CHEETAH MOUNTS PLASMA LCD TV ARTICULATING DUAL ARM WALL MOUNT FOR 32 63 DISPLAYS UP TO 180LBS BLACK

Posted by HDTV in Electronics May 14th, 2009 | no responses

CHEETAH MOUNTS PLASMA LCD TV ARTICULATING DUAL ARM WALL MOUNT FOR 32 63 DISPLAYS UP TO 180LBS BLACK

This is a very substantial mount with Dual arms and over 30lbs of steel. The arms extend over 20″ from the wall yet fold to less than 5″. Even at full extension, this mount has very little sag or twist. It is rated for up to 180lbs and most displays 52″ and smaller weigh under 100lbs. The unit has 4 tilt adjustment knobs and two tilt adjustment screws and it will tilt forward or back 15 degrees. The wall plate is over 19″ wide and has wide slots making it easy to mount into standard 16″ studs even if they are not exactly 16″ apart. The TV plate is 32″ wide and the arms fold outward when pushed up against the wall. Thus, the TV plate and possibly the arms may be visible on the sides of 32″ units. The universal design will fit any display with a hole pattern up to 26.3″ wide and 18″ tall. The wall plate is 1/8″ thick and very stable and includes a large center hole for cable pass-though into the wall. This mount will swivel approximately 120 degrees depending on the size of your display. Installation instructions and hardware included.

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars Great TV mount
I have been looking at TV mounts everywhere for a while and just didnt want to spend $500 for a TV mount. I was a little nervous when I bought it but this mount is solid. It pivots really well and looks great as well. I would recommend this mount to anyone, in fact, I did recommend it to all my family members that are looking for mounts. Just dont use the screws that come with it, get some lag bolts to mount it to the wall, other than that, it is fantastic.

5 Stars Simple and Sturdy
Excellent with my 52″ Samsung. A bit of a struggle to mount, but very solid and works very well.

5 Stars Worth the $
All the positive reviews, and attractive price made the decision to buy this easy. It was a very good choice.

This is a very sturdy mount. Also, I’m very impressed how easily the TV position is adjusted. This works just as well as other, more expensive mounts.

4 Stars Sturdy mount……..tilt issues
I have a 50″ Samsung plasma that weighs just over 80 pounds, so the specs are well within the range of this mount. The directions are OK, but lack some detail and any illustrations would be helpful. That being said, it is not rocket science to figure it out. Spending some time looking over the product, the tv and the mounting location, I figured out the items I would need.

The mounting hardware was a collection of items that did not work with this mount, such as: wood lag screws too short and smallish; no screws to mount tilt arms to back of tv; dry wall mounting inserts (per instructions & common sense, this should never ever be installed just to drywall); and a plethora of various other screws, washers, spacers, etc. that could not be used with this application or mount.

So, I made a trip to my local Home Depot & Lowe’s to pick up the necessary items.

I bought some M8 (1.0 threads) x 30 mm machine screws, 5/16″ x 1″ flat washers (could not find M8×1″ washer, but these work) & M8 locking washers to mount the tilt arms to the back of my tv. The instructions suggest using the screws that previously occupied the mounting holes on the back of the tv, but when you add the tilt arms and both washers (which are necessary, flat washer to distribute the load more effectively across the width of the arm & the locking washer to make sure the screw will not back out at all), the screws were not nearly long enough to mount. My tv will accommodate a 600×400 Versa mount. The tilt arms have various mounting holes on the bottom of the arm and slots on the top. Based on the size and weight balance of your tv (i.e. where the heaviest areas of the tv are, mine is in the bottom), you need to move the arms up or down to position where on the wall mount the bulk of the tv weight will rest (more on this later…..). Unfortunately, the slots have dividers in them (separates into three slots and they limit the number of holes that are usable on the bottom of the tilt arm). The importance of having flexibility to move the arms up and down on the back of the tv is not limited just to the weight distribution of the tv, but also to slightly adjust the vertical position of the tv on the wall. No matter how many measurements you make, you never know exactly how the tv will rest as it is so much weight to support that it will pull down slightly and affect the vertical position and there are various tilt options (which is critical if you are trying to center it in a specific location-mine is in a custom built wall/cabinet unit). My suggestion to the manufacuturer would be to make both the top and bottom mounting positions with open slots for their entire length to give ultimate flexibility.

