Those of you who read our article "TVs in RVs: An Ongoing Safety Issue" are familiar with our stance on the subject of large TVs in motor home cockpits. (If you missed that particular E-bulletin, you can access it on our web site under TVs in RVs: An Ongoing Safety Issue.

We'd like to add the following coda to that article:

During the Seattle RV Show this year, we were pleased to see a trend toward the placement of TVs in entertainment centers away from the cockpit in many of the models we inspected. We also liked the flat-screen TVs that are recessed into the wall and take up less space than the bulky old-style TVs. However, we've heard reports that these plasma TVs only last 5-6 years in conventional homes before needing to be replaced. We wonder how long they'll hold up to the bumping and jostling of RV travel. A few more years are needed to put them to the test.

On the other hand, we noted that TVs located overhead in the cockpit are getting bigger every year - and it is hard to see how they can possibly be secure. In one model we inspected, the cockpit sported a huge TV, with another sitting on a shelf in the adjacent living area. The dealer explained that, since the cockpit TV doesn't work when the motor home is underway, passengers will, naturally, need an additional one. There was another TV in the bedroom - one so large that it occupied most of the ceiling to which it was attached. The dealer also pointed out that this RV boasted yet another TV in an outside entertainment center, with a backup TV and satellite system in case one of them should fail. Five TVs in one motor home?

It is apparent that some manufacturers are responding to consumers' requests for motor home floorplans that place the TV in safer positions, while others are attempting to cash in on statistics that may exaggerate the average American RVer's dependence on TV.

Let's hope that future trends will favor the former... and that new RVers recognize why they want to go RVing in the first place - to get away from it all, folks, including being mesmerized by television.

RVCG Staff