mehr4x4
08-07-2010, 06:19 AM
This was my first upgrade to the spinter. BTW it's a 2004 High roof 2500 mid length wheel base Passanger model with rear a/c.
I wanted a good sized tv and dvd system for the kids. I found that for some reason 19" LED tv's had a 12v dc converter that pluged into the wall and the tv was already setup for 12v in. Other sizes just pluged into the wall with a normal cord. I found this vizio on Clearence at Walmart for $130 :cheers: I had to find something solid to mount the tv. I took down the head liner up front and found alot of room between it and the sheet metal with ample supports. But where I wanted the tv was just dead space. I can weld and fab metal pretty good and had quite a bit of thin wall 1" tubing lying around from a previous project. So I built a frame to support the tv and a shelf for the DVD player. I had an old 5 disc dvd changer from years ago that was 12v. Perfect! After looking at my pictures I realized I didn't take very good finished pictures so I will have to take some and post them for you. Again I'm not good at explaining what I did but will gladly answer questions.
As far as wiring goes I ran a large 4 awg from the battery up the windshield colum and to a fuse block up in the dvd shelf along with rca wires to the switch panel by the shifter. I wired them into a 1/8" head phone jack, this is kinda complicated and I will try to explain. This is one of those jacks that when you plug something into it, it disconects some contact on the back, just like when you have a radio with speakers on it, the sound comes out the speakers untill you plug head phones into it and the speakers shut off. Ok, that's explained clear as mud. :bash: Anyways. How this all ended up working is the back of the plug is connected to the DVD sound out and also to the input of the factory radio (which I made a plug for off of this site, THANK YOU!) With is setup this way you can listen to the movies threw the stock radio, or you can plug in anything, like a mp3 player into this jack and it shuts off the dvd sound the radio and you can listen to the mp3 player.
Another benifit of this is now we have a 5 disk cd player as well because the DVD player can play CD's! :cheers: I also hooked up a RCA switch box for future add-on's like ps2's or other game systems.
In the last pic you can see a finished long shot of all the sleves, lights, tv and dvd system.
I installed a TV antena on the roof that connects on the inside of the van so we can also watch tv, reception from this antena isn't very good but I didn't want to install a huge rv antenna. I ran the coax from the tv and antenna into the dvd shelf so I could hook up to another antenna or cable if I wanted to. Anyways here's some pics and I'll get more after I take some.
I wanted a good sized tv and dvd system for the kids. I found that for some reason 19" LED tv's had a 12v dc converter that pluged into the wall and the tv was already setup for 12v in. Other sizes just pluged into the wall with a normal cord. I found this vizio on Clearence at Walmart for $130 :cheers: I had to find something solid to mount the tv. I took down the head liner up front and found alot of room between it and the sheet metal with ample supports. But where I wanted the tv was just dead space. I can weld and fab metal pretty good and had quite a bit of thin wall 1" tubing lying around from a previous project. So I built a frame to support the tv and a shelf for the DVD player. I had an old 5 disc dvd changer from years ago that was 12v. Perfect! After looking at my pictures I realized I didn't take very good finished pictures so I will have to take some and post them for you. Again I'm not good at explaining what I did but will gladly answer questions.
As far as wiring goes I ran a large 4 awg from the battery up the windshield colum and to a fuse block up in the dvd shelf along with rca wires to the switch panel by the shifter. I wired them into a 1/8" head phone jack, this is kinda complicated and I will try to explain. This is one of those jacks that when you plug something into it, it disconects some contact on the back, just like when you have a radio with speakers on it, the sound comes out the speakers untill you plug head phones into it and the speakers shut off. Ok, that's explained clear as mud. :bash: Anyways. How this all ended up working is the back of the plug is connected to the DVD sound out and also to the input of the factory radio (which I made a plug for off of this site, THANK YOU!) With is setup this way you can listen to the movies threw the stock radio, or you can plug in anything, like a mp3 player into this jack and it shuts off the dvd sound the radio and you can listen to the mp3 player.
Another benifit of this is now we have a 5 disk cd player as well because the DVD player can play CD's! :cheers: I also hooked up a RCA switch box for future add-on's like ps2's or other game systems.
In the last pic you can see a finished long shot of all the sleves, lights, tv and dvd system.
I installed a TV antena on the roof that connects on the inside of the van so we can also watch tv, reception from this antena isn't very good but I didn't want to install a huge rv antenna. I ran the coax from the tv and antenna into the dvd shelf so I could hook up to another antenna or cable if I wanted to. Anyways here's some pics and I'll get more after I take some.