Updating TV setup

[Ben]

My 1997 Liberty has a TV above the drivers seat and one in the bedroom. The bedroom TV gets it's source from a switcher in the overhead above the drivers seat. The problem is that everything uses the type of cabling that is used for cable TV, which limits what I can hook to it when updating my bus.

Belkin's RemoteTV looks like a good solution. It includes a transmitter that has inputs for audio and video (you can choose between component, S-video, etc.) that you can hook to your primary audio/video source and a receiver that you can hook to a second TV that is up to 350 feet away. It also can send the commands from your IR remote control so you can control your video equipment from the remote TV location.

http://www.pureav.com/images/remotetv/lg_remoteTV_chart.jpg

You can find more about it at the following web site:
http://www.pureav.com/remotetv/

I haven't ordered it yet, but might do so very soon... let me know if you have found a better solution.

[MangoMike]

Hi Ben,

This setup looks very cool. However, since it's wireless do you think there's going to be an issue about interference from the engine? Mike Kerley should weigh in on this subject.

What's your ultimate hookup plan, as your obviously looking to do more than making the remote work from the bedroom.

Am enjoying your blog. Keep up the good work.

Mike

[Just Plain Jeff]

This seems like a very slick setup.

You may find, if you install it, that you will become a real magnet at campgrounds...just like the guy that has the wireless router in his coach.

Everyone wants to park next to him.

BTW, any progress on your vanity plate yet?

[mike kerley]

The TV challenge!

I have tried numerous wireless systems, 950MHZ up to the 6 GIG pro range and was unhappy with all. Surrounded by steal and other electronic gadgets, there are just to many mixes of signals, harmonics and reflections to produce a good clean signal 99% of the time (we try for 100, but settle for 99.9).

I ended up running three new RG-6 cables from the rear of the bus to the front compartment over the drivers seat. Cables were installed by Ken Robertson RV and they did a nice job, sealed everything well and they work. I ran three for the two satellite cables needed for a TIVO unit, plus a second to send RF (tv channel audio and video) from the front to rear or i can run S-video, for a little better picture, on that same cable. I still have the old cable from the rear switcher which will feed whatever the switcher selects to a separate input on the front tv. Confusing? My wife hasn't figured it out yet.

I know have HDTV (with TIVO) off satellite in the front, rear and outside either from roof top antenna (in motion) or separate antenna when parked at one of two home bases. Outside configuration works best when parked because we get more HD channels. Our KVH roof-top unit can be programmed to switch to other satellites for additional HD channels, but then all receivers will be "seeing" that satellite,which may not have the channels someone in the other area wants to watch. So, for now, this works best.

We use a Harmony 880 remote control for the front unit. It has a small sensor which I hid in the air duct over the front area. The IR senders for this unit then are attached to the stereo, the tv and the HDTV direct tv TIVO and the remotes work flawlessly (well almost ). I'm very pleased with the remote operation.

If you are going to try a wireless setup, try to buy it from a store that will allow you to return it if your not pleased. I did, and I did!

[Ben]

What's your ultimate hookup plan, as your obviously looking to do more than making the remote work from the bedroom.

What's my ultimate hookup plan? Well...

1) I want to replace my old B/W backup camera with a newer one and am thinking of installing one of those GPS/Backup camera combo units (the glare on the CRT when the sun comes in the window makes the screen almost useless at times and I wouldn't mind being able to see a little further behind me). If I can find one of those that offers both aux inputs and an iPod adaptor, then I could use it as my primary audio system.

http://i11.ebayimg.com/04/i/06/c3/6c/8e_1_sbl.JPG

I'd also want to run the sources to the rear so the audio can be synced throughout the bus. I mainly want to do this so that I can still hear the directions from the GPS while I listen to music (my stand-alone GPS doesn't work well this way). I'd also like one that has bluetooth, so it will mute the tunes when my cell rings and will display who is calling and I can use the speakers in the bus as a hands-free kit. Then I could hook that unit up to a few amps to run the 8 speakers that are currently in the front of the coach and add a subwoofer for better base.

