Apple CarPlay for the RV
My 12 year old National RV had a Cassette/CD/AM/FM radio in it until yesterday. I decided to upgrade so I put a JVC touchscreen with Apple CarPlay in it. I just learned of Apple CarPlay a few weeks ago and I just figured out today that it is fairly new technology, probably why I just heard of it. A lot of new cars are coming with Apple CarPlay radios installed.
Anyway, if you don't know what Apple CarPlay is it basically lets you plug your iPhone in to the stereo and then control your iPhone functions on the Stereo touchscreen. You can also use Bluetooth and voice commands. But several features good for RV's, is you can use your phone's GPS right on an in dash screen. My radio occupied a nice spot on the dash that I can easily reach while driving. It isn't as easy to mount a GPS unit where you can easily see it and control it from the drivers seat.
I haven't had a lot of time to play with it yet, but I'm impressed with it so far. I bought mine a Best Buy, A JVC KW-V820BT, and Best Buy charged $100 to install it. That $100 turned out to be a good deal because the guy worked on it for about 2.5 hours. That was because the unit was taller than my old radio so he had to cut the dash hole bigger, and he also had to move the Engine Monitor control down just a little.
The total price was just under $700, but this thing has a lot of nice features. You can even plug a backup camera into it. I probably won't ever use it for a backup camera because I like having that is a separate unit because I leave it on all the time to keep an eye on the toad. I wouldn't want to have to switch between GPS and the backup camera. But what I may do is mount a camera on the ceiling facing the back of the motorhome inside just so when something goes bump in the back of the motorhome I can turn on the camera and see what is happening back there without having to pull over.
Anyway, if you don't know what Apple CarPlay is it basically lets you plug your iPhone in to the stereo and then control your iPhone functions on the Stereo touchscreen. You can also use Bluetooth and voice commands. But several features good for RV's, is you can use your phone's GPS right on an in dash screen. My radio occupied a nice spot on the dash that I can easily reach while driving. It isn't as easy to mount a GPS unit where you can easily see it and control it from the drivers seat.
I haven't had a lot of time to play with it yet, but I'm impressed with it so far. I bought mine a Best Buy, A JVC KW-V820BT, and Best Buy charged $100 to install it. That $100 turned out to be a good deal because the guy worked on it for about 2.5 hours. That was because the unit was taller than my old radio so he had to cut the dash hole bigger, and he also had to move the Engine Monitor control down just a little.
The total price was just under $700, but this thing has a lot of nice features. You can even plug a backup camera into it. I probably won't ever use it for a backup camera because I like having that is a separate unit because I leave it on all the time to keep an eye on the toad. I wouldn't want to have to switch between GPS and the backup camera. But what I may do is mount a camera on the ceiling facing the back of the motorhome inside just so when something goes bump in the back of the motorhome I can turn on the camera and see what is happening back there without having to pull over.
