First, it is mounted very high and unless you like watching TV standing up, it’s a bit of a bear to watch unless you’re half reclined in a zero gravity chair pointing half at the sky!. That location also lends itself to be very susceptible to glare from sun making it difficult to watch anytime but at night. Second, its a fixed mount, which means unless you are sitting directly in front of it it can be a bit difficult to see if you are at any angle.  These are not huge problems and to be honest if this was a big job to fix or one that required a large investment we probably wouldn’t have even bothered fixing but some things fell into place for us that we’ll explain below.

We were at the Entegra Oktoberfest Rally in Las Vegas in 2016 and got to see quite a few coaches from a variety of years. New for 2017 was an articulating outdoor TV arm that tilted down for easier viewing. Nice! Just what we wanted but… I had a pretty good feeling that if I called Entegra and asked for the part I would have paid well north of 250.00 to buy the parts from them.. That is where our friend’s from Great-Escape.us come in!

Now i’ve installed quite a few of these over the years being in IT. Our clients frequently have us mount TV’s or large monitors in offices so I can tell you first hand that there are BAD mounts and GOOD mounts that vary greatly in price and quality. Glenn from Great Escape had done quite a bit or research as his 2016 Entegra Anthem has an arm installed but not the “tilt” feature to point the TV down towards a more acceptable viewing angle. Glenn  called Entegra and found that they were purchasing their tilting TV arms from a manufacturer called Crimson who claimed to make the world’s thinnest TV mounting arm that tilted. In fact he had one in his coach that was left over from his research! Score for LivinLite! We’ll take it!

I took one look at the TV arm and knew the quality was good. It was well built and suitable for automotive applications. The TV mount has plenty of resistance to ensure it wouldn’t be swinging back and forth in the wind banging into our coach or rattling itself to deal while we were driving down the road. We also really like that it had a locking feature meaning it locked into the flat position which would come in quite handy when stowed for driving.

Installation

The installation was pretty straight forward. I won’t bore folks with a lengthy written explanation of the install since it is all detailed out in the video at the top of this post. We’ve included a material list below as well as Amazon links to all of the tools and items mentioned in the video. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions please feel free to post them here!

Tools & Materials:

• Cordless/cord drill with drill bits – (you may want to consider the stepper bit set mentioned below and in the video)
• Screw Driver Bit Set – Complete with security bits for Entegra factory screw removal. (see below link under Amazon links)
• 15”-18” piece of 2×4 or other suitable wood to strengthen mounting plate backing
• Cable ties for wire management
• Flat black spray paint for matching trim behind TV
• A helper! (much easier with 2 people)

Amazon Links:

• Crimson World’s Thinest TV Mount for up to 42″ tv: http://amzn.to/2funD3X
• Crimson World’s Thinest TV Mount for up to 65″ tv: http://amzn.to/2esdHny
• Neiko Titanium Step Drill Bit Set: http://amzn.to/2eS5SI7
• Neiko Safety Bit Set: http://amzn.to/2f3cCDA
• Flat Black Spray Paint: http://amzn.to/2fnVg8e
• Cable Ties (We love these one because they are reusable): http://amzn.to/2f1RMXI

Thanks so much for checking out our post. If you have any questions, comments or questions you can post them here. If you like the article please share it with friends on Facebook or other social media using the links below!

The post Outdoor TV – Tilting TV Mount You Can Install Yourself! appeared first on LivinLite.net.

Please let us know of any other organizing ideas you have found helpful. We would love to know how you tackle small space challenges!

Happy Organizing!

The post RV Organization – Part 1 appeared first on LivinLite.net.

Before we get started:

OK folks, we are working with between 20 and 50 amps of power and if you do not have a good working knowledge of residential electrical systems save yourself the trouble and buy the parts, drop them off at your local electrician and pay him for an hour of his time to put this all together. You might spend 80 bucks in labor but you’ll know it’s done right! Since we live in the good ol U.S. of A we have to say that we aren’t responsible for anything that happens as a result of reading this post or attempting anything you read here. Even making a simple extension cord can cause damage if done wrong so let a pro do it if your unsure or don’t want to assume the risk! Any qualified electrician could build this for you in less than an hour. Ug glad thats out of the way, now onto the cool stuff!