For the ultimate GPS setup, check out:
http://www.churchillnavigation.com/at1.html
It only has 1 terabyte of data and costs up to $7000. I'll have to talk them into a sponsorship! :D

2) Replacing the rear car stereo with one that has an aux input (to get the sources from the front of the bus) and adding amps that can handle all six speakers that are in the bedroom (right now, two of them are wired directly to the tv just like in the front of the bus). I might also add a subwoofer in the rear if I can find space for it

3) I want to replace my living room TV with a larger unit that will deliver a better looking image when it's hooked to a computer (more about that in a minute), or when hooked to a high-def source. Right now I'm thinking about a 32" LCD. I just wish they were availble in true High-Def (1920x1080 resolution instead of the 1366 x 768 that all the 32 inchers seem to be). Since it's not truely high-def, that means that every signal will need to be scaled up (from standard def TV and 720P HD) or scaled down (from 1080i HD), so the picture quality will be a lot less than what I really want. I haven't been able to find a 32" monitor with a resolution of 1920x1080, which would be true high-def.

Replacing the TV will mean re-doing some of the cabinet work above the drivers seat, which I'm not looking forward to since the current setup looks so clean. Replacing the TV with an LCD will also open up a bunch of space behind the unit where I hope to store all my hard drives (although it might not be the best spot due to heat, but the guys at Liberty said they would modify the AC output to get some cool air into that area if I need to).

4) Possibly replace the rear TV with an LCD. I haven't figured out how to sneak a 32"er in the back... although I could fix a huge one on the wall between the bathroom and bedroom if I wanted to. I could then use a wireless keyboard to browse the web from that room if I really wanted to.

5) Install in-motion dish that can pick up high-def sources. My coach just has a traditional TV antenna (not Sat dish).

6) Install something that will allow me to record two sources at once (TiVo or the like). The newest ones will allow you to record High-def material. I'd also like this unit to include a DVD burner, so I can off load shows without filling up the hard drive and Ideally be able to watch a different program (recorded or live) on the bedroom tv while something else is being played in the living room.

7) Install a system to access my 2+ terabyte music/movie collection. This could be a MacMini that uses the TV's and a remote to access everything and would display album art, etc. Or, I might use a Sonos system, which would allow me to do everything with a remote control, which wouldn't need the TV's to be turned on to change sources. The sonos system wouldn't help to get my digital movie collection going though since it only deals with audio (but I still need to test it to see if the engine causes interferance with the wireless system that it uses).

http://www.sonos.com/graphics/products/cr/cr100/cr100_hero.jpg

That's where the Mac mini might come in. It could serve up all my music and movies and act as a server so I could access all my data from my laptop (I have about 5 terabytes of storage total and would rather not have to manually hook all those drives to my laptop each time I need to access a few files).

8) Install an outside audio system. I have some very small, but great sounding speakers that would fit nicely in a bay and could use the Sonos system to get the tunes out there.

9) I'll use VNC to access the MacMini from the laptop. VNC allows the output of my MacMini to show up in a window on my laptop where I can control it using the keyboard and trakpad of my laptop. That way I don't have to always have one of the TV's on to see the MacMini's output.

10) Install a EVDO router, which will allow me to use my EVDO card to get internet access wirelessly from all of my computers.

I think that covers the first stage of my audio/video upgrade :D

[MangoMike]

Yep,

That's a little more than remoting the rear TV. You're going to have to expound more at POG as it's all very appealing.

Thanks
Mike

[Jerry Winchester]

If I just bring all the electronic gadgets I have and the cords and some extra wires, maybe Ben can morph it all into something out on the foreskin of technology?

I can't be cutting edge like Mike, but if we can both stay ahead of Jon, then he will have trouble sleeping. He has already lost the avionics arms race with those old steam gauges he has.........:eek:

[Jon Wehrenberg]

You guys don't have to worry about Jon.

