"if you are not living on the edge, you are taking up too much room"

Friday, May 18, 2012

I see you!

In between shifts here at the KOA I have been trying to get a few projects done around our little home on wheels. The last couple of days we have been busy installing a rear view camera. We have had a camera on the back of the semi for a couple of years now and I use it to hook on as well as keep an eye on the bike while traveling. The camera works really well and I have wanted to install an additional one on the back of the fifth wheel. The screen that we installed in the dash  of the 5th wheel supports 3 separate cameras and I had already ran the wire for this new camera back to the hitch area of the truck.
I spent quite a while testing mounting locations, by taking off one of the brake lights and a clearance light I thought I could "fish" a wire from the roof of the 5er to the underside through the back cap. Unfortunately there is a board under the cap that runs the entire width of the cap that prevented me from doing this. I could have drilled a hole behind the clearance light into an interior cabinet then down the wall and through the floor but Rudee put the a stop to that idea not wanting me to drill a bunch of holes in her home!
I decided to just take the easy way out and ran the wire for the camera down the back side of the ladder and then drilled a hole into the rear cap at the bottom. We then ran the wire up to the front of the 5er, into the front compartment and under the floor of the overhang and out the hitch area. This not the "cleanest" installation and the wire shows a little on the rear but doesn't look too bad either.


They make wireless cameras but they are limited to the distance they will work. I did research the wireless option and found several others with similar rigs had tried them with disappointing results so I went with the hard wired option.
One big advantage is this new camera even has sound! When Rudee is backing me into a site all she has to do is speak her directions to the camera and I can hear her in the cab. Pretty cool, huh?

The days are passing pretty fast here at work. We start our first of three early shifts today. These shifts usually pass by really quickly and then we are off again to play for our "week end". I'll keep you posted.

2 comments:

  1. I'll have George take a look at this. He wants a backup camera as well, but wireless. Perhaps he'll change his mind :)

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  2. The camera seems like a great addition. I'll keep monoriting your progress.

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