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Dash cams, front & rear


Centrepin
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I've ordered a new car, delivery Oct.

What's the most reasonably priced and effective front and rear dash cam.

It can't be hard wired as I'm taking the vehicle on lease and they don't allow anything hard wired unless they authorise it and it's dealer fitted.

I had Apeman in both my last 2 vehicles. 1 was ok at the front but the rear didn't work. The other only works intermittently but the rear was ok. Used bits from both to get one working set 🤔

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45 minutes ago, enfieldspares said:

Personally I'd ask the dealer if they CAN hardwire such a system. The best dashcam in the world is useless if it is unplugged and/or in the glovebox. hardwired = always there.

Yes, they can but I pay to have it installed and pay again to have it removed at lease end.

A removable one is always in the windows and if left plugged in, comes on when the ignition does and is hundreds cheaper. 

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You can get ones that the rear camera connects to the front. It’s then just a case of pushing the single wire under the door sill plastic then up and through into the boot and inside the internal boot seal. A small loop is visible so you can open the boot and a sticky pad to fix it to the underside of the boot lid brake light 

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4 hours ago, shootgun said:

Hard wired is the way to go... You can ask your dealer to fit it for you like i did.

It set me back £350 front and rear from my Toyota dealer.

That's roughly what they quoted, £250 labour + camera, but I have to pay again at the going rate for labour to have it removed at lease end. 🙄

Financially a non starter, I'm already paying over the odds for "an approved" dealer fitted towpack. They probably use the same fitter as me, bung on £100 then add VAT and add it to the deposit. 

I'm considering two front cameras, one in the back plugged into the auxiliary socket which is live on ignition. Saves me the bother of buying an extension wire and running it round the door frames under the rubbers.

Front and rear cams, about £80 plus £??s for a longer extension to reach the rear. Two front cameras for about £100.

I have till 291021 for delivery, so plenty of deciding time.🙂🤔

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Blimey that’s a lot of money , I hardwired a front camera in my Ford Fiesta and it took me under an hour and it would take me half an hour if I did it again. Just plugged the kit in the fuse box and removed the panel by door and side pillar.

Just looked at Halfords, they have fixed price fitting at £35 front or £55 for front and rear, how can £350 be justified 

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9 minutes ago, Stimo22 said:

Blimey that’s a lot of money , I hardwired a front camera in my Ford Fiesta and it took me under an hour and it would take me half an hour if I did it again. Just plugged the kit in the fuse box and removed the panel by door and side pillar.

Just looked at Halfords, they have fixed price fitting at £35 front or £55 for front and rear, how can £350 be justified 

Just beware, I think those prices at Halfords only apply if you buy the camera from them.

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1 hour ago, Stimo22 said:

Blimey that’s a lot of money , I hardwired a front camera in my Ford Fiesta and it took me under an hour and it would take me half an hour if I did it again. Just plugged the kit in the fuse box and removed the panel by door and side pillar.

Just looked at Halfords, they have fixed price fitting at £35 front or £55 for front and rear, how can £350 be justified 

Main dealer, they have you by the short and curlies, anything hardwired has to be fitted by them, it's in the lease contract. 

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I think we need to define our terms here, specifically 'hard wired'.  Hard wired to me means means breaking into the vehicles power supply by adding an additional ignition-on circuit.  So, yes you can wire a 12v - 5v power supply into to a spare ign-on fuse and completely take the trim off  (be careful of curtain air bags!) in order to have a completely invisible installation.  But this shouldn't be necessary.

Pretty much all retail dashcams are powered via USB, from one of the many USB sockets in modern cars, or via the thrown-in fag-lighter to USB power supply.

Thus, for a front-mounted camera it is merely a question of hiding the wire around trim.  This should take you 15minutes of fiddling, possibly with some sticky-pad cable clips if the trim won't allow you to poke a cable inside.  On the end of the lease, you should be able to remove the cable, and any sticky mounts and no-one will be any the wiser.  

Rear mounted cameras are more involved, and come with a long combined power and data cable (usually USB type connections), which needs running around door seals and the like, but hardly 'hard wired'.

Sometimes it's a case of 'good enough' - especially if the vehicle isn't yours.  Why you'd pay silly money for Option 'A' hardwired is unclear to me.  As Enfield points out - they are useless if they're in the glovebox. 

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45 minutes ago, udderlyoffroad said:

 

Thus, for a front-mounted camera it is merely a question of hiding the wire around trim.  This should take you 15minutes of fiddling, possibly with some sticky-pad cable clips if the trim won't allow you to poke a cable inside.  On the end of the lease, you should be able to remove the cable, and any sticky mounts and no-one will be any the wiser.

This is what I intend doing, and for the rear camera I'm thinking of another front camera just a cheaper version, both just plugged into USB or fag lighter type sockets that are powered when ignition on. Easily removed at lease end but left in situ for next 3 - 5 years.

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If you are really heart set on hardwired when ours were removed at the end of lease the fitting company came in. Removed the cameras and the wiring from the fuse board. The ‘hardwired’ cables were then snipped upto the trim and pushed away. 
 

this was also done with any gps or telemetry 

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I have a Nextbase front camera which is linked to my phone (£75 Costco) and a £15 Home Bargains special in the rear. Both are concealed wiring to the 12 volt outlets in front and rear. They have worked for the last 3 years or so. I know that the rear camera is probably not up to evidential standard, but it is the visual effect of the cameras that stop a lot of bogus insurance claims.  

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