbs in that location were not bright enough.

Waiting for more bulbs, switches and the T10 plugs to arrive for the bedroom reading lights.
 






I have replaced most of the incandescent lights with LEDs in our camper as well. It sure will help with keeping the batteries charged while dry camping.
 






@Rick Repetative pictures
 


















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