hi i want to fit a wireless rear view camera on my folding van can i connect straight on to my leisure battery i only use it for of grid a few days at a time and charge it up with smart charger when on site,or can i connect into my rear light system
If its for reversing up to objects, a bleeper may be better. Cameras can give an unrealistic view. I had one on the motorhome, and it always looked like i was within a foot of where i wanted to be. It was always a yard further. The truck is pretty similar and it has both. It screams its head off once it gets to a couple of foot. You would think you were halfway up the bonnet of the car in the bay behind. I have to get close because bays are never long enough. Hence i stick my head out of the door now, its more accurate.
As I travel alone most of the time, reversing a big caravan is a complete act of faith, as soon as you get a bit of a turn on, your mirrors become useless, inside one looks at side of van and nothing else, other side into wide open space without a hint of van in it!
I looked at various reversing cameras, considering wired and wireless types, self powered (inbuilt batteries) and powered by 12v supply from the van, either from battery or reversing lights.
Came to the conclusion that I'd like a camera that I could use at any time (like a rear view mirror), not just reversing, so that I could monitor what was behind if I wanted to say pull out to overtake. Considered the time and aggravation of fitting (van in storage yard, so limited access) and didn't really want to drill any holes in shell. I do long journeys, pushing 11 hours on occasions due to delays, but even as a normal journey 7 or 8 hours, so any inbuilt batteries needed to have many hours duration. Oh yes, I'm also a tight wad, don't like spending lots of money!
By process of elimination, I decided on a wireless battery powered camera that stuck to caravan with double sided tape (so no holes to drill), and with it's own monitor rather than using mobile phone as a monitor.
I picked the Auto-Vox TW1 (https://www.amazon.co.uk/AUTO-VOX-True-Wireless-Reversing-Installation-Support-TW1........). Got mine a bit cheaper than that, opted for the optional solar charger as well (~£30), and combined only came to £154!
Only used it twice since I fitted it last October, but so far very impressed, good image quality, decent angle of view but not grossly distorted, very long battery life (nowhere near flattened battery on my 11 hour journey!), absolutely no interference/breakdown on the wireless link, and passable if not brilliant night time vision (but then I was relying entirely on reversing lights on caravan for illumination). Took a little while to fit (certainly not 5 mins!) as I had a lot of old and VERY resilient double sided tape to clean off caravan and back of number plate when I removed number plate to fit the mounting bracket. Certainly could be a 5 min job if not having to clean off lots of old adhesive tape! As to judging distance behind, it's got (customisable - adjustable range) colour coded distance guiding lines which are rather subjective, but with practice you get to know how much clearance they represent. The screen/camera is not on constantly, but a touch of a button on screen and it near instantly springs into life, so the benefit of use when needed but not a constant distraction.
The real test of it's worth was when I stopped at a motorway services and had to stop in the truck parking area, couldn't pull to front of double length bay as truck already there so reversing out again it was going to be. Incredibly busy with constant stream of trucks passing very close behind and not a lot of manoeuvring room as sandwiched by trucks on either side too, so full length reverse and then some it had to be. That would have been a nightmare and act of faith without the camera, reckon the camera paid for itself on that one use, possibly quite literally, it would have been so easy to reverse into something unseen by any other means as things (cars, vans, pedestrians and trucks) were constantly moving into my reversing space! Wish I'd made the effort before to sort out a suitable camera, so much more reassuring.
Best and most accurate reversing aid I have ever seen was the one on my old Volvo V70. Next to the interior mirror was a small box containing 4 small lights and a digital numerical display. When reverse was selected the lights came up green and the display showed the distance from the obstruction. As I reversed up to the wall or another car, the digital display counted down and the lights changed first to amber as I got close, then to red. If one light went red before the others, there was a post there. If I stopped as the lights went red and the counter reached zero, I was 6" off the obstruction. Worked every time. There was also a beeper that went with it, and when any light turned red the beeper became constant.
I don't know whether there is any such after-market device, but I'd certainly recommend it if there was. More accurate than a camera. The only thing I would say though is that on my X Trail which has a camera, I can see if I am backing up to a white line, which I couldn't do with the Volvo.
As wireless cameras are prone to interference and are affected by a variety things like other vehicles, from banks cash points, fluorescent lighting etc. I decided to have one hard wired.
The camera is mounted on the back of the van in the centre at the top looking down toward the road. There is an umbilical cord which presents at the A frame to a heavy duty cable with a weatherproof screw connector on it. This connects to a similar socket mounted on the towing bracket on the car and another umbilical runs from there to the display unit on the cars rear view mirror. The plug and socket arrangement is akin to the ones used in Articulated lorries for electrics. The umbilical is a heavy coiled springy cable. The camera operates the whole time. I would hate to be without it.
It gives a very good view of the road and so I can see vehicles tucking in behind which are in the blind spots to the mirrors. The images are recorded onto an SD card as are the ones from the dash cam which I also wouldn’t be without.
The rear camera is a great aid when reversing but it does take a bit of getting used to. There is a graticule showing how far you are from things and there is a red line and a yellow line showing distance from objects. The yellow one is about 2m and the red one 0.5 m. This is adjustable in the menu of the display.
When the caravan is not being towed the display is switched off and becomes a normal anti glare mirror so no need to remove it when not in use.
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Topic: rear view camera
