I have had some experience with dash cams but on motorcycles rather than a motorhome. In 2008 I built a 3D camera system to record a trip to Alaska using special rugged and weatherproof bullet cameras. Fortunately the enclosed conditions of a motorhome and the newer technology make this a far easier and less costly task now.
I am now considering cobbling together a dash cam system for our recently acquired Mountain Aire. There are a number of off the shelf solutions available but IMHO most fail to offer some of the advantages using what you likely have already.
I am planning to craft a shelf that mounts on the dash of my motorhome and provides a flat space for storing small stuff such as our logbook, sunglasses, etc. I’ll also include a powered smartphone holder (dock) for my iPad. You could also mount an iPhone or Android smartphone if preferred. There are a number of dash cam apps for these devices, many with options for recording additional data such as speed, location and more. Since my iPad and laptop are already talking to each other wirelessly, transferring the recorded footage to my laptop will be easy.
By including a powered docking cable that the iPad plugs into, it keeps the pad fully charged and makes it a handy reference source through all the RV related apps already installed.
As to the comment, “There is a lot of debate about whether a GPS input is good or bad legality wise.”, I don’t know how impactful that is now with all the other data recording stuff factory built into modern vehicles. When I built my motorcycle 3D dash cam this was a concern for me until I found the camera systems from V.I.O. Solutions <www.vio-pov.com>.
These systems offer a unique feature called tagging. You set a record length, say 3 minutes. The camera then records 3-minute clips but saves them only temporarily. If something occurs that you want to save, you press the “Tag” button and it saves the 3-minute clip permanently to its SD card. This not only dramatically reduces the data space required for recorded video but also allows you to save only the time clips that are important. You can press the “Tag” button after the event and it sophisticated system allows you to save the event previously recorded, after it had occurred. The downside of these systems is that they are costly.
This gives you both a virtually no-cost and premium option that hopefully will be of benefit to you.
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