where to put TV whilst travelling ??

[Ian341]

Hi all

We have a challenger 500 that has a tv cabinet beneath the ceiling between the bed and kitchen. Is it safe to leave the TV up here whilst travelling ? At the moment we put the tv on the floor but others i have spoken to say they leave it in the cabinet when travelling. My concern though is if I breaked hard the TV would break the sliding doors holding it in place.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Many Thanks

Ian

 

[Royston]

Hi Ian,

our Tv sits behind us strapped in the rear seat.

I would not recommend leaving it in the cararavan, expecally in the position that you refer to .

Our last van we used to have a tin tea caddy on a self , which had a support bar so we considard it safe to leave there .

On one trip we arrived on site having gone slowly over the speed bumps, only to find that tea caddy had fallen from the shelf onto the worktop below leaving a very big dent on the wooden surface, one that remained untill we traded the van for a newer model. If you had to brake suddenly would hate to guess what sort of damage the telly would do, if it fell from that height.

 

[LMH]

We have an lcd tv and wrap it in thick towels then place it on the floor of the van, surrounded by a couple of duvets and wedged between something.

When travelling, the only thing we put in overhead lockers are plastic crockery items and crisps.

Lisa

 

[Damian]

Hi Ian,

We too have a similar TV cupboard and unless there is facility to firmly anchor the TV in place then travelling with it loose in the cupboard is rather dangerous.

If it were to break loose, the flimsy sliding doors would do nothing to stop it and it would probably take the cupboard and half the ceiling down with it, as well as having a very weighty object falling and the damage it would do to all the other items in close proximity.

We had a small tin of dog food which was in a cupboard, but after some mildly bumpy road, it came out and put a hole in the worktop, and that weighed a fraction of a TV.

 

[Wendy-Norfolk]

We also have the same sliding door set up for our TV. We would never travel with it in the cupboard, I think you are definately asking for trouble! Ours always travel on the floor, between the front seats.

 

[cooky1]

We have a LCD TV and carry it inside a laptop case on the caravan floor. Don't think I would leave it in any high position in the van when travelling.

 

[emmerson2]

Leave it at home and enjoy the countryside!

 

[Ian341]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for the quick replies !

We usually take a normal television with us and we wedge this on the floor between 2 cupboards and wrap it in blankets.

We have now bought an lcd TV, and have thought about placing it face down on the fixed bed and wedging it between the pillows and blankets is this ok or should I purchase a padded bag to carry and transport it in ?

Now I am on the subject of TV's, when connected to EHU is it safe to leave the status booster on 24/7 or should I switch it off when not watching the TV?

Many Thanks

Ian

 

[Rita1]

Agree With Emmo leave it TV at home

)

 

[Ian341]

I wish, if my son found out that i hadn't packed the TV and therefore nowhere to plug his ps3 in then he wouldn't speak to me for the whole holidays. And I think my wife without her Emmerdale and Corrie would also not be speaking to me !!!

The TV is about as important as the food !

Ian

 

[trucker]

Ian, we put the lcd tv tv on the fixed bed inside the folded duvet with pillows around it, done this for over 12 months now no problems

Kevin

 

[Ian341]

Thanks for the advice Kevin,

do you leave the booster on all the time ?

Many Thanks

Ian

 

[JeremyClarksson]

We leave the booster on when on hookup, it will not do any harm unless you are fanatical about saving the planet.

Switch it off on 12V to save as much battery as possible.

 

[trucker]

Ian we use a dish so dont use the arial. Booster is never on

Kevin

 

[colin(bridgend)]

We take an old prtable TV and lay it on the bed - we always make the bed up before leaving home and the tv is placed amongst the pillows and clothes laid flat on the front bed. The tv is used only at breakfast time and last thing at night for the 10:00pm news - we are out virtually all day enjoying the surrounding countryside/facilities just like Emmerson

 

[Dustydog]

Ian

We do the same as Trucker. Well wrapped in the duvet . Never had a problem so far.

Definitely do not tow with the tv hanging on its bracket.

Cheers

Alan

 

[JeremyClarksson]

We hung onto the original box and polystyrene packing use that placed on the floor at the front on non slip mats when travelling and store the box in the back of the car when pitched.

 

[Ian341]

Hi both,

Thanks for the replies, my main concern about leaving it on was that it might have got hot and caught fire.

Was thinking about getting a dish in time for the switchover as I saw a deal by sky called freesat or something like that where you pay a one off fee and get a certain amount of channels so it could be used at home and in the van.

How easy is it to set up the dish and how easily does it get signal? I already have a connection for sky in the front locker so i would just need to get a dish.

Many Thanks

Ian

 

[trucker]

Ian you would need a dish and a digi box, your one from home would do if you have one. Dont get freesat if you have sky just take your viewing card with you. you can pick up a second digi box on E Bay for around

 

[Ian341]

Hi Kevin,

When away last weekend we were pitched behind a sheer bank and I was concerned that we were there for 4 days without any Tv signal which means no evening news. However, our status 315 actually had great signal which was very much unlike it.

Are dishes sensitive to trees ? I think i vaguely remember my neighbour having sky fitted and he had to have the trees behind his house cut down to get signal.

Many Thanks

Ian

 

[trucker]

Ian the lnb on the dish arm needs a clear view to the satalite

if not either poor conection or no conection

Kevin

 

[Ian341]

Thanks for the info Kevin

Many Thanks

Ian

 

[JimC]

Hi Ian

I must be one of the few that leave my LCD flat screen in the ceiling cabinet when travelling. I place a pillar in front of the screen and a cushion behind it, it all fits snug and I just close the sliding door. Had no problems with that for the past 3 years.

Jim

 

[hgv dave]

hi all

we have an old portabe that we use and although its not that heavy i wedge it in with the other heavy items we take with us over the axle so as to make sure the van is balanced for weight.

we are thinking of getting a flat screen with dvd soon so hopefully we wont have too much of a problem with weight,forget the status airel.....buy a mast that clamps to the a frame and a tv airel,only takes 10 mins to set up and have allways had a better picture with it than the status

hgv dave

 

[Lord Braykewynde]

We bought a digital LCD with freeview and carry it in one of those padded bags in the rear well of the car. We also bought a mast and a Image 530/18-2 VHF/UHF/FM Directional Antenna.

Dave, what we did buy but haven't tried out yet is this from Towsure ...Airer/TV Mast Support Stand ..........

it's quite heavy but as you will see it fixes to the tow hitch so can be secured by using the towhitch lock.

I did try to get the Towsure url link but it doesn't let me.