Interesting Find

[210craig]

When I walked into my 2021 momentum 397 I had an interesting find. My TV was hanging down in front of the fireplace. I thought that can’t be good. Started inspecting and I notice the panel behind the TV was all pulled loose. I removed the TV from the arm and the arm was flopping in the breeze as well as the back panel.

I knew something had failed behind the entertainment unit. I removed the arm and the doors and all the surrounding trim. I also removed the fireplace. After the fact I realized the unit is in 2 pieces. It took a little time to figure out how it was installed. The biggest hassle was on the pantry wall. The entertainment unit was installed prior to the pantry wall. So there were about 20 staples fastening the wall to the unit. The trim is put on with 3/4 brads so they are pretty easy to deal with. The staples are a lot tougher. Finally broken them all free the unit came out.

Thats when I discovered what happened. There is a pretty good structure back there, but a failure in design. They used a 3/8 inch piece of plywood as a backer for the TV arm. Not the greatest, but something. The problem was the wide construction staples. If you have ever worked on RVs you learn quickly that manufacturers use them a lot and they are horrible. It’s a quick and easy way to join 2 pieces of wood, but they just don’t hold up. Especially in this application because the forces of the TV is pulling the plywood away from the wood support and pulled the staples right out. Without the staples you basically have a paper thin piece of Luan holding it all and obviously not well.

Since it out it’s getting completely rebuilt more wood, more screws. In place on the plywood I added a 2x10 sunk into the side framing with 2.5 inch pocket screws. It is not coming out again. The small supports above and below the brace is for the bathroom which is on the other side. Notice they have staples. I added L brackets on both to hold them in place. The vertical braces are screwed into the supports for the bathroom walls. I added more screws. I added more screws everywhere.

Now I’m to the place of rebuilding the entertainment unit. That’s a little tougher as it’s all vinyl wrapped MDF. Lot more screws and glue and a whole lot less staples. I attached some pics of the wall behind the entertainment unit. I don’t know why they are sideways. You can see where the staples failed, since it’s a 2021 they failed pretty quickly. The unit has been used 4 times.

Will update when done.