Dashcam

[Grumpyman]

Hi all, l have just purchased a Dashcam Pro. I was wondering if it's worth having the rear camera hard wired into my motorhome  as per instruction leaflet. This would be done by a vehicle electrician. Interesting to see if anyone has this arrangement.

Grumpyman

[Derek Uzzell]

Difficult too comment without seeing what the instruction leaflet says...

My understanding of these 'front & rear' dashcam products is that the main unit is attached to the vehicle's front windscreen and receives electrical power through a cable that (normally) connects (with a pre-fitted plug) into the vehicle's 'cigar lighter' socket. When there is a rear camera, this receives electrical power via a cable between the windscreen-mounted main unit and the rear camera, and the same cable is also used to pass data from the rear camera to the main unit where that information can be recorded and stored.

As far as I'm aware, when 'hard-wiring' is referred to, this just means that the main unit, instead of being powered electrically using the plug + 'cigar lighter' socket method, will be connected into the vehicle's own wiring. Hard-wiring kits are often offered to assist this process as (in many cases) merely 'piggy-backing' on an existing fuse-way in the vehicle's fuse-box won't be practicable as the plug intended to go into the 'cigar lighter' socket will have an integrated voltage reducer.

Hard-wiring the main dashcam unit at the front of the vehicle is tidier and leaves the 'cigar lighter' socket available for other purposes, but, hard-wired or not, there will still need to be a cable between the front main unit and the rear camera.

This link shows the Dashcam Pro components 

https://www.shopukdeals.co.uk/products/dash-cam-pro-front-rear-camera

and I've arrowed the cable that connects the main unit (at the front) to the rear camera (at the back). Hopefully this will be sufficiently long for your motorhome.

[Den]

Hi Grumpyman 

one of my drivers had her forward facing dash cam hard wired and was very tidy. Cables hidden and leaving the 12v socket free for other uses. 

[Grumpyman]

Thanks both will give it some consideration 

Grumpyman 

[John52]

If you are going to the trouble of 'hard wiring' in the dashcam you might as well put in an extra cigar lighter socket for it - depending on available space. 

I put in 2 extra cigar lighter sockets on the overhead cab shelf (salvaged from my X2/50 along with the central glove box, they are no longer standard fitment on the X2/90)  One socket controlled by the ignition switch, one permanently live.

Best place to run a wire to the back is inside the box section between the roof and the sides.  Which I did very easily before the van was fitted out.  But I don't know how difficult that would be in your van. 

[Derek Uzzell]

I think Grumpyman's motorhome may be an Auto-Trail F-Line F62 coachbuilt design (example image below)

There is plenty of on-line guidance/videos about installing dashcams in cars (including the Dashcam Pro front-mounted unit) and - when a rear camera is installed - the camera usually 'looks' through the car's rear window and all the electrical wiring is within the car's interior. However, the F-Line F62 model does not have a rear window, so the rear camera would need to be positioned externally somewhere on the motorhome's rear wall.

In 2005 I installed a reversing-camera system (not a dashcam) on a Hobby T-600FC coachbuilt motorhome that also had no rear window. Running the power/data cable between the dashboard-mounted monitor and the rear camera would have been a nightmare if I had attempted to run the cable through the motorhome's interior. Instead, I led the cable down through the floor of the cab, along the chassis rails beneath the vehicle, then back inside near the rear wall and upwards to emerge outside near the Hobby's roofline.  

Although taking a dashcam cable from the front to the rear of a car should not be too challenging, as I touched on above, dashcams with a front+rear capability target cars not motorhomes and it would be wise to check very carefully that the supplied front-to-rear Dashcam Pro cable will be sufficiently long.

[stevec176]

Just a question, there are dash cams that video out the front and also into the cab to record activities of the occupants, is this what Grumpy has or is it 2 separate cameras?

[Derek Uzzell]

It's two separate cameras - a main camera-unit that looks forwards through the vehicle's windscreen and a dinky little cube-shaped camera intended to be fitted at the rear of the vehicle and look backwards.

See this link to the Dashcam Pro product that Grumpyman has purchased 

https://www.shopukdeals.co.uk/products/dash-cam-pro-front-rear-camera

and the comment in the 1st 'Customer Review'.

(I guess one could mount the cube-shaped camera in a motorhome's cab looking backwards or in the rear of the habitation area looking forwards, but that's not what it's really intended for.)

[Grumpyman]

Hi Derek thanks to your replies l actually  own the autotrailf68 so do have rear window.

[Derek Uzzell]

OK - that may simplify installation and, if you mount the rear camera inside your motorhome, at least it won't be exposed to the elements.