It’s a beautiful day outside! Why don’t we open all the windows and door and let in some fresh air?

One of the largest openings in an RV is the entry door. Most RVs are equipped with a screen door inside the hard exterior door. On days with nice weather the exterior door can be opened and pushed back against the RV leaving the screen door in place to keep any bugs out. Some RVs come from the manufacturer with a latch to hold the door open. Others – ours included – do not include such a latch. This can be a problem on windy days as the wind will try to blow the door closed.

While there are several products available in the RV industry to solve this problem, I couldn’t find one that was durable (metal), attractive, and that did not require more screw holes into the RV. It would also be great if the latch could be disengaged from inside the RV.

We had used a magnetic latch to help hold the master bedroom door open. We both really like how that had worked out, so I began searching for something similar.

Because the two parts are magnetic installation is pretty simple. We cleaned the door where we planned to install the “button” part of the latch with alcohol to ensure the tape would bond well. Then we cleaned the latch with alcohol as well.

We applied the VHB tape to the screw side of the latch. We had to use two pieces to cover the entire surface, then trimmed the tape around the shape of the latch so that it would not show when stuck to the RV. Then we removed the red backing from the tape on the “button” side of the latch and stuck it to the door in the spot we cleaned earlier.

To find the location of the other half of the latch we let the magnet hold the other half of the latch, then opened the door to see where it would strike on the wall. After cleaning the wall with alcohol in that location we VHB taped the other half to the wall.

We think the installation turned out pretty well. And the door side looks like a doorbell button, which has already provided entertainment value.

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The post Magnetic RV Door Hold Open Latch appeared first on Metaphysical Family.

Our 2022 Sabre 36BHQ came equipped with a Winegard 360 broadcast television antenna. This antenna allows us to receive over-the-air (OTA) television broadcast channels for free – at least when there are OTA channels available in the area.

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Antenna and Cable Connections

Our RV is also wired for cable and satellite television channels in addition to the over-the-air television antenna. The connections for both the cable and satellite hookups are in the wet bay near the outdoor shower head.

The first thing to know is that the connections in the wet bay may be connected (or labeled) backward. This is the case with our RV. The connection labeled “satellite” is actually the “cable” connection, and vice versa. In the photo above we have the cable connection hooked to the jack labeled satellite because of this mislabeling. This is apparently a common problem.

Cables are run from these connections to the back of the plate behind the living room TV.

According to the installation manual for the Winegard 360 the connections behind the wall plate are connected as below.

From this diagram we can see that there is one coax for the antenna connection, one for cable and one that sends the active connection to a second TV. This second TV output is what sends the antenna or cable to the bedroom TV connection.

Receiving Cable TV channels with the Winegard 360

There were two things preventing us from receiving cable TV channels with the Winegard 360 system. The first was that the connections in the wet bay are labeled incorrectly, or the cables are reversed. Either way, we plug the cable connection into the jack labeled satellite. We have since switched the labels to correctly identify the jacks, but left them as they were from the factory for the photos for this post.

The second problem was that we did not understand that cable and the antenna amplifier do not work together. The antenna amplifier must be turned off in order for your TV to detect the cable channels.

To turn off the OTA antenna amplifier press the small button on the coax face plate next to the antenna coax connection. If the amplifier is on the LED next to the switch will be illuminated. If the amplifier is off the LED will be dark. After the OTA amplifier is powered off the TV should be able to detect cable channels.

Don’t forget to turn the OTA antenna’s amplifier back on when searching for broadcast channels!

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