TV Cable

Today was a project day for me. I've been meaning to install an exterior jack for the TV, on the truck Camper. Every time we stay in an RV Park that has cable TV we have to run a cable from their connection thru the sliding window in the front of the 'Lance' to our TV. Not that bad but you have to "Watch out for that wire" moving about inside the camper, and when 'skeeter' season gets here I don't want any voids that'll let them little ladies gettin' their wickerbill in me and mine. I've had the exterior jack for a while so's I figured I'd see if I could get that done today. I had some ideas on how I was gonna accomplish that job, but every possibility I came up with turned out to be a washout for one reason or another. You see our amplifier and cable hookup is up under the cabinet over the kitchen sinks.

I originally was going to run the connection out the wall behind the TV. Two problems with that, first that would involve having to run a second cable from the connection to the TV and second it would put the connection outside up so high on the camper I would have to use our step stool to connect it. So I'm tryin' to figure how to connect it to the amp, where it should be, and I'm tryin to figure where in the heck did they run their wires, when I pull out the silverware drawer and son of a gun, there's wires runnin' from under the counter and up the wall.

So I carefully pull up the paneling on the bottom shelf of the cabinet and there's 12v & 110 wires runnin' underneath. There is a small portion of a hole in the wall that can be seen when that panel is installed on the shelf. So now I need to get my cable down thru the wall so I start pushin'. Did you ever try to push cooked spaghetti thru a straw, it don't fly, I guess I'll have to go get that fish tape up in the attic to pull it instead (I was just tryin' to cut some corners). Fish tape in hand I decide to pull 2 strings up the wall instead of the cable, 2 because then I'll have an extra for the next time I get a brilliant idea we need some new wires in this area.

After the string, comes pullin' the cable with one pull string and tyin' off the other for the future.

So now I strip the cable, I use RG-6 cable all the time because it will carry antenna, cable and satellite signal, and crimp my connection on. Now seems the Lance people didn't put this cable on so they saw no reason to leave me enough room to connect this cable on the center connector on the amplifier. I had to get my RotoZip out and route a trough thru the blocking they provided to mount the amplifier. Now this end is complete.

The rest was easy. I decide to fasten the paneling on the cabinet bottom with small screws instead of the staples the factory used, in case I have to open it up again someday. The way it normally works for me, no matter how much thought I put into it, as soon as I zip that part of the project up, Mr. Murphy smiles down on me and I have to open it up again cause of something I missed or forgot. You know they say the third times the charm, well I'm tryin' my best to get it right the first, if not I'm makin' provisions for the second. Then it was easy to pull the screws that hold in/down the stove/oven to get me access behind it, run my wire, choose where I'm gonna drill out thru the side and install the exterior box with jack. I sealed her up with Geocel caulking, that's what the Lance people used on most of the exterior. I find it flexible and much, much tougher than silicone. I'll have to add the exterior pics as we had unexpected company arrive as I was finishing up and my camera was already put away. I plan on buildin' a page on the website for all my RV modifications as soon as I can get to it.

Here's the finished product. Now if a park has cable or we bring our satellite dish we just plug in and watch TV.