Rear camera anyone?

[Ascinder]

I picked this up from Costco today for $89, they have them at Wal*Market also for $100. It's a wireless rear camera that gets wired into your brake lines (for power), and the monitor plugs into the cigarette light for power. I plan on changing the cigarette lighter part so I don't lose it as an accessory point. I'll post pics when it's installed.

[rowhard]

Do keep us posted on how well it works, both day and night.

[Ascinder]

Well, so far, I have already hit a snag. The camera wires into your backup light circuit (which is obviously only on when backing up) so it would be intermittent. I need to find(or run) a wire going to the rear to splice into the system. If I have to run one, that would defeat the purpose of the wireless aspect. . The only other limitation I would list right off is that the screen is only 2.5", making it somewhat small, but for just glancing up at to see behind, it should be able to give you an idea of something back there. The screen also shifts display orientations at the push of a button allowing you to mount the monitor at 90 degrees if you had to.

[Jim Hanzak]

I installed the same camera on mine.........hopefully yours will last longer than mine. The lens on the camera fogged up and now its useless

[Ascinder]

Maybe I'll try carefully sealing around the edges with some superglue. Thanks for the tip. Did you wire yours to a constant source or just use the backup system?

[Ascinder]

Ok, all hooked up. I spliced it into the license plate bulb system. I always use the running/parking lights anyways, so it works for me. Next to zero visibility at night folks, you can see car lights, but if there is a little kid wearing a black ninja costume, they're pretty much coffin filler. As for daytime, clear as a bell. I installed it into the license plate mounts it is designed for, instead of trying to fit it into the camera mounting area in the halfmoon, which I looked at long and hard, but it would take more fab work than I wanted to do for an untested product. Still looking for where to place the screen (it comes with a dock, held down on the dash with velcro), but I am considering either the passenger sun visor, or somewhere on or by the "rearview" mirror. All in all, I think it will satisfy the intent, which was to be able to see what is behind me. For $90 and a fairly easy install (I did it between posts) instead of several hundred dollars and probably more effort in the way of wiring(which I detest), I think it's a good bargain.