TV Up or Down When Towing?

[Gliddenwoods]

Our TV has "dropped" into viewing position when towing. We are interpreting this action as a message that the TV should be in the down position when towing. Those of you with more tow  traveling miles agree? Any counters to our conclusion as why not? A few brief replies would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Mike and Carol]

Ours is folded up while driving, not down.  In fact, it’s been folded up for several years since we don’t really watch TV while camping anymore.  I should just remove it.  Mike

[CnC]

Ours is always up when towing.  It's never came down while towing.

[Ralph Mawyer]

57 minutes ago, Gliddenwoods said:

Our TV has "dropped" into viewing position when towing. We are interpreting this action as a message that the TV should be in the down position when towing. Those of you with more tow  traveling miles agree? Any counters to our conclusion as why not? A few brief replies would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

Check the nut/bolt hidden in the hinge. Mine kept dropping and found the nut almost fully backed off. Need to remove plastic end cap on hinge. 

[bhncb]

THere are  a few things you can do to address this problem.

On the mount assembly:

1. The hinge bolt should be just tight enough to hold the TV in any position and require some force to change the angle.

2. The gold anodized latching bar should likewise be tight enough that it doesn't spin freely, but not so tight that it can't be turned with two fingers.

3. When pushing the TV up to the stored position, conclude with a downward pull to fully seat the latch.

Lastly, for insurance, find some foam packing material or pool noodles and cut some pieces to wedge between the TV back and overhead cabinet. These will keep the latch under tension and cushion any TV wobble.  

[Geronimo John]

1 hour ago, CnC said:

Ours is always up when towing.  It's never came down while towing.

Ditto.  Up.  That's how it was when I picked up our OE2.  It took me a month to figure out how to lower it.  (Doing so was low on my learning curve.  🙂 

[Katjo]

We keep ours up. It dropped once while towing so we tightened the hinge bolt, no problems since. 

[Gliddenwoods]

Thanks for the responses and some good advice as how to maintain the up storage for towing.

[ScubaRx]

That sucker will come down????? We've always just both lay with our heads under it and look up at the screen. I'll be a.....

[topgun2]

10 hours ago, ScubaRx said:

We've always just both lay with our heads under it and look up at the screen.

Sure does beat rolling the Oliver over on its roof so you could lay on your stomach!😇

[SNY SD UP]

Our TV actually broke at 2 of 4 attach points (see picture, with yellow circles on addtl fractures) and started to come apart at the back where the bracket attaches to it, so I have removed the TV. 

Sometimes we would find the TV down when we entered the trailer while stopped between setups.  I always pushed it back up to the catch, sometime it was down again, when we arrived at our final destination.  I say sometimes, but not always.  We would then put it up when we were setup and inside unless we were actually viewing TV, which was like not very often.

Possibly caused - by starting out with trailer tire psi of 80 (at delivery) and we did not change that for about the first 10,000 mi, until I started to read threads on recommended tire pressure, then we dropped it to 65psi.  It would still come down, but not always, and then we lowered our trailer tire pressure to 55psi.  By then I noticed it was beginning to pull apart at the back of the TV.

 

If I had to do over, I would leave it down when under tow, and then raise it up to catch, when we are setup and inside.  I never did put in pool-noodle sections to act as  shock absorbers.

Before our next outing, I will repair the broken area and re-attach it in the trailer.  We will however leave it down while under tow... and put it up when setup and Willis (KamperKat) wants to lounge on top of the nightstand.  i will also look at any adjustment that can/need to be made on the bracket as mentioned above.

Regards,

[Geronimo John]

I don't recall reading anything about "Up" or "Down".  Did I speed read over this chapter when I read the O&M Binder?  

[Mcb]

Our tv is wire tied so it can’t  come down while driving.. which it did several times. 
since we don’t use it this isn’t an inconvenience .. 

[John Dehne]

We travel with ours down to take stress of the tv mounts and have tightened the hinges bolt also. Running 55# tire air pressure differently helped. It would be nice if there was a tv setting to invert the picture so you could watch it while it was up. 😀

[Steph and Dud B]

20 minutes ago, John Dehne said:

We travel with ours down to take stress of the tv mounts

I've been thinking about this. It does seem that the raised position puts more stress on all the mounting points than the lowered position would. Right??

[Geronimo John]

On 11/11/2022 at 11:41 AM, Steph and Dud B said:

I've been thinking about this. It does seem that the raised position puts more stress on all the mounting points than the lowered position would. Right??

In the down position, It would put the mounting screws in more sheer.  With it up, the TV is resting on the mount.  That should take off most of the stress of travels.  So my pea-brain says it should be up on rough travels.  That said  Thanks Seph and Dud B for the oops.  

If my mount looked like the below, I would consider adding an aluminum plate between the TV and the rack to stiffen up the TV side of things.

Edited November 13, 2022 by Geronimo John
Corrected tech error by Steph and Dud B. :-)

[Steph and Dud B]

1 hour ago, Geronimo John said:

With it up, the TV is resting on the mount

In the up position the TV hangs down from the mounting screws. I'd expect the TV case design to account for shear, since they normally hang vertically on a wall, but not for loads applied pulling against the back of the TV. 

[Patriot]

We leave our TV in the stored up position, no issues. 👍🏻
 

Patriot

[John and Jodi]

Thanks @bhncb for the suggestions. Our TV comes down often. I'll go through your list.

[AlbertNTerri]

Wedging a custom sized pool noodle on either side of the TV (in the up position) has become one of our check list items for breaking camp. It took a couple of tries to get the right lengths (the left and right will be slightly different) but one noodle provides plenty of material to make a few attempts at it

[Gliddenwoods]

9 hours ago, AlbertNTerri said:

Wedging a custom sized pool noodle on either side of the TV (in the up position) has become one of our check list items for breaking camp. It took a couple of tries to get the right lengths (the left and right will be slightly different) but one noodle provides plenty of material to make a few attempts at it

Could you please share a photo of this technique?

Thanks.

[ScubaRx]

Ours has ridden >150K miles in the up position, 90% of the time with 80psi in the tires. I’ve found it down only a couple of times. It sounds as if some have not tightened the adjustment screws properly. 

[John and Debbie]

On 11/18/2022 at 8:31 PM, AlbertNTerri said:

Wedging a custom sized pool noodle on either side of the TV (in the up position) has become one of our check list items for breaking camp. It took a couple of tries to get the right lengths (the left and right will be slightly different) but one noodle provides plenty of material to make a few attempts at it

Is that to keep some tension on the TV so if the trailer bounces, the TV doesn't come down to viewing position?  Any pictures of how you do that?

John

[AlbertNTerri]

sorry to take so long to get back on this, we've been on the road and havent been checking the internet. I'll see about getting some pictures and post them in the next day or two.

[CnC]

Ours has never come down in more than 12,000 miles.  That may be because we eliminated all the cords except power, antenna and HDMI when we recovered them with a white protective wrap.

Charlie.