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  1. #1
    Setting Up Camp
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    Surveillance camera setup in 303

    Looking for some advice or someone that has done this. I have a 2019 303RLS and I installed the Furrion S7 camera system. I have the backup and the side marker cameras. Camera's work well while driving, but I would like to use the monitor once we're parked as a surveillance system. The system brought a table top stand for the monitor for this very reason. Currently, for the camera's to work, I have to be connected to the tow vehicle and have the lights on. Has anyone figured out how to power the cameras without being hooked to the TV? I'm also guessing if there is a way to use the trailer plug, it's going to light up the marker lights and the lights in the back, which I would prefer not to have on.

    Any advice would be appreciated.

  2. #2
    Seasoned Camper
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    Wow where do you camp? I have NEVER had a problem at any campground and I have been to about 100 different ones. Some in nice areas and some I wondered about. The pictures online are not current LOL

  3. #3
    Setting Up Camp
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    Quote Originally Posted by The Bone View Post
    Wow where do you camp? I have NEVER had a problem at any campground and I have been to about 100 different ones. Some in nice areas and some I wondered about. The pictures online are not current LOL
    LOL! It's not that I camp in sketchy areas, trust me I don't. When I bought the system it was advertised as one of the uses and they provided the desktop stand. I just figured why not. I'm hoping it's a real simple solution, and not something I need to run/cut wires for. It's not worth that.

  4. #4
    Commercial Member huntr70's Avatar
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    Jump the 2 connectors at the umbilical cord.

    Use a piece of wire and push it into the slots on either side of the locator lug. One is 12 volt from battery and one is the clearance lights.

    It will light up the lights and power your cameras.
    Steve- Inventory Manager at Tom Schaeffer's RV, Shoemakersville, PA www.tomschaeffers.com
    [email protected]
    2011 RAM 3500 SRW Outdoorsman Edition 4X4, 6.7 Cummins--TWEAKED!
    2021 Reflection 310RLS

  5. #5
    Long Hauler Canyonlight's Avatar
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    Attached link to thread where in post #8 a fuse is used rather than a piece of wire. The safety of a fuse vs a direct wire connection seems a good option:

    https://www.mygrandrv.com/forum/show...ight=umbilical

    Dan
    Dan & Carol
    2014 303RLS Reflection #185 (10/2013 build)
    2012 Silverado LTZ Crew Duramax 2500HD
    2700/16K Pullrite Superglide

  6. #6
    Big Traveler boyscout's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ernie_diaz View Post
    Looking for some advice or someone that has done this. I have a 2019 303RLS and I installed the Furrion S7 camera system. I have the backup and the side marker cameras. Camera's work well while driving, but I would like to use the monitor once we're parked as a surveillance system. The system brought a table top stand for the monitor for this very reason. Currently, for the camera's to work, I have to be connected to the tow vehicle and have the lights on. Has anyone figured out how to power the cameras without being hooked to the TV? I'm also guessing if there is a way to use the trailer plug, it's going to light up the marker lights and the lights in the back, which I would prefer not to have on. Any advice would be appreciated.
    I have not done it. After considering the work involved, you might not do it either.

    The monitor needs to be plugged into a 12-volt supply inside the trailer. There isn't one there already, you'll have to create it. For a different purpose, I installed a 12V circuit into the bedroom, terminating in one of those 12V cigarette-lighter-type socket plugs, so perfect for plugging in the monitor. To do this I took power from a terminal inside the front battery compartment, ran fused wire through the back wall of that compartment and across and up through the bedroom floor following the pattern of some 12V wiring already there to supply the 12V lighting over our bed. I did this because I needed to be sure of plenty of current for my requirement; you might be able to get away with less work by simply tapping into an existing lighting circuit to supply the relatively-lower amperage requirement of the Furrion monitor.

    So, that would put the monitor in your bedroom, but maybe you'd rather have it in your living area. I'll *guess* that you have a cabinet full of switches and a breaker/fuse panel in the hutch at the front of your living area and/or the cabinet beneath it. You should be able to take 12V power from a circuit behind the fuse panel and add a new fused circuit with a 12V plug for the monitor, but you'll have to be aware of what you're taking your power from and whether that circuit can support the additional current required by the Furrion monitor. All the 12V circuits on the back of the panel are likely 15-amp circuits feeding lights, alarms, fridge, furnace, and it's very likely that some of the lighting circuits can handle the extra load of the monitor.

    But that's just the monitor!

    I, too, like having the camera turned on and off by the truck's lights; I would not want to compromise that.

    To have the camera powered when the truck is not connected you could take @huntr70's advice above, certainly easy but that will turn on all the marker lights when you want to power the camera.

    To avoid that it would be necessary to add a switched circuit that could be flipped one way to power the camera as it is now, from the marker lights circuit, and flipped the other way to take camera power from another 12V circuit in the trailer, again probably a lighting circuit at the back of the trailer such as the one supplying the lights under the overhead cabinet on the back wall. It would make most sense to take the non-truck power before it gets to the light switch for the switch, so you don't have to have the light on when you want the camera on. It's also important that this switch *interrupts* the marker light circuit, because otherwise the trailer power you apply will continue past the camera and power the marker light(s) circuit that currently feeds power to the camera. That probably means fishing the marker light circuit down and into the overhead cabinets so you can insert the switch into it.

    Having done all this, you'll have the capability to do what you want but if you're like me you'll then regularly forget to flip the switch back to truck-power mode before you depart, and will discover it only when you turn on the truck lights and the camera doesn't work!

    Hope this ramble qualifies as the "advice" that you were looking for and helps you decide what you want to do.
    Mark - 2018 Solitude 310GK - 2017 F-350 diesel SRW short box - Pullrite Superglide hitch

  7. #7
    Long Hauler geotex1's Avatar
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    We use our Vision S for campsite monitoring.

    Unfortunately, your only option is rewiring the cameras if you do not want the marker lights on as well. The RV industry would gain major kudos if they would just run an isolated circuit for cameras and give the owner the option of how they want to feed it!

    For the monitor, boyscout covered one method and a method pertinent if you're a dry camper especially. However, if you camp with hookups, a simple $25 120VAC to 12VDC converter rated at 10A gets it done with ease.
    Rob & Nikki + Cloverfield
    2020 Grand Design Solitude S-Class 3350RL
    2015 RAM 3500 Longhorn Laramie Crew Cab, Long Bed, 4x4 Dually Cummins/AISIN

    Mountains of Pennsylvania

  8. #8
    Setting Up Camp
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    That's great info. But to be honest, I really don't want to run any new wires or start installing switches that I need to remember to hit before we take off. As stated before, it's not the biggest of concerns, I was just wondering if there was something already prewired/switched in the trailer, that I didn't know about. Thank you all for your suggestions.

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