Rear view cameras

[Buster52]

I am looking into buying cameras for my 30 foot class A. I have several questions about them. Cable or wireless, one, two or three cameras? What brands to buy or not to buy. And best place to buy them. Any comments or advice?

[flapbreaker]

I just finished replacing our old black and white one with a color version made by Rear View Safety. You can buy the system on amazon for $219. The quality seems very good. The actual camera has a lot of weight to it. For some reason I figured it would be light and plastic. It is hard to believe that you can get a camera for this price. http://www.amazon.com/Rear-View-Safety-Backup-Camera/dp/B002GM5GKO/ref=pd_bxgy_auto_img_z

[subtroll]

My last years post has a list of good suppliers. Virtual 24" rear view mirror.
http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/27232725/gotomsg/27268049.cfm#27268049

[whitehouse20041]

We are restoring a 1996 Holiday Rambler Imperial. The original black and white camera and monitor had seen their better days. We purchased a camera on Amazon for about $15. The original camera cable had half a dozen conductors. Three of them were selected to provide 12V power to the camera, camera output signal to the cockpit and ground to chassis. Up front we did away with the old monitor, chosing to use the dash area for a Garmin navigation system. Since we were replacing the front TV, we elected to feed the back up camera to the new flat screen composite input.

Incidentally, the first camera we purchased heated excessively (180 degrees}. We returned it and the replacement ran cooler (150 degrees) but gave us less clarity. We moved that one to spar parts and ordered from another company. The third camera was the same as the other two but with different manufacturer markings. It ran at 130 degrees and acceptable clarity so that is what is currently installed.

Total invested, less than $40 and I am satisfied with the results.

[bshpilot]

I agree w/ bluwtr49 - but i can tell you the warranty from ebay vendors is terrible (i had a camera fail & they refused to replace it) despite what they claim. Id buy from someone thats willing to honor their warranty & exchange parts if there are problems (or moisture issues w/ cameras).

[bluwtr49]

It's supper easy to piece together a backup camera system. Camera, monitors, wired or wireless just let Google be you friend. It will be a bit overwhelming at first since there is so much out there.

The folks at RVCam are knowable but not very truthful so take anything they have to say not related to what they sell with a grain of salt.

[bshpilot]

our coach had a zone defense system installed - i had some work done on the roof & they damaged the cable - in a hurry i moved the camera from up top to down below (leaving for a trip & didn't want to be w/out).

Ive since repaired the cable but rather than move the camera back up top i ADDED a 2nd camera.
I like being able to watch the hitch going down the road - and it serves as a back up camera if the top one fails.

the zone defense monitor is TOO BRIGHT with not enough contrast at night.

[fcooper]

A good vendor for rear view camera's, and one that gives a lot of support to our RV community, is RVCAMS. I've never used them, but I've seen a lot of complimentary posts about their customer service. link to rvcams

There is good quality merchandise from this vendor on ebay. I've been using one of his monitors and camera's for several years. Camera has screw together connectors to the cable for better weather resistance.
link to Leviathan Holdings LLC store on ebay

As far as the wired vs wireless question, I've only used wired so I have no experience with the wireless.

I've added dedicated left and right side cameras and monitors to my coach using some of the cheapest that I could find on ebay, and so far with good results.

When you're looking at cameras, generally a CCD type camera is better than a CMOS camera.

As far as how many, it's all personal preference. I've experimented with the cameras a fair amount. I have two on the rear, one for close up (see the tow bar and front of toad) and one for distance view to see what's behind me on the road. You can also install an adjustable camera on the rear that you can control the up/down motion from the driver's seat. I've seen one vendor on ebay that has two cameras molded into one housing for close up & distant view.

I tried side view cameras tied to the one monitor, and did not like it. I finally added dedicated monitors to the side view cameras and really like this setup. Each side view monitor is in my line of sight when I look at the side mirror. So in my case, 4 cameras and 3 monitors. The always on side view camera/monitor really helps in heavy city traffic, or when it is raining hard making the mirrors difficult to see.

The cost for the side view camera, cable, and monitor was about $80 on ebay.

If you want to read about how to install the wired camera/monitor, I posted my experience in a downloadable file on IRV2 at link below:
Removing Intec monitor and installing LCD monitor/2 cameras

Fred

[imgoin4it]

I have cameras on our motor home and while some people love them, if ours ever quit working I doubt I would replace them. I never use them. I use the large mirrors and if / when I notice the camera it is almost a distraction.

[gsf35099]

There was a recent thread discussing this. You can do a search in the forum & get some good info. I don't know much about them, but feedback was to go with wired.