I am looking for a good backup camera, does anyone have any suggestions? Leaning towards a wired system, as so far my research looks like the wireless are not so good.
All depends on what you want to spend. I did some research and after talking to other owners ended up with one from these guys. got the one with the rear view and side cameras. (still haven't put it in ,but that's on the to do list)
HTH....Tim
Which Guys?????
I & several others use $99.00 remote(liscenplate) mounted high, mine works in very low light and is manually on when I want(all the time). Sometimes it has had some moments. I did wire the bus for cable to camera, but do not use it. I have a 5in. screen and buttons to turn picture, 360. Need to watch traffic and toad.
Got it at Sam's the next the exact same unit was on sale at Auto zone for $79.... my luck
I really don't know how much to spend at this point, of course like everybody else I would like the get the best unit for the least amount of money ;D, but that does not mean I am unwilling to spend what I have to to get a quality unit. My son has a wireless for his bus and is not very happy with it. I am working on framing, insulating and installing a plywood sub-wall on the back of the bus and would like to get all the wires run while I can still have access easily.
Sorry, helps if I put the link in.....
http://www.rearviewsafety.com/products.html (http://www.rearviewsafety.com/products.html)
wallchart.com has a nice x-0 tech for $25 then you go to e bay and get a 7 inch TV with inputs. if you look they can be had for $50 i have one in my rear and one on the bottom of each mirror. i used a spotlight fixture and a rubber plumbing washer and mounted it with a faucet washer epoxied to the bottom of the mirror. they work great@!!
Hi Mike, I picked up a good color camera at Radio Shack for 29.bucks and it came with 60 feet of cable. Just last week I replaced my old monitor with a 7in digital color TV with AV input jacks for 59.buck. Works much better than the SafeZone monitor I had, but I lost the ability to reverse the image. Now if I get stuck in traffic, I can flip to TV and watch local programming LOL. Good luck, Will
Thanks everyone for all the tips and the link, sure gives me a lot the think about.
Quote from: PP on July 06, 2011, 08:03:35 PMbut I lost the ability to reverse the image. Now if I get stuck in traffic, I can flip to TV and watch local programming LOL.
I read of one trick to get around this - mount the TV behind the driver facing forward, then watch it in the inside rear view mirror above you. Wouldn't that work?
Incidentally, Costco is listing the Rear View Safety 2-camera system for $240, only $40 more than the RVS 1-camera system. This seems to be a pretty good set-up at a good price, and with two cameras one of them could be positioned for close-in manouvering and the other for seeing who's further behind you (like the cops, maybe).
http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?prodid=11526595&whse=BC&topnav=&cm_sp=RichRelevance-_-categorypageHorizontalTop-_-PopularProductsInCategory (http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?prodid=11526595&whse=BC&topnav=&cm_sp=RichRelevance-_-categorypageHorizontalTop-_-PopularProductsInCategory)
I may just end up buying this for myself.
John
Here is the source we bought ours from http://www.rvcams.com/Default.htm (http://www.rvcams.com/Default.htm)
We just got the B/W monitor, night vision with sound. It works very good. When this one dies I'll probably buy from them again. The original that arrived had a broken monitor due to shipping. He replaced it without any issue. This was about 5-6 years ago.
Just old me, set in my ways. IMO, a back up camera is just another distraction and something else to go wrong and fix. I've never had one and I don't miss not having one. If I need to see what's behind me, (to back up), I get out and walk around first. KISS.
JC
Your local AG dealer is also a good source farmers use cameras
good luck
If you put in a wired unit, run the wire in conduit so that you can use the existing wire to fish the wire for the new camera.
I put in a wired unit and of course years later when it was time to replace it, those cameras were no longer available and the wire was not compatible with newer cameras.
I used the back up more to keep an eye on my toad, pretty bad feeling looking in the mirror and not seeing the shadow of the toad.
JIm
I know that feeling, we once went 125 miles without knowing if the jeep was still back there. A combination of straight road, the direction we were headed, the time of day, and the angle of the sun. Other than that though, the main reason i got a camera was so i could see if anyone was hiding in my blind spots when i wanted to change lanes. Twice i had cars that had been back there that i was unaware of, even though i had been watching my mirrors for a long time. Of course by the time i wanted to change lanes they had decided to come around me. Almost took them out both times. After the second time i decided a camera moved to the top of the must have list. A side benefit is it does make backing up easier, but i still get out and check for low wires, trees, roof overhangs etc.
Ed, our new bus came with a Sony back up camera and no monitor. The PO said it had died. The only thing that will work with the Sony camera is a Sony monitor: $$$. So I haven't bothered so far.
I tried a $99 wireless license plate camera once on the old bus, but it didn't work very well.
So I don't have a working camera now, and I don't really miss it.
JC
We had a Sony with the alignment and footage screen it worked great for backing up to a trailer or toad other than that it was off 95% of the time and the side cameras I removed if you cannot see things in the mirror something is wrong as for the sound feature on a camera that is a total waste I couldn't hear anything but the 8v92 running on ours
good luck
Quote from: lostagain on July 07, 2011, 07:11:30 AM
Just old me, set in my ways. IMO, a back up camera is just another distraction and something else to go wrong and fix. I've never had one and I don't miss not having one. If I need to see what's behind me, (to back up), I get out and walk around first. KISS.
JC
The first time I saw them I thought the same thing. When the RV came with one I obviously used it, why not, its there? The first time I backed up in the yard and could clearly see the ground behind be, looking down on it, I knew it was a good idea. The first time I backed up to a trailer, and found I could see the tounge and trailer ball, I knew it was a must have. No more handsignals and backing up 14 times, its now one shot deal...
I blew a tire on the Jeep coming up to Minnesota the other day. Didnt feel anything but a change in the general road feel, a rythmic rumble of sorts which got slightly more rumbly when I slowed a bit. The rear view mirrors didnt tell me anything, even in the lights of cars behind me I saw no smoke. But that darn camera did. It was very faint, appeared like water spray coming off the tires. I dont think it was smoke, I think the camera was picking up something in IR that you could not have seen otherwise.
So not only are these cameras wonderful tools, I think a tire monitoring system is in our future as well. Probably could have half paid for a decent one with what a tire and rim cost.
I have towed a small 4x8 utility trailer for many of my trips. Twice the driver was able to see issues with the trailer in the rear view camera and stop before any real damage. The first time was just a loose tiedown strap. The other guys were shocked I could even see it. The second time something had gotten wedged between the trailer frame and tire. Smoke was coming out. The tire was nearly melted through by the time the driver stopped.