How does it work?

At the heart of the system is an off the shelf product called an Efergy Elite. This nifty little gadget (we are not paid to say that and we didn’t get it for free, no sponsors here!) is an energy management system designed for residential homes. The problem is that RV’s have different electrical systems that homes since they use a variety of power sources like generators, house batteries and street power so hooking up the Energy in a traditional fashion isn’t generally as easy as the instructions state.

That’s where this nifty gadget comes in. We don’t sell them, this is a do-it-yourself project but the parts are available on our Amazon store. To start, I thought about adding the Efergy system to the main breaker panel (then it would read even when on battery or generator power) but realized that many RV’er (myself included) either didn’t want to start taking apart their RV and possibly voiding their warranty or they used multiple rigs and wanted something completely portable.

OK so it’s basically a modified extension cable, nothing special there. The orange box you see pictured here houses the Efergy remote power sensors that capture power consumption. At the ends you have a standard 50 amp male & female plug by Camco.  What i like about this design is that the wiring insulation stays in tact and out of harms way. For our project we used 6/3 indoor/outdoor wire which is the same wire used in most coaches up to 45 feet on their main 50amp/30amp power feed. It may be a little overkill for 30amp but overkill is always a good thing when dealing with electricity & electrical resistance. Here is a great article on the basics of RV electrics including a chart for what type of wire is recommended at various lengths. Our Amazon links below sell the wire by the foot.

Lets Get Started!

For the purposes of this article we are building a 8 foot extension cord to house the Efergy sensors. You can make your entergy sensor box/cable much shorter but we found an extra 8 feet can come in awfully handy once in a while when parks put their power posts in funny spots. You know when you need those extra couple feet? This can be the solution in a pinch, even if you don’t need to read the sensors.

Before we get started lets look at the materials and tools you’ll be needing.

Materials List:

• Efergy Elite or similar energy monitoring system
• 6/3 Indoor/Outdoor Electrical Cable
• Camco PowerGrip Male & Female 50amp (or 30amp) Plugs
• Waterproof Housing
• 3/4 inch Rubber Grommets (2)
• Silicone

Tools List:

• Screwdriver
• Drill with stepper bit (or 7/8 drill bit)
• Basic retractable razor blade
• Electrical Pliers (most any type that can strip and bend wire will do)
• Multimeter (needed if you want to test before plugging into your rig)

Building Your Cable: 

1. Drill two holes in your outer housing at opposite sides. Make the holes approx. 7/8 in diameter so your rubber grommets can fit in the holes securely. (see picture below)
2. Install your rubber grommets in the holes you just drilled, these will keep things dry in bad weather. We used metal electrical grommets for our original box shown in the pictures, but we recommend rubber ones for a better seal and more flexibility.
3. Cut your 6/3 electrical wire to the desired length of the overall cable. We found you can go at short as 2 feet or as long as you like (under 50 feet to ensure the wire doesn’t build up too much resistance for the gauge)
4. At one end, measure 18″ from the end and carefully cut only the outer black insulation around the cable circumference. The wire we recommend has a thin but ridged outer insulation that cuts easily with a razor blade and pulls away without issue. Pull the outer insulation off exposing the inner 4 wires (don’t throw the outer insulation out, you’ll be reusing it in step 8!).
5. Now you should have approximately 18 inches of wire where the Red, Black, White & Ground wires are exposed. There may also be some brown paper which you can cut away as it will just get in the way.
6. Feed all 4 wires through your rubber grommets into and then back out of the sensor box as showing in the diagram below. Feed the exposed wires from the bottom of the box through to the top of the box so that the outer black insulation goes through the grommets but the inner Red/Black/White/Ground wires are exposed inside the box.
7. Attach your Efergy sensors around the black and red wires (hot wires). You do not cut the insulation, the sensors read power usage through the insulation. We recommend you do this step early as the sensors are very hard to install once you finish your cable as the gauge of cable is very tough to bend, especially in that small box! You can leave the sensor’s white wires hanging for now as shown in the diagram below.
8. Now its time to cover up those exposed wires that are coming out of the top of your sensor box. Grab that outer insulation you pulled away during step 4 and cut it to length so that it covers the wires coming out of the top of your sensor box. Slip it over the exposed wire and back down towards the sensor box. When done you should be leaving only 4″ of wire exposed and the black outer insulation should be covering the wires up to your rubber grommets at both ends. 
9. Now its time to install your 50amp (or 30) male and female ends. Your male end will be installed at the top (shorter) end of your cable, and the female will be installed at the bottom. This ensures your sensor box will hang off the ground and away from dirt and debris when its hanging from the power post.
10. Follow the color scheme shown and be sure to tighten everything with your screw driver. For our cable we followed the following standard for 50amp service. Black (110 A), Red (110 B), White (Neutral), bare copper (ground).  Take extra care to ensure no wires are touching each inside the Camco male/female plugs and be sure your male & female ends are identical at each end. If they are touching anywhere or you’ve mixed up a wire you’ll be popping breakers trying to isolate the short later so take your time!
11. Once you have your ends installed, you now have a functioning extension cable with Efergy sensors installed midway down your wire. Congratulations!!
12. Take care to install your Efergy wireless sensor into the box, attach the 3.5mm ends from the sensors into the transmitter, install batteries in the transmitter and arange everything nicely in the box so that it closes without pressing the button on the front of the transmitter. Close everything up and your almost there.
13. Now its time to use that silicone listed in the materials list. Apply a liberal amount of it around the rubber grommets entering your sensor box. This will ensure you keep that water out to avoid damaging your sensors.
14. Thats it, you did it!