I was going to ask someone to translate what Ben said into language Lew and I could understand.

I'll be happy if in the next decade or two I can learn how to look at my email when I am on the road. (That's a joke Ben. I don't care.):rolleyes:

[lewpopp]

Hey Jon,....Ben either has a great speach writer or copied something out of a book. Isn't that plagherizing? Nuts, I can't spell it.

I jut installed a shower radio in the shower after the old one finally lost it's range. It cost me $5.04 at Wall Mart. Too high tech for most of you who cannot follow Ben.

Good God Ben, get a job.

[mike kerley]

If I'm cutting edge, its with a "real dull knife".

Its a daily struggle to keep up with the grandkids. I used a slide rule in college!

[Just Plain Jeff]

Looks like Ben has a plan.

One question I would have with a long-term electronics upgrade (and one that I heard from a guy who is an on-the-road producer of ESPN programming) is that he consistently had big problems with the power sources to his gear.

I know absolutely nothing about this, but he mentioned something about square/sine wave problems which affected the performance of recorders, editors, computers and the like.

Probably a good thing to do is to find some electrical generating wizard to help design a great power source architecture from which to develop a power source that will support both near and long term electrical demand requirements.

Since nuclear power seems to have gone out of fashion, there may have to be some creative thinking in developing such a power source.

Before I would make any kind of an expenditure, let's see how I would put this, I would wait until after the POG rally as there is going to be someone showing up near the end who is going to have real news about what Prevost is doing about monitoring chassis functions and upgraded electronics...if they are willing to go public with it.

I am biting my tongue until it bleeds. Oh, how I would like to write what we have just learned.

[lewpopp]

Speaking of TV updates. Is Mike Kerley coming?

[Jeff Bayley]

Since I'm new I'm browsing old topics and found this one back from April started by Ben.

To Ben and others and for what it's worth. I live in my rig full time and I'm tech friendly also and not afraid to wire stuff in. I installed a 42" Plasma in my first coach along with updating the stereo in the front with an XM head unit. I also put a 32" LCD in my latest coach in the bedroom and if I will be pleased to show off how to make one fit with ease in the bedroom of just about any conversion without fussing with a ceiling mechanisim. I forefeighted the top half of one of my bedroom windows and it fits perfect in between the window trim pieces (added by the converters) that run perpendicular to the floor and ceiling and which I used to bracket the TV to. It took me a whole day just to measure and shop for the right TV which lended itself to the installation. It looks totally pro and factory and I'm not a master craftsman but I took my time and made it work. The top half of the window that covered is not big deal because I still have the view when I'm lying in bed out of the bottom half of the window. The gain was well worth the sacrifice of the partial loss of view. Like Ben suggested, the space where the old style TV was in the bedroom became storage. I had a cabinet maker install shelves for the Direct TV receiver and DVD's. I got Bose Lifestyle subwoofer installed behind the shelves in a crawl space that was unuseable space for just about anything else and I put some black acoustic material in the rear of the shelves to let the sound through.

I decided to forget about tearing into the TV in the front of the bus. Too much work and the bedroom is where I care about watching TV, not the front.

I'll get to the GPS solution in a minute. First, forget about all the complicated stuff and over gizmoing yourself. All the fancy stuff is not really neccessary to acheive some of Bens goals which I also thought about. To coordinate the sound, I just bought a $50 sattalite radio receiver which broadcast the signal using it's built in FM tranmitter. Whala. Instant coordinated sound in the front, the bedroom and the bay of the bus even if you have a seperate dedicated radio in the bay. Just tune to the sattalite station and your all set with the same channel coach wide. I took the time to snake an antenna through to the roof for the sattalite radio so I get steady reception instead of locating the antenna near the dash like I did at first.

