Backup Camera ?

3iron wrote:
I just bought a unit from Rear View Safety that uses a magnet to attach to the camera wherever you want it. The screen sets in the truck and plugs into the cigarette lighter. It is wireless. My plan is just to use it for hitching the trailer. I have not used it yet but if you want to pm me in a week I can let you know what I think of it.

That sounds like it would be great to mount behind 5er. I would like to know more about this one.
Where did you buy?

I just bought a unit from Rear View Safety that uses a magnet to attach to the camera wherever you want it. The screen sets in the truck and plugs into the cigarette lighter. It is wireless. My plan is just to use it for hitching the trailer. I have not used it yet but if you want to pm me in a week I can let you know what I think of it.

We installed a back up camera on the license plate but not for hitching the fifth as I have a good method for that job. I wanted to see what is near us when are in AZ for the winter for 6 months. If we had a boat or a TT what we have would be awesome, We had a choice of installing at the high cab stop light.

chevman

Thanks for the replies, lots of food for thought.
Bill

I mounted a rear view camera under my bed cover so I could see how how high or low to position my king pin with my remote fob....my problem was the sun would overdrive it and it would be just a blur on the screen.......I am trying to figure out how to make a lens shade for it......

With my new Hitch it sits a lot lower in my new truck then my previous combo. So I can not see the hitch at all from my seat. I have a crew cab with a roll up tonnaue cover. I took a dowel rod drilled a small hole and put a drywal screw in the end so it is flush. Super glued a magnet to the screw and end of dowel rod. I put the dowel rod on the edge of the hitch plate to line up the center. Then I line that up with the center of the pin. Works great, once hooked when I lock the jaws remove the dowel rod. Put in tool box until needed again.

Although a camera you can see if the 5er is the right height as well. I still need to get out once I get close and make sure the height is right.

I, too, have a backup camera mounted for the purpose of hitching up and I like it really well. However, I mounted mine on the outside of the back glass so I can't help directly with the question of viewing through glass. I can say that I mounted mine outside because of training I had in my former occupation that led me to believe that shooting through the rear window may result in issues with clarity and reflections that I didn't want to deal with.

One thing I can mention is that I often had an issue differentiating the black pin box from the black hitch in low light situations. My solution was to place a strip of reflective tape on the front of the pin box. I wouldn't recommend this. The reflection from the IR LED's overpowered the lens and nearly washed out the image; I think it was worse that the problem I tried to correct. Hope this helps

This is what I use. I have alum bar bent to an 'L' shape and secured to front of hitch, so pin box will not hit it when turning. Then if you look at rear window you sill see a piece of tape on glass.
To connect up trailer, I look at rear view mirror and line up tape with bent bar, and pin on trailer. 99% of the time it will connect up with no problems.



Also to get the height right, the first time I unhooked new trailer I used a clothes pin, a line with a weight at the bottom, so it just touches the ground. Do this before changing front of trailer height to make it level. When ready to go, just connect pin and adjust trailer height so that weight is at ground level.

laknox wrote:

2stepn wrote:
I'm thinking of adding a backup camera to help spot the pin and hitch in my truck when hooking up. I would like to install the camera inside the truck on the rear of the headliner facing towards the hitch. I'm sure someone has done this so I'm looking for recommendations on camera systems. problems with shooting the camera through glass and any other recommendations or cautions.
Thanks
Bill

Saw a cheaper alternative a while back. Guy took a small flag, stuck it on a magnet, put the magnet on his hitch, made a mark on the center of the pin box, and simply lined up the flag with the mark on the pinbox. As the pin comes up the hitch, it simply pushed the flag off the hitch.

Lyle

harbor freight sells a set of these fairly cheap.
bumpy

2stepn wrote:
I'm thinking of adding a backup camera to help spot the pin and hitch in my truck when hooking up. I would like to install the camera inside the truck on the rear of the headliner facing towards the hitch. I'm sure someone has done this so I'm looking for recommendations on camera systems. problems with shooting the camera through glass and any other recommendations or cautions.
Thanks
Bill

Saw a cheaper alternative a while back. Guy took a small flag, stuck it on a magnet, put the magnet on his hitch, made a mark on the center of the pin box, and simply lined up the flag with the mark on the pinbox. As the pin comes up the hitch, it simply pushed the flag off the hitch.

Lyle