Now, on to mounting the wall bracket. My mount came assembled, arms attached to wall plate. Together, they are very heavy and awkward to hold with the arms extended. My initial plan was to mark my first hole, have my wife hold the mount up and I would screw the upper left corner screw in, level the wall plate and then drill the upper right hole. My wife said, “I can’t hold that up, why don’t you just take the arms off…….” What a great idea (which I can honestly say I did not have)…….Just a simply ratchet on four screws and off the arms come and you are left with a wall plate that weights much less and not awkward at all to hold for install. The hardest part of this was putting wood screws all the way in……..I bought four 1/4″ x 2.5″ galvanized wood screws, 1/4″ x 1″ flat washers & 1/4″ locking washers to mount the wall plate to studs. The biggest issue here was not the mount itself, it was the location of the studs relative to where the center of my built in cabinet was. The wall plate allows for some flexibility by having slots for the mounting screws. The wall plate is made for 16″ O.C. studs (standard for home construction), but the slots are wide enough for about 18″. Additionally, the bracket that the tilt arms hang on is wider than the wall mount and gives you an additional couple of inches of flexibility. Unfortunately in my situation, I was still approximately 1.5″ off center…….but again, this is all based on the stud location, not the mount itself. The mount is solid on the wall, and when you hang or pull the tv out, you can hear the wood creaking a little bit but there is no sag…….and with 80+ pounds extended about 2′from the wall, to not sag or twist is impressive…….the mount will hold. As several of the other reviewers have suggested, mounting plywood to the studs or solid blocking between the studs can alleviate this issue……..Once the wall plate is on, I just reinstalled the arms very easily.

Now, the biggest issue I have…..the tilt……..I followed the instructions and tightened the center bolt and nut on the tilt arms as tight as they would absolutely go. I also tightened the plastic knobs as tight as they would go. When we placed the tv on the bracket, the tilt was automatically pulled all the way down so the tv was all the way at the bottom of the tilt angle and did not work for my location. We must have taken it off the mount a half dozen times, retightend the bolt and knobs, moved the arms up and down on the various mounting holes (on mine, I can only use about 3 of the 10 holes as discussed above) and nothing worked………no matter how tight, due to the weight of the tv, it would always slide to the lowest tilt angle. So, I logged on yesterday afternoon to start scouring the reviews…….and low and behold, others had suggestions……..I have to give credit to Joseph from IL for his fix of this problem (thanks Joseph)……..I bought various diameter Cleve pins (machine screws will work as well, these Cleve pins are smooth so they sit flush and won’t scratch the arms) to slide into the tilt slot to limit it’s motion…….They have to be at least 2″ long to pass all the way through…..I tried 1/2″, 3/8″ & 1/4″ diameter and settled on the 1/4″ as it had just the right amount of tilt. This is a permanent fix, granted it removes your ability to adjust the tilt frequently, but due to the difficulty to grab and tighten/loosen the knobs (the mount bracket gets in the way) and how hard you have to crank down on the knobs, I do not believe that you actually can use the tilt function on the fly…..you pretty much have to take the tv down, set the tilt and put it back up…….you can very easily pull the tv away from the wall, and rotate it side to side, but tilting is difficult……..although, my thought is that you can set it and forget it on the tilt angle for the most part…….

The final issue I have is that after getting through all of this, my tv is about 1/2″ out of level from left to right (which is really bugging my wife)……not sure exactly the cause because I know the wall plate is dead level (I checked it many times)………I believe it is a combination, of sliding the tv to one side of the hanging bracket to try and get it in the center of my built in cabinet and maybe the mounting holes on the back of the tv being a little uneven…….just not quite sure, but understandable………I am now going to move the mount over slightly (to center it on the built in cabinet) and mount the wall plate to accomodate the amount that it is out of level………kind of a pain at this point, but after all this I (ok, my wife) really wants it right……..

Unfortunately, it is impossible to diagnose many of these issues until you actually have it hung on the wall……..you really need the entire weight of the tv to be supported by the mount and see what gravity does. So, you are likely going to mount the wall bracket twice, unless you have a smaller tv on the lower end of the specs for this mount…….

Overall, my only issue with this mount is the tilt angle issue…..but that is very easily over come with a couple of pins that cost about $4…….I did have to adapt to my specific install and buy some additional hardware, however, all said and done I have about $15 in additional hardware and the initial cost was less than half of what a similar (with less features) one cost at Best Buy……..this mount is extremely sturdy and well built…….hanging a 80+ pound tv about 2′ from the wall is very impressive…….I would recommend this mount, for the cost and features, it is hard to beat…….Just thought I would pass along some tips to make the install easier…..

4 Stars Decent articulating mount for the money
We purchased three Cheetah mounts for displays up to 180 lbs for our new home, to be paired with two 52″ Samsung displays and one 46″ display. My contractor installed the mounts and displays without any issue (so I can’t personally comment on the difficulty of installation).

The mounts are of heavy steel and appear very sturdy. The articulation is a great feature, and really makes our great room home theater system work. Our main seating area is centered on a floor-to-ceiling stone chimney, necessitating a significant offset in placement of the TV (we really didn’t want to mount it over the mantle, competing with the fireplace). As such, the 52″ LCD is mounted about five feet to the left of the hearth. The Cheetah mount permits us to pull the display a foot out into the room, then angle it at about 45 degrees, which makes for a fine viewing angle for all the seats in the room. When we’re not watching, we can push it back against the wall (where it can also be seen well from the kitchen / dining area), where it sits about 6 inches out from the wall… not bad considering the range of articulation.

My only complaint about these mounts is that one of the three came through from the vendor with broken plastic knobs. No doubt I should have returned the mount, but I opted for putting it up in my game room, where it wouldn’t be visible even when the screen is pulled out from the wall; I just couldn’t deal with the hassle of packing up and shipping a 35 lb + item. Check yours carefully when you receive it.

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