You can replace your head unit if want as an option but for most people the sound is acceptable. For guys like Ben and I who want to rock you can replace the speakers the converter used with newer high end replacments. If your head unit does't have enough power to help the new speakers reach their full potential, you can consider upgrading the head unit with a high power one and avoid the need for a seperate amplifier. You'll likly loose the use of your multidisk changer which I think most converstions have because the proprietary cable between the changer and the existing head unit won't work with your new head unit unlesss you use the same brand and then it's a mabye. I went ahead and did this on my first Prevost 2 years ago because I didn't care about the changer anyway. I used the high power head unit I suggested with enough built in power to drive the new speakers I upgraded to but elected to use a dedicated mono amp to drive the subwoofer I placed behind the drivers seat. The MOST amazing sound and I was very satisfied. I looked forward to slidding behind the wheel and driving in an entirely different way. I went form "Oh I have to drive again" to "Break Time!". If you decide to leave the existing head unit but still wanted a little boost in your sound you could try a self amplified sub woofer but you'll have to get 12 power to it. Depending on your floorplan you have to hunt for where you can install everything neatly. You might be able to take power straigh up through the floor from the house battery bay by drilling a whole or you might be able to power something like this using 110 volt and house style amp but your using a larger parts going with home components like this. By the way, don't bother trying to run new speaker wire. Just use what's in place. The gain in sound is not worth the trouble to replumb. I shopped for speakers that installed right where the old ones were with no modifications to the hole needed.

So that's how I found my happy medium. Now the only thing you still need to address is the GPS. I use my laptop with Microsoft Streets and Trips. There's another software that a friend of mine mentioned called Co Pilot (I think) which has info on bridge heights and stuff but I don't plan on tracking that down. The Microsoft interface is very easy and intuative to use. It costs a little over $100 for the software and the GPS sensor. I tried the Dolorem brand package prior and it was so bad and hard to use that I almost never tried the Microsoft Streets and Trips which is super easy to use. No manual required. My laptop sits right on my flat dash without the need for any velcro and has never come close to falling off. The screen is much larger than any othe stand along or stereo combo GPS you'll find AND the options and features on the software are more robust than the stand alone GPS's. For sound, either forget about like I do, or get some micro speakers that plug into the lap top and silicone in place but I couldn't find a place to hide the wires. I find that with the extra large screen I can see good enough that I don't need the sound. Can't stand that the sound of that bitch anyway.

I find that I'm still deciding what floor plan and features are important to me on the various conversions and I don't want to throw my full weight into customizing a coach until I land on one that I'm going to keep for at least 5 years. I figure a used XLII will be $400k soon for a non slide and I'll go for broke on that (my third) bus. Although I live and work from my bus full time and am very internet dependent, I've also elected against broadband sattalite for present. My Verizon card works just fine and it works when I'm moving. $5k for the sat seems overpriced. I went to the Data Strom users forum yesterday after seeing a post here for that forum and there is a topic there discussing the use of the air cards (like the Verizon) I found it interesting how many of the Data Storm users rely on this for another redundant way to connect OR a primary way if trees are blocking or bad weather although I beleive the Data Strom punches through the weather better than other (smaller) dishers.

If anyone including Ben has issues wiht using too much band width and inadvertanly getting cancelled by Verizon, I have a suggestion. Get two Verizon cards and alternate them. I have one for my laptop and one for my fiances lap top to simply life instead of trying to keep a router in play and I also have a Sprint card for back up if the Verizon doesn't work which is hardly ever. The ONLY place it has not worked is the Grand Canyon. Worked fine at White Sands Missle site in the middle of nowhere New Mexico. I'm constantly amazed at how good the service is.

Here is a posting I copied from another site called: http://www.evdoforums.com

(excerpt)
there are dual wan routers which can bond bandwidth, maybe i could get 2 sprint and two verizon cards amd mux them to make one fast feed? i am leaning towards a f2 or f3 but am considering anything i can get thats fast. (end excerpt)

I haven't taken the time to dig into this yet. Can anyone else includnig techy Ben take a turn at commenting on this possible way to daisy two card together and increase band width?

Can you guys tell that I'm not afraid to type ? Hope this info is useful and not hot air. I'm still feeling my way through the forums.

