I have a camera on the top of the caravan at the back powered off an ignition feed so its on all the time. There was a separate umbilical ending in suzy connector which coupled to the car. Wiring in the car led to the display a 7" unit which clipped to the rear view mirror and made a perfectly servicable rear view mirror when not in use as a display.
Just changed the car and during the transfer of the wiring harness from old car to new something went wrong and when installed into new car wiring harness didn't work. It could only be the fault of the installer as they de-installed it too. Also boot of new car sprang a leak as it seems they had displaced a grommet so allowing water to splash up into the boot. I was very disappointed as I had come to really like having a view directly behind the caravan especially for dual carriageways and motorways as it means you can see the crafty who sneak in behind you that the mirrors don't pick up.
So I decided to look again at a wireless unit. These have greatly improved over the years - they were a non starter 7 years ago when I had the wired unit above installed.
So I bought one and being an amatuer radio enthusiast I have a 12v power supply available in the house to power radios. Plugged the camera into that and took the display to the car and found there was sufficient range to let me turn around in the hammerhead of the cul-de-sac where I live without losing the picture. Good quality picture though not HD but perfectly servicable. The display is slighty smaller at 5 inches but also clips to rear view mirror and allows enough mirror to be visible that I can use the mirror without removing the display.
All in all very happy with its performance. I didn't disturb the caravan wiring instead choosing to use a 12v 7ah sealed battery together with a trickle charger. £40 quid for the pair. The camera and monitor came in at £120 with discount so for £160 a complete system and yes I realise I could feed it from the caravan leisure battery - I may organise this when we get back from this 6 week tour and I get the van serviced.
Original installation by a local Auto Electrics workshop had set me back north of £700 fitted.
Result!! But for the extra view to the rear these cameras give, together with the aid of fitting I can highly recommend.
No two ways about it, a rear view/reversing camera on the caravan makes life a lot easier!
I mostly tow solo, so without a banksman, reversing used to be a tense procedure, very much a case of take a look then 'pray' as everything of importance went out of view in the towing mirrors when any turning was involved! Found the reversing out of HGV parking bays on motorway services the worst! - always traffic and people around and behind you, pretty much had to rely on the common sense and courtesy of HGV drivers to 'allow' you to manoeuvre out! - not all are very caravan tolerant, so a angry blast on an air horn was common!
I'm a fairly competent driver, and can reverse the outfit well enough, but all the skill in the world doesn't compensate for driving backwards into the unknown and whatever that may hold!
Decided a reversing camera was necessary BEFORE the caravan came to grief. Looked at various types, wired, wireless links, etc. As the caravan is in storage and cannot be worked on in the storage bay, needing to be moved to the booked by the hour service bay, I decided that hard wired types needing holes in caravan and long cable runs was not the best solution, as fitting timing was unpredictable and my slot in the service bay may expire before I was finished, and I wasn't crazy on the idea of putting more holes in the van and risking leak points. Nor did I want another cable link between caravan and car. The hard wired and wireless link to car types were only marginally better I felt.
Wireless and self powered seemed to be the best route. Discounted some of the older models with unreliable wireless links, and found a neat one with good coms, good range good image quality (excellent day, good night time in lit areas), good battery life, easy fitting (bracket double sided taped behind number plate), and moderate cost (https://www.auto-vox.com/product/1610073548.html). Fitting may be as easy as the 5 minutes they claim, IF the adhesive tape holding the existing number plate in place wants to come unstuck! - mine didn't!! Used the old dental floss trick in the end, but so much sticky residue from the tape to clean up, took must have been an hour to be in a position to put everything back with new camera.
Worth all the effort, it's been in use a couple of years now, and worked faultlessly. It's not operational all the time, camera goes to 'sleep' to preserve inbuilt battery life, but a touch of a button on the screen and it springs to life for a preset time, perfectly long enough to check behind when manoeuvring on the road, and when reversing. I've used it on 10 hour tows and the camera battery doesn't even hint at being run down, so no fears that it will expire before I've finished my journey. Camera is detachable, so easy to recharge from a USB port.
One of those gadgets, where the research time was well worth while, and the final choice purchase has proven a good choice.
I have just recently fitted the autovox solar to our caravan. Again they say 5 minutes fitting, but I spent much longer than that. I did not fancy relying on double sided tape to hold the camera to the caravan and definitely not going to screw the bracket to the roof. I decided to buy a couple of bull bar brackets and fit to the rear handle.
Very pleased with it in use. As already mentioned, now I can see the idiot tucked in too close to see in mirrors.
As soon as I switch on the monitor, the camera fires up and is ready in a few seconds. The camera has its own battery and lasted for a 4 hour round trip, seemingly without any significant battery drain. There is a solar panel I could fit, but does not seem to be needed.
Certainly well recommended. I got it from fleabay but kept watching until it got a price reduction.
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Topic: Rear view camera on Caravan
via mobile 02/6/2024 at 3:51pm
