Step one. Bought the van.
Hello Everybody, First post. I camp a lot in tents but after spending three days straight in a tent in the rain at Dolly Sods I swore I'd make a change. Here it is. Bought it Wednesday. Dro...
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Backup Cameras - continued
Jump forward about a week and the new monitor I ordered has arrived. Measures 7" and cost about $35. Figure out the best place to mount it.
Use masking tape to mark the spot.
This is the top side of the headliner. It's made from fiberboard but isn't too thick.
The monitor is light but I don't trust the headliner to support it without some help so adding this piece of fiberboard as backing. This is the same fiberboard I use for the wall panels.
I trimmed the excess from the bolts after tightening them down.
Drill a hole in the headliner for the monitor cable.
I'm not worried about the headliner edge cutting into the cable so this next step is just for looks. Take an appropriately sized grommet and cut off the edge of the lower lip.
Use a little silicone to glue the grommet into place.
Add a switch to the headliner to that will power both the cameras and the monitor.
Using a DPDT on-off-on switch. From one on position the monitor and backup camera are powered. From the other on position the monitor and the looking back camera are powered.
Add a plug to the switch wiring so I can lower the headliner.
It's not obvious in these pictures but this whole process required the headliner going back up and down again several times so I could check how things fit along with wiring length.
The new monitor came with a wiring harness. Taped it to the roof Reflectix to keep it out of the way. The cable that comes off the back of the monitor and goes through the hole in the headliner plugs in to this.
How it looks between the headliner and the roof when I start plugging everything in. Some of this is for the overhead light which I'll cover in the next project posting.
One last thing is to sight in the backup camera. Get a piece of scrap plywood and mark out 8 inches in 1 inch increments.
Clamp it to the rear bumper
The resolution in this picture isn't good enough to see but the 5 inch mark is right at the edge of the back window. So backing up, when something goes out of view I've less than 5 inches of space left.
One more thing. The monitor folds up when not in use.
I don't have any pictures but I've road tested the cameras and am very happy how it all turned out. The view from the looking back camera has a neat bird's eye quality to it.
OK that's the end of the backup cameras project.
Jump forward about a week and the new monitor I ordered has arrived. Measures 7" and cost about $35. Figure out the best place to mount it.
Use masking tape to mark the spot.
This is the top side of the headliner. It's made from fiberboard but isn't too thick.
The monitor is light but I don't trust the headliner to support it without some help so adding this piece of fiberboard as backing. This is the same fiberboard I use for the wall panels.
I trimmed the excess from the bolts after tightening them down.
Drill a hole in the headliner for the monitor cable.
I'm not worried about the headliner edge cutting into the cable so this next step is just for looks. Take an appropriately sized grommet and cut off the edge of the lower lip.
Use a little silicone to glue the grommet into place.
Add a switch to the headliner to that will power both the cameras and the monitor.
Using a DPDT on-off-on switch. From one on position the monitor and backup camera are powered. From the other on position the monitor and the looking back camera are powered.
Add a plug to the switch wiring so I can lower the headliner.
It's not obvious in these pictures but this whole process required the headliner going back up and down again several times so I could check how things fit along with wiring length.
The new monitor came with a wiring harness. Taped it to the roof Reflectix to keep it out of the way. The cable that comes off the back of the monitor and goes through the hole in the headliner plugs in to this.
How it looks between the headliner and the roof when I start plugging everything in. Some of this is for the overhead light which I'll cover in the next project posting.
One last thing is to sight in the backup camera. Get a piece of scrap plywood and mark out 8 inches in 1 inch increments.
Clamp it to the rear bumper
The resolution in this picture isn't good enough to see but the 5 inch mark is right at the edge of the back window. So backing up, when something goes out of view I've less than 5 inches of space left.
One more thing. The monitor folds up when not in use.
I don't have any pictures but I've road tested the cameras and am very happy how it all turned out. The view from the looking back camera has a neat bird's eye quality to it.
OK that's the end of the backup cameras project.