Jeff

[MangoMike]

Jeff,

Thanks for taking the time to post. It would be really helpful if you listed some details of all your efforts. Such as Model #'s and prices on speakers, type of sub woofer, model of your LCD tv in bedroom suppliers and maybe some pixs. This is info would save a lot of us trial and error time.

Thanks

Mike

[Jeff Bayley]

Mike- No problem on the additional info and pictures. I took before and afters. Will try to post my first photos here on this reply. Unfortunately I didn't take photos of tearing all the fascia and trim parts down but it wasn't as scary as I thought. The main thing I was worried about was taking something apart and not being able to get it to fit back in place again but it was fine.

Not sure where the pictures are going to show up (at the end ?) but here goes. The TV I found after an entire day measuring various ones between Comp USA, Best Buy and others was a Hewlett Packard model HP LC3200N. I think it was about $1,800 in January. Probably less now. It measures 31.5" straight across in case you want to check the space between your two vertical trim pieces to see if it will work but I've glanced at a few other interiors of other converters and these trim pieces are usually just like the ones on mine (Royal). To be sure, the pieces I'm referring to are used by the converter to cover up the factory shells seem between the two windows. Mine have about 1.2" to 1.5" of overhang. When installing the TV, this would be defined as "recess" I suppose because the edges of the TV can go behind this recess if necessary. My installation came almost exactly perfect with very little of the HP's TV frame going behind the trim pieces. It is as custom and perfect of a fit that I could have asked for. The depth of the TV is also perfect giving about 1/4 to 1/2 inch of space behind the TV so it doesn't rub the window and make noise from vibration.

Now, the other challenge with this (in ad to finding a TV that fit's) was to find one that I could bracket. How the heck was I going to do that? I have to stop and say that I spent quite a bit of time figuring this out. It seems so simple now but I was scratching my head for a while. Anyway, most TV's have machine screw holes in the rear provisioned for using the TV with a wall mounted bracket. This won't work because there is no room for the bracket unless you want the TV to wind up sticking out into the walk way and in my non slide I can barely get around the bed as it is so I could not afford this. I settled on buying some 1" aluminum flat bar at Home Depot to make my own bracket. I was going to bend the aluminum so it had and L shape at either end and screw the flat bar to the trim pieces and drill holes to match the factory holes on the rear of the TV meant for the bracket. This is a viable option but I wound up saving myself that extra step because of Plan B which worked. I noticed that this particular TV came with external speakers which ran the length of the frame and mounted to the sides of the TV. This was perfect for two reasons. First, you want to save space by using your existing speakers in the bedroom and allowing you to get a smaller TV instead of one with built in speakers (which most of them have). The speakers are integrated by the frame winds up being larger. But besides being able to discard the speakers on the HP (since they were external) this severed a VERY important second purpose. The holes in the rear of the TV made to screw the speakers on were all the way on the side edges of the frame in the rear and I was able to use a 4 standard small L brackets the two converter trim pieces that run vertically (and that I keep referring to over and over). More on this in a minute. Anyway, this was a better option than trying to string the flat bar around the back because the TV got even closer to the window (to protrude less).

To complete the modification, I used a hole saw and opened up a hole between the old TV location and the new TV location. The new hole is hidden from view after you replace the vertical trim pieces. Run the power cord and all your cables for picture and sound through there and then connect it all up to the Direct TV receiver and so forth that now sits where the TV used to.

Back to attaching the TV using the L brackets. I had to remove the top (horizontal) trim piece in order to remove the two vertical trim pieces. I reassembled these three pieces together laying them face down on the bed and carefully positioned the TV to the vertical pieces using the brackets and the unused speaker housing holes (threw the speakers out and used other speakers like I said prior). Since I'm not a master craftsman (just determined) I took at least two hours measuring and remeasuring and figuring out the depth and this and that to make sure I got the TV right where I wanted it. After I got that bracketed in place, I removed the top piece in order to start putting it up on the wall. The TV stays connected to the vertical pieces and is now boxed in place as I raised it up preframed. I had to do it like this because I couldn't get around to bracket it in otherwise unless you were to remove the window and get in there from the rear. Jeez, this is an article I guess. Anyway, before you put the frame back in place, now is the time to provision all the optional cables you may want now or in the future by connecting them to the rear of the TV and running them into your old TV bay and marking them and letting them hang in case you want to rearrange / add something later on. Otherwise you have to tear it out again (1/2 hour after you know what you've done) in order to get behind there.