Additional Photos:

50 Amp Female 50 Amp Female Closed 50 Amp Male Open/Detailed 50 Amp Male Closed

Testing Cable:

While circuit breakers exist for a reason, they may pop too late or not at all (in very rare cases) causing damage to your rig. Before you use your cable we recommend using a multimeter to test your cable. Here is a link on testing extension cables that will come in handy if you’ve never done this before.

Using your Energy Monitor:

Now that your cable is ready and tested, its time to install it. Its just like any other extension cord, so start by plugging the male end into the power post (breakers off) and the female end into your RV’s main power feed. Then you can flip the main breaker and your up and running! Your Efergy sensors come pre-paired so they should start picking up immediately but if they don’t follow the instructions provided by the Efergy. We found their support to be great but we didn’t need it much because everything worked well out of the box.

Have ideas on how to improve the design or thinking of taking on this project? Make sure to mention it below!

Your comments keep us going and we love hearing from you!

The post Monitor Your RV’s Shore Power Consumption appeared first on LivinLite.net.

A lot of people have also asked how much smaller our RV is when we are driving. Here are some shots of what the inside looks like when we are in-motion.

Have questions about how we travel, our mobile lifestyle or anything else? Make sure to comment below and we’ll reply!

The post Preparing a 60+ Foot RV for Travel appeared first on LivinLite.net.

Some of the most costly mistakes in RV’ing are caused by forgetting very simple things. Let’s face it though, there is a lot to remember! Slides in and locked, antennas down, awnings in, steps in, suspension aired up! The list goes on! We find most mistakes happen when we are in a hurry and just passing through trying to get to our final destination. Let’s say we are in a Walmart just for the night and needing to get up early. We put up the TV antenna so we can watch some TV before bed…. morning comes, early start and bam that brand new TV antenna just got left on that bridge overpass a mile back! Fun start to the day…

We found an easily solution for under 20 bucks to help you avoid these costly repairs. They are called RVminders. The creator took a passing 90’s fad (the snap bracelet) and turned it into something actually useful! When you stop for the night simply pull out your RV minders and select the one that fits your need.There are 10 to choose from in the box and what we like most is that two are blanks so you can write whatever you want on them. Quality is great and they also went that extra mile to make the backing material out of a microfiber non scratching material for those who have nice wooden steering wheels.

Our only complaint is there isn’t a carrying case included. Luckily they fit in our Amazon basic’s case that we put our registration and roadside assistance paperwork in.

You can see them in action above by watching our brief video on the product. Don’t forget to subscribe to our blog and youtube channel, and like us on Facebook for more tips and tricks!

The post Preventing Costly Camping Mistakes For Under 20 Bucks… appeared first on LivinLite.net.