On mounting a backup camera to CA 28A.
I just finished mounting a Haloview 7108 wireless camera to my 28A and I thought I'd add a couple of points to fadumpt's excellent coverage.
Firstly - the angle of the camera. This isn't a wide a view as I expected. Mounted about 4" below the center marker light the furthest angle I can get means that the visual frame starts about 4ft from the rear of the vehicle and ends about 25ft away. Not a lot of good for seeing anything following you. Also - the mast ariel sticking up from the camera is right up against the marker light - which prevents the camera getting that last little bit of angle. It advertizes a 120 degree wide viewing angle. This is probably true - but I'll emphasize that's wide - not tall. The vertical angle is probably around 30 degrees.
Secondly - the wiring. Although it's obvious in retrospect - if you blindly 'color match' the wires you will get -12V to the camera - whereas it needs +12V. Swap them. Also - there isn't enough room between the rear outer wall and the inner wall to get the connected power feed all the way in (it's a 2 part connector) and I got fed up trying to feed in the camera end and fish it out of the marker light to connect it. Thus I ended up with the hole mainly filled with the connector - and a lot of sealent.
In retrospect I don't think I would have chosen this setup. It doesn't give me the rear view distance that I wanted (and the mounting system doesn't allow it to increase significantly) and the 'keep it clear of the ground and the dirt' advantage doesn't outweigh that. I had hoped that it would be able to see back across any trailer but that doesn't seem to be the case. Mounting it on the roof or on the hitch would be a more sensible option I think.
YMMV.