I think this is one upgrade you can do to a coach in order to "update it". Trying to retrofit a drop down mechanism is not practical in my opinion. Now, if you happened to have a bed that runs the length of the coach instead of a cross queen I can show you what I did on my first coach. I got a 42" Plasma to fit where a cabinet used to be and that one really rocks but with my cross queen floor plan I hit a wall and it took a really long time for me to figure out how to make it work. Since my other floor plan is very rare I won’t bother discussing that one. Since I dry camp most of the time and like to shop for a view, I was reluctant to cover up my window using this method but when I’m lying in bed you I still get some view out of the bottom of that window so it’s not a total loss and you also still get the full ventilation. If you stay in RV parks instead of dry camp like me then the view portion is not as important because you’re only missing seeing your neighbor part of the time instead landscape like I want see whenever I can.

I think this installation could be replicated in most coaches and if someone was inclined they could offer to do this for other coach owners and make themselves some pocket change. Once you do this once you can do it again in the fraction of the time. I took one day to pick out the TV, about 3 hours looking for the right parts in Home Depot and at least one day installing it. I’ll be happy to show it if anyone catches up with me on the road or at a rally, etc. I’m in the parking lot of Mira Loma Prevost as I write and will be hovering around So. Cal for a month or two. I would gladly have paid someone to do this for me but in my experience you can't find anyone to do stuff like this. I don't even know how a coach company could have done this for me because of having to pick out the right size TV for the application. Some jobs are just impractical to outsource. Besides, I get to brag to people that I bring on the coach that I did it myself. Once you tackle a couple of projects like this your confidence goes up a little and your not so intimidated and the MAIN thing is that you make sure the work is done RIGHT. If someone has another neat modification they know how to do maybe we could help each other.

How'd I do Mike ?

Jeff

[MangoMike]

Jeff,
That's what I'm talkin' about! Details are great and will certainly help the next guy. Everyone who undertakes a project in his/her (that's for you Debi) bus should document the steps involved and add pixs, no matter how elementary (read boring to guys like Jon). There are a lot of NOOB's out there and this will definetly help someone. I've tried to do it on my site www.prevoman.com with some basic stuff and plan on adding more down the road. Jon has been great in adding some HD stuff on the front page of this site.

If you don't mind, I would still like to hear some details on your upgraded stereo/speaker system as it sounds like something that should be added to the Mothership.

Thanks for the effort.
Mike

[lewpopp]

Jeff, Very interesting. I have the coach with the bed running the same direction as the coach and so do a lot of us. I think we would like you to elaborate a bit on what you did for that big tv. thanks.

Mike Kerley. Now's your time to perk up and get in here. Your lovely wife showed me your tv conversion in the front of your coach. Real neat and I am looking into something like that only I have a head knocker problem already.

Lew

[rmboies]

Jeff,
That's what I'm talkin' about! Details are great and will certainly help the next guy. Everyone who undertakes a project in his/her (that's for you Debi) bus should document the steps involved and add pixs, no matter how elementary (read boring to guys like Jon).
Mike

:D Thanks Mike and all the other ladies here thank you as well, I am sure. I too have enjoyed Jeff's detailed descriptions. One of my "jobs" in the bus is to be in charge of working the sound and video systems. Bob is no help with those but then again, I am no help with the engine either:rolleyes: I will say that if we ever build a coach, I will build it so that each system is controlled independently. I am not a fan of one control works all because it seems that one control never works them all:mad: Anyone else find this to be true?

