Back-up camera

[ACDW-Ottawa]

Hi Kordog!

I have a wired voyager camera system on my Solitude (from my old RV). I ran the wire from the pinbox above the gelcoat panel under the upper deck and through the front baggage compartment, through the belly to the rear of the RV. Came up out of the floor in the rear at the wall corner (door side), ran the wire behind the corner moulding and into the cupboards (above the window), then across to above the window where it then mated with the camera. I have a rear living RV so your wiring might be easier or harder than mine. I have this heavy duty coiled cable that connects the wire between the truck and trailer. It came with the voyager camera.

I have to find some pictures or send them once I get my RV back from the repair shop. I will dig up the name of that cable and send pics as soon as I can.

Hope this helps or did you already install a camera? Sorry. Didn't see this earlier.

[MonkeyMan]

Tried to find the wiring yesterday and was having some issues. Does anyone who did this install have any suggestions?

Also-is there any reason why you can't mount the camera in place of the middle marker light? I didn't check the grommet size - but wondering if that might just be easier.

[MonkeyMan]

OK - wanted to provide an update to anyone trying this in the future. The wiring is definitely back there when you pull the light out. I called GD and they recommended spraying a little silicone spray on the wiring (white wire - ground, white wire/green stripe - hot) to encourage them to slide out. They were most likely getting 'stuck' on the foam. Sprayed a little and convinced the wires to come out with some needlenose pliers and a pick. The tough part was getting the connectors (where the rear marker light connects to the white base wiring) back out of the hole - took a little convincing, but working slowly/patiently helped.

I wound up mounting the Voyager camera just above the middle marker light - there's just enough room there and it <seemed> like it was a better mounting point than the roof. Quite honestly, I was way too nervous to cut into the roof and pretty nervous putting a hole in the side, but it all worked out.

Did a dry run of the camera in it's parking spot and it seems to work well; just need to get final alignment <somewhere>.

[Hootie]

How did you mount the camera. Did you
go all way through exterior wall with backing plate and nuts and seal up holes or just fastened it to exterior wall with self tapping screws without going all way through and sealing screws holes up . got a wired system and have not had a chance to investigate how I plan on installing it. Any suggestion would be welcomed on mounting camera. Hootie.

[MonkeyMan]

Hootie - I mounted the camera on the back wall above the middle light (not on the roof). When I drilled the 3/8" hole (I think that was the diameter) I found part of the wood stringer that runs along the top back of the unit. So the top 2 screws are anchored in the wood and the bottom two are self tapped into the wall/insulating foam. Put silicone in all holes and on back of mounting plate and it turned out pretty well.

All that said, if I'm able to return the camera to Camping World I plan on taking it off and going with a wired system. The Voyager wireless is flaking out way too much when driving down the road. While it works OK for backing up into spots (actually, the camera is a little more fish-eye lens for my liking as well) it's unreliable as rear view camera while traveling. As the signal weakens the frame rate drops and gets pretty choppy - then if you lose signal altogether the screen either freezes or blanks out. Not what you want to see happening if you're trying to get a sense of the vehicle in the next lane.

BTW - for reference, we have a Momentum 355 with a GMC 3500 crew cab dualie and 8' bed. We might be just on the edge of the transmission range.

My recommendation to anyone checking out this thread - while it will definitely be more work, if you can do it - go with a wired system. As always, YMMV.

Best of luck!

[apulido]

we have the Garman GPS with the camera option but had to purchase the long 50 foot extension cable for it. The camera worked pretty good. the only thing is the transmitter box has to be in the line of sight of the GPS to work properly. NO obstacles, A human body walking around between the GPS and the transmitter will block the unit from working. Great use when I had to change lanes on the road ways. I can see behind me while driving

[Hootie]

MonkeyMan thanks for replying back with good info. I agree, wired is the way to go on long units. I did buy a wired system and enough cable to do job for the 385th, bought it from Tweety's RV on web a while back. Plan on installing it over Christmas days off. Will drop a line on site to show and tell how it went.
Hootie

[MonkeyMan]

BTW Hootie - keep in mind that it was more dumb luck than plan in finding the wood stringer there - though my expectation is that it's the same for all units. From memory, the Voyager camera mounting bracket is basically mounted as high as possible on the rear wall above the middle light. My thought was that would provide 'separation' from the marker light while still providing access to the wiring.

Also, I called Grand Design and asked them where they mount and they said the roof to decrease possibility of the light washing out the camera. I can't say with 100% certainty whether this would occur, but with my setup it didn't seem to. While I did use the camera at night there was enough additional light that I would assume it wasn't using just the IR LEDs.

One last thing that anyone considering a wireless system might benefit from knowing - yesterday while unloading a few more items from the trailer I noticed that the camera's antenna was pointing back at an angle away from the tow vehicle (the angle can adjust from 0-90 degrees). This may have contributed to the bad reception I'd experienced on the way back from my trip. I climbed up on the roof and spun the antenna on it's mounting axis 180 degrees so the wind won't push it back over (my assumption as to what happened) which I probably should have considered in the first place. I'll be taking a short trip to have slideouts installed in a few weeks (relatively cheap install at Camping World well worth the decreased headache and marital bliss) and will check out signal then. If different - will confirm.

[MonkeyMan]

Update on the Voyager camera - it has been removed from our Momentum and returned. Couldn't get the unit to consistently provide a good, strong signal - even with the extension antenna. Tried in our truck and also plugging monitor into another vehicle - no luck. My suspicion is that it may have been a bad unit - but thankfully Camping World provided a full refund so now we have options.

For the time being, I've placed a rubber stopper, with silicone into the hole that I had to drill for the wiring. Hopefully a very temporary situation until I find another camera unit.

I've been reading some OK reviews of RearViewSafety cameras - though mostly on their web site. We'll see what more I can learn - and hopefully will see their units at an upcoming RV show. Does anyone here have current/previous experience with RVS?

[LCBoyer]

Check this
http://www.tadibrothers.com/Products...emiumRVSystems