Mounting the TV

Mounting a TV to the curved wall of a cargo van was never going to be a home run on the first swing.

When I was making the first purchases of this project I knew a lot less.  I knew I wanted a TV on the wall, and I knew what wall.  I knew that TV mounting boards had to go in before the insulation and surely I would be putting in insulation by week two, right?  That was five months ago.  <sigh>  Lesson one, van building goes slower than you expect. 

The T-nuts from the inside
of the van.

Usually to mount a TV in your house you ideally find a stud in the wall and attach the mount with some big’ol lag screws into that stud.  That baby is there for the life of the home.  Less optimal, you use some plastic anchors in the drywall and hope your kid never decides to swing from it.  But either way your solutions are pretty well laid out and easy to achieve.

Neither of those solutions could work for me.  I mean I could do some sheet metal screws, through the plywood and into the metal stud of the van.  Likely that would have held it, but then the TV would be entirely in the wrong spot.  My walls, instead of sheetrock, are going to be 1/4” plywood.  A plastic anchor would never hold up to the bouncing and vibration of van life.  Not to mention tugging the TV into the perfect viewing position. 

Here is how the T-nuts look from the outside, their points
buried down into the wood.

I had talked to my friend Craigie about this a few nights before.  My idea was to cut two boards exactly the length to fit between the metal studs of the body of the van.  I would mount the boards to the van.  Then mark the spots where the TV mount holes are.  Remove the boards, drill the holes and epoxy in stainless steel bolts facing inward, into the van.  Then re-attach the boards to the wall.  If during the ensuing building process anything bumped the protruding bolt it could crack the glue and cause it to fail.  If the glue held and the bolt was bumped hard, it could even crack the board.  I knew this plan was crap, I just didn't have any better ideas.   

What Craigie suggested is to buy something called a T nut.   It works by drilling an oversized hole.  Then you put the nut through from the back and it has these sharp little points that dig into the wood.   Just pushing it in with your fingers (into pine) is enough for it to grab on allowing you to get your bolt threaded.  After that, the tighter you turn it, the more it digs in and the better it works.  

A couple of nights later I was picking some up at Johnny Menards and now have to say these T nuts are amazing.   I think now about how much easier it would have been to attach the propane tank switch over valve if I would have had them.   As it was, with a conventional nut that could only be accessed from inside by laying on the floor and pushing myself under the bed  and a conventional machine screw that could only be turned by being outside the van and leaning in through the propane tank basket.  I was able to eventually pull it off by taping the nut over the hole I drilled in the wood.   After about a dozen attempts I managed to thread it.   Then I clamped into it with a vice grip taped to the plywood to tighten it up the rest of the way.  *Way* more work than it would have been with the help of a T nut.   Very cool.

Tin shingles holding the boards in place.

What I did for this TV mount was to cut the boards to a rough length.   As it turned out one board just took a little trimming but the other one needed a pretty significant profile change to get it to fit into the contours of the back of the van.   Toward the front of the board at it attaches to the stud of the van wall, I picked up some steel strapping.   But then when it can time to actually attach it, somehow in all the tools and supplies involved in van building those straps got lost.   Craigie had some tin shingles though and so I cut one of those in half and used it to span across from the stud onto the board.

At the back of the van, I was trying to use some conventional drill bits drill a hole in the steel of the back stud so I could use some conventional drywall screws into the wood.   Drilling those holes was tough though.  The steel has a curved lip on it, plus it slopes back into the very corner of the van, past where my wood fit.  I was having a rough time of it.   Because of all the curves, I couldn’t get the bit to dig in, it would just chase over the surface.   Enter Craigie and the great set of tools again.  He had some drill bits that seemed just like normal but if you looked close you realized it had a little point at the end.   Baby, those bits dug right in.  Seconds later and I had a hole exactly where I wanted it.

The van back and the custom cut required.
You can also see the curved surfaces of the
van frame that had to be drilled into.

Once the wood was in place it was a four handed job to get that TV mount in place.   The screws provided with the mount were all too long for the TV I bought.  We had to add a stack of four washers to make sure the machine screws didn’t run too deep and ruin the TV.   We had to invert the mount to get it to fit right to the wall, then invert the final swivel to make the viewing angle right.   Finally drill the holes in the wood and mount it all into the T-nuts.  It was a big job.

And after all this was done….   The TV all mounted…   It sucked.   Like I said, no home runs.   I bought the this TV mount from Amazon and I thought it sounded like it would do every thing I wanted.   But one I started trying to use it I realized it was missing one axis of swivel.  With the slope of the van wall when I would pull the TV away and turn it for viewing from the front of the van, it was diagonal.  There was no way to make it level.   A little more research, now that I knew more about attaching TVs to walls, I found something called a “Full Axis” TV mount.  This was what I needed.   A couple of weeks later I picked one up and with the help of The Wife, we pulled out the mount Craigie and I spent so much time on and installed the new one.   Much better.

Half a tin shingle holding
the TV mount board in place
on the van front side of
the board.

When it comes time I will have to pull this all apart again once I get ready to install the final plywood over the walls. Installing this now will give me a chance to make really sure this is the right spot.  Make sure this full axis mount is strong enough to hold the TV while it is still relatively easy to change out to another one if need be.

A few last things I will mention about van dwelling.

Trains passing just behind the van.  Going by so often I don't
really even notice them.

My primary parking spot is close to the train tracks.  Being a huge rail fan, I don't mind the sounds of the trains going by.  What I have noticed in this spot is once the weather warmed up the homeless and the teen party-ier population has gone way up.  Just on the other side of the chain link fence there seems to be a constant stream of people going by.   About a block up the rail lines there is a regular homeless tent village.  In the wintertime the population is lower.  Homeless snowbirds, I guess.  Now that summer is here, the snowbirds are all back. Plus it seems to be a good spot for drinking teens around camp fires.  Just a couple of nights ago I heard some people talking just outside and I was pretty creeped out.   The downside of living in a metal box you can’t see a threat coming.  I am looking forward to getting the van self sufficient enough to find some new parking spots. 

The content of my pockets
needs a home too.

In van building, one of my planning tasks is to figure out a storage spot for this pile of stuff I carry around in my pockets every day.  I would like to have it some place close to the bed, maybe on some little shelf.   Additionally, maybe some glasses shelf because The Wife is almost totally blind and her glasses need to be within arms reach of waking up or she is totally lost.

People ask about van height.   Yeah, of course I would like to stand up in it.   Every moment I was parked I would be happy I had a taller or “Hi Top” van.   Pretty much all the rest of the time though, not so much.   Driving, parking, low clearance spots like many McDonalds drive throughs, wind.  All things that would suck in a taller van.  The Wife hates it most for getting dressed.   She likes to dress standing and I am sure, situationally she will perform this event standing outside. Of course this sort of behavior reduces stealthiness.  I will just have to do my best to live with it.