Debi and non geek BOB-00

[win42]

Lew: You have been sleeping at the wrong end of the bed, turn around. Put the screen on the coach rear wall and enjoy.
Besides that you do too much sleeping, we need to hear from you more often.
Your Pitcher
Harry
Humm Baby Humm !!

[Jeff Bayley]

Glad to know my postings are getting read and not being used to solve insomnia which is when I mainly get to writing them. I think I'm winning the longest poster trophy if they award one at POG parties.

I'll tell more about the Stereo in front and then the 42" Plasma install in the back. I thik it's better to keep these shorter and then answer follow up questions so I don't do information overload.

Stereo. I put an Alpine unit because it had the XM Tuner intergrated in it and I wanted to keep the installation clean. No external amp needed, it has high power amp bulit in and it drives the 4 Diamond brand speakers very load with no distortion. I replaced the speakers with upgrades that were the same size. Mine were in the ceiling with the speaker grills completely accessable. Some of you have speakers hidden behind the fabric covered trim pieces. Search the pleats for several screws that let them remove. In another bus I have, those had tiny kenwoods in the back and to get better sound here I'm going to have to open the hole up more and have a speaker grill exposed when I'm done but I can cover that with matching fabric (if I can find it). Use the existing speaker wire.

Now, I DiD put a mono amplifier made to work with a sub woofer. It drives the sub and nothing more. I think it was about $200. I mounted it inside the front drop down bumber but other buses might have room for it inside somewhere, maybe even behind the dash. That's where I put mine and I fished the wiring down through some holes that were alread there near the left drivers foot (or maybe hip) area. Look around there and maybe with the drivers side access doors open and see if you've got some wires you can follow the path on. The subwoofer was JL Audio inside a truck box. Truck speaker boxes are fairly small and tappered desined to fit in the space behind a autombile truck seat and it worked here also. Would not fit in my Royal. Seat is different. So I haven't done the sound in the front yet. Still pondering best way to do that.

For the 42" Plasma in the non cross queen that faces front to back. Mine was in an Angola and the door between bed and bathroom was off center so one wall was large and one was to the other side was small. The large wall had the TV cabinet and a storage bin. We reconstructed it so the new TV would be installed and the same angle the old TV followed. This was good becuase the wall was not big enough to mount the TV flat, only at the angle. So the edge of the TV goes all the way...........forget it. I'll put some pictures and stop with the words for now. Ran the cabeling through the ceiling across to the A/V closet. For sound I used come computer speakers that come with a subwoofer. $100-$200 will buy you all you could ever need. This has it's own amp built in and I like these becuase I want to use the lowerst number of components as possible. I did'nt want to install a home amplifier for this. If you have a Bose Lifestyle this would work or many might already have another home audio receiver. Use what is already there I say but if you want to add speakers for the TV, then the non sub speakers that come with the computer kit come in different styles. I just siliconed mine to the bottom of my TV case as you can see from the photos.

Jeff

[Ben]

Hey Jeff,

I recognize that bus! I went for a ride in it with you back when I was first looking into busses (somewhere in Florida). You almost drove me to the airport, but you got way too low on fuel and I had a grab a cab instead. That plasma felt huge since it was so close to the bed.

I was working with Bob Dingle at the time (I can't remember if you introduced me, or if he introduced me to you).

[Jeff Bayley]

Ben-

Absolutly correct sir! I remembered you also as the Photo Shop expert. I was waiting to see if you remembered. You owe me a Photo Shop lesson! Good thing you didn't buy my 94 quite frankly. The motor blew up on me out of the blue for no apparent reason what so ever. It is sitting in GA. and I've been trying to network here to find out where to get an engine at a fair shake. I saw the pictures of some of your travels. Right on! I'm in So. Cal. dude. I'm in Malibu. I think your roving in N. Cal right ?

Jeff

[Ben]

I'm in Crescent City, CA right now (North West corner of California) and am heading towards Portland, OR.

