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Hi all, this is my first (and probably last!) scribe to this forum so I will keep it short....I too am looking for an LCD tv for my campervan. I currently run a 15CRT tv/dvd thro' a 150w 'el cheapo' inverter. Only after wiring the inverter up to the camper battery with "2.5" cable did it work OK without the under voltage "squeel", so I guess that backs up what everbody has been commenting on in earlier postings..(the tv pulls 72w@230V and I also run a freeview box which consumes 10w@230V, all from the same 150w inverter).

Can anybody tell me where I can buy an LCD 10/12in TV that can fold away....at a resonable price (say £300-400), your assistance would be appreciated.

Best regards

Adrian

Hi George, it's a Goodmans TD1540 (15in) combined tv&dvd unit. So far it works OK (had it running for about 2hrs and no problems (off 110amp batt)....the only issue is with initial start up, the inverter (a soft start unit) takes a couple of attempts to light up the tele...but after that it's OK, (mind you, I had to wire it up independently of the camper wiring, due to quite a high degree of volt drop.)

Hope that helps

Regards

i went through this a while ago.eventually went to argos and bought as 15 " bush LCD for £299;it used an external power supply 240 to 12v into the back.all i did was to maske up a lead from the cigar lighter to the 12 plug with good quality copper 5amp mains cable,making the length as short as poss and bigo !! works perfectly.

look in the big asda stores and they have them even cheaper now!!! typical.

as long as it needs an external power supply for the mains supply i was told there should be no problems.

nb your leisure battery has to be in good nik and giving 12v ;as mine runs down during the evening i have to turn off other items ie lights or the sound dissappears.comes back if i start up the van though! am thinking of fitting an extra leisure battery to help with these dark cold nights. 

I have read these various posts with considerable interest as we are also wishing to buy a 15" LCD TV for a motorhome. As we will not receive our motorhome until the end of March we are complete novices in this area, so I wonder if some of you could help.

1. Do I gather that even those LCD TVs sold for use with motorhomes (Manhattan, Sharp) have to be adapted to 240V (and back to 12V within the set) to overcome variable voltages from the leisure battery?

2. We plan to have a small inverter (not pure sinewave), mainly for recharging things. Am I right in deducing that this would run a 240V LCD TV quite adequately?

I was interested in the solution suggested by BB E695 that a small laptop could do a number of jobs. Presumably it would not care about what sort of inverter is used as the 240V is only recharging the battery. If BB E695 picks this up perhaps they could let me know:

3. How quickly does the laptop boot up to TV? if it is like our computer at home we would miss a lot of weather forecasts! But perhaps the usual bootup procedures are bypassed if using it as a TV?

4. Which model do you recommend and where did you purchase it? We are also in Northern Ireland so your advice could be very relevant!

5. How well do you find that the GPS works in NI. In demonstrations most of them seem rather rudimentary over here, but perhaps you have found a version that can cope???

Hi Linda. re point 5.  I have a Navman 510. The mapping of NI is the best I have seen of any of them. ROI is a bit hopeless though.  The Garmin Quest also has Ireland on, but couldn't find one to try out in my hand, so can't vouch for it.

Simon.