Community Forums

carybosse · 12-03-2021, 07:47 AM

Different issue, but with my travel trailer, all I see in my rear view mirror is the white front panel of my travel trailer. I worried that it would lull me into a false sense that there was nothing behind me but a white skyline. My wife took to her graphics training and using her Silhouette machine to make a large Texas flag that she applied to the front panel. A glance at the rear view mirror reminded me I had a travel trailer following close behind.

I have a fulltime, dedicated camera/monitor on my travel trailer. It is probably "tuned" as a backup camera, but it works well enough to tell me when I have cleared a vehicle to change lanes or if a vehicle is approaching and I need to stay in my lane. I do not like the idea of mounting it to the windshield so when my wife was doing some pouring of resin in one of her other craft projects, I had her pour a cheap (not a throwaway) plastic cup full of resin. I then put the suction cup mount for the window to the resin, and put it in one of my cupholders. I have to take my eyes off the road for a split second to glance at the camera, but the biggest "distraction" is just adjusting to a camera view, would have the same issue with a windshield mount.

On my last 250 mile tow, I found I used the camera sparingly, but it was nice to have to confirm my margins for lane changes. With the sun lower in the sky, I could use the shadows casts by my trailer or other vehicles on the road though my right/left mirrors to tell when a lane change was safe.

I do not like that the trailer was pre-wired, but requires you to have your headlights on to provide camera power. With a travel trailer, we have a 12 volt battery on board plus we have a dedicated 7-pin 12 volt power supply. Seems like that would have been easy enough to wire up. I understand when there is not a pre-wire in place, the running lights are the easiest place to grab power, but on a pre-wire, it would have made more sense to me to use the dedicated 12 volt power.

HenryH001 · 12-03-2021, 08:11 AM

Are there any laws governing the use of a rear view camera? My 2003 NT 7395 has a backup camera that I can leave on when going forward. I use it to monitor my bike.

A trick I learned driving long haul is to look for vehicle shadows behind you. This of course only works part of the time. At high noon there would be no side shadow and facing to or away from the sun you wouldn’t see the shadow.

Sorry if I’m off topic.

carybosse · 12-03-2021, 08:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HenryH001

...

A trick I learned driving long haul is to look for vehicle shadows behind you. This of course only works part of the time. At high noon there would be no side shadow and facing to or away from the sun you wouldn’t see the shadow.

Sorry if I’m off topic.

Yes, the shadow discussion is probably a discussion for a separate thread, but it does help some. I noticed that it was much more helpful on my east/west travels last month as opposed to June travels.

PDR John · 12-03-2021, 10:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ron Dittmer

I do not dispute that. There are certainly significant visual differences between the two. Yet it makes a lot of sense (and cents) to "dual-purpose" your back-up camera to check for vehicles and also keep an eye on your tow vehicle. You don't need ideal visuals to provide that basic driver information.

I relocated our backup camera many years ago to the center mirror position, a wise change to better utilize features already installed and working.

I did the same. I ditched the big annoying monitor for my backup cam to a rearview mirror that half is the monitor and it also has compass and temp in it. So it is a natural reaction to look up at the rearview mirror to see what is going on behind me.

Later I may change to one of these dual-camera setups, they look pretty neat and tons more useful.

nodine · 12-04-2021, 12:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nodine

I found an adapter that will allow the existing camera on the rear of the coach to plug into the monitor above. The adapter is scheduled to arrive at my house today. If everything works out I will have the rear camera full time in the location where the rearview mirror was (I removed it) and the left and right cameras in the side mirrors will still come on in the dash monitor when the turn signals are used.

This morning I got the stand alone rear camera monitor mounted and all wired in. From the photos you can see the color quality is not so good on the factory installed camera but the good news is that the viewing angle is wide. Notice you can see the ladder and hitch on the back of the coach and way out behind the coach. Also you can see all the lanes so if you were in the center lane of a three lane highway you would be able adequately judge when the toad was clear of any vehicle you were passing. One photo is with no turn signal on and the other is with the left turn signal on.

THenne1713 · 12-04-2021, 11:52 PM

RE: <<color quality is not so good on the factory installed camera...>> TIP: Justa thought, but make sure camera lens is CLEAN before judging camera quality, then adjust brightness/ contrast, etc..... IT is amazing how much dirt, and how much it can affect picture quality. and make a practice to clean DAILY ON THE ROAD. BUT esp. AFTER RAIN...Good Luck