How long do you plan to stay in CA? I should be headed your way in about a month.... then I'll be sneaking over to Florida.

I didn't recognize you from your big hat photo (though you were a texan), but I knew who you were the second I saw a shot of your 94. Hope all is well, and good to see you on POG.

I'd love to know more about the subwoofer setup you ended up with in your other coach... my built-in audio is really lacking bass. I mainly use an Altec Lansing setup that's hooked to my computer instead of the built-in for that reason.

P.S.: What's the story on your foontoon name?

[Jeff Bayley]

Ben-

Let's stay in touch if one or the other moves North or South and maybe we can spend some time together. I'll probably be on the West Coast for a month or longer.

Regarding the sub woofer, I think you mean to ask what I did on the coach I'm in since you know how my other coach was set up with a dedicated amp for the sub. I put some details about this in another posting somewhere in the last week. This coach I'm in now had a separate amp in the front bay pushing a couple of speakers down there and I also think that amp is pushing the speakers on top (in the salon). I drilled a hole through the floor board into that bay holding the amp and ran one pair of extra speaker wires to that amp and then I attached a [non-self-amplified] subwoofer [that I found somewhere] to the other end of the wires. It gives the sound a little "hamburger helper" with the base and I consider it a temp improvement until I'm willing to devote the time to redoing it better.

Find out the specs on the head unit you have in the dash and see if that head unit has separate outputs for a sub woofer or not. If it does, you can get behind there and use those outputs and install a mono amp to drive a 10' or 8' sub depending on where you can squeeze the sub in. The amount of room behind the dash area seems to vary widely but you probably have to mount the amp elsewhere or (if you have room) the self amplified amp (like the one you posted) is an excellent all in one solution which reduces the number of components needed. Wheel into a capable stereo shop and they should have various size boxes you can trial fit behind either of the two front seats. Driver’s seat would be preferred so you can more easily get the wiring around to it without figuring out how to cross over to the passenger seat. If your head unit doesn't have the preferred outputs, then you could try either a 110 or a 12v self amplified sub and just tap off of any of the existing speaker wires as they make their way through the coach to the speakers. In this case you would want to have a cross over to filter the range going to the sub and try to clean it up a bit (cheater method) in an effort to have the low range only going to the sub. The advantage in trying to salvage the existing head unit would be to maintain use of the existing CD changer that is more than likely part of the coach now. If you don't care about loosing this component, you could just change out the head unit to one of your choice and I imagine that they probabley sell them blue tooth enabled to get some of the funky features you listed in your wish list design on a prior posting.

One final comment on the stereo shops. Bring them on board and show them what you've got to work with. You have to find the right guy that can throw himself "into it" and likes the challenge and I would also say that you have to find someone that won't take you to the cleaners with the estimate. They look at the bus and they big $$$ signs instantly start swirling around in their eyeballs and they throw ridiculous estimates at you thinking your Mr. Money Bags. I just picked up a copy of Challenge Magazine which is put out by Pilot Truck Stops. In this October issue, they profile the Chrome Shop Mafia that does the Trick My Truck series on CMT which I have enjoyed watching. Well, they profile each member of the team and the guy that does the audio and video is Rob and they list his web site as www.robsaudio.com which I have not checked out. He lives in Joplin MO which is where I THINK they film the show. I can imagine that these guys probably get a lot of paying jobs from the show. If you want something really trick that will freak out your colleagues or customers and you feel that the A/V is an investment in how your perceived for your industry, then I would let this guy "trick" you out or consider contacting him for an estimate or see if you can pit stop there on your way back to Florida and see if he can block some time out in anticipation of doing the work on the spot or shortly after your stop. Maybe with the changes that are taking place in his business model (with the extra P/R he get's from being on TV) you can work out a barter trade of some sort doing graphics or web development, etc, etc for your core competency. If it works, please try to work me in for a "friends and family" rate on my bus too and I can pay for mine to get "tricked". Eh ?

Hope this helps.