Reversing Camera Kits

I am looking at fitting a reversing camera with monitor to my T25 Trident but I am overwhelmed with what I can see on the market. I have a limited budget so possibly the two camera kits I have seen on your forum are too expensive for me. You look on ebay and there are kits from say £40 to £140 which look like they might do the job, there are kits at Maplins (£60 plus). There are monitors which double up as TV/DVD/satnav as well as reversing camera monitor, the monitors range in size from 3 inch to say 7 inch. Wireless or wired. Do you see my dilema! Which do autosleeper forum members recommend?

Thought you might have had a reply to this one by now Spadabry... IMO you have a couple of choices, you either go for a budget setup or prepare to pay more for something better. I recently bought myself a Snooper satnav as it has inputs for a reversing camera and can double up as a rear view monitor, this combined setup would hopefully work well for me. Other than that I know very little about these items to advise further, so maybe someone else can give you some feedback that might help you to decide

I was advised against wireless - they can be prone to picking up other signals

Consider your monitor, mine clips over the rear view mirror and doesn't look like a small t.v left on display, yes the screen is only 4 inches, but you get used to that.
Pete

I am an e-bay addict

I bought this camara for about £25.00 & the fold-down monitor for around £40.00, all from China, others may phoo-phoo this idea, but I've bought tons of stuff over the years & had very little trouble, always a risk I know, but e-bay seems to favour the customer regarding claims nowadays.

The hardest part was working out the cable-run & then instigating it!! Works fine & it's dead handy for reversing into 'iffy' places, can keep an eye on the bikes when travelling as well.
https://www.autosleeper-ownersforum.com/t1891-reversing-camara?highlight=camara

Spadabry wrote:I am looking at fitting a reversing camera with monitor to my T25 Trident but I am overwhelmed with what I can see on the market. I have a limited budget so possibly the two camera kits I have seen on your forum are too expensive for me. You look on ebay and there are kits from say £40 to £140 which look like they might do the job, there are kits at Maplins (£60 plus). There are monitors which double up as TV/DVD/satnav as well as reversing camera monitor, the monitors range in size from 3 inch to say 7 inch. Wireless or wired. Do you see my dilema! Which do autosleeper forum members recommend?

Hi Spadabry,

I've just fitted a £40 ebay reversing camera kit ( A wired one ) onto my van, but have yet to try it out on the road. The hardest part was plucking up the courage to drill holes in the roof of my pride & joy! Fitting the kit has taken about 6 hours & I've wired it to a fused switch on the dashboard. The kit came with a 7'' monitor which I have fitted to the original windscreen mirror temporarily..The picture quality is ok for a £40 kit, the image on the screen is reversible as well as being able to flip the image. The kit came with a 5 metre video cable which is plenty long enough for a symbol. I had to get another 6 metres of twin 1mm cable to power the camera, so with a fuse holder & switch the price comes in at about £50.
I'll let you know how I get on with it.

Tim.

I used Tigerseal http://www.hex.co.uk/tds/upol/tigerseal.pdf to mount the camera and fed the cable down parallel to the heater flue - just required filing a notch in the flue hole in the roof. Tigerseal sticks like stuff to the proverbial blanket!

dogseal wrote:

Spadabry wrote:I am looking at fitting a reversing camera with monitor to my T25 Trident but I am overwhelmed with what I can see on the market. I have a limited budget so possibly the two camera kits I have seen on your forum are too expensive for me. You look on ebay and there are kits from say £40 to £140 which look like they might do the job, there are kits at Maplins (£60 plus). There are monitors which double up as TV/DVD/satnav as well as reversing camera monitor, the monitors range in size from 3 inch to say 7 inch. Wireless or wired. Do you see my dilema! Which do autosleeper forum members recommend?

Hi Spadabry,

I've just fitted a £40 ebay reversing camera kit ( A wired one ) onto my van, but have yet to try it out on the road. The hardest part was plucking up the courage to drill holes in the roof of my pride & joy! Fitting the kit has taken about 6 hours & I've wired it to a fused switch on the dashboard. The kit came with a 7'' monitor which I have fitted to the original windscreen mirror temporarily..The picture quality is ok for a £40 kit, the image on the screen is reversible as well as being able to flip the image. The kit came with a 5 metre video cable which is plenty long enough for a symbol. I had to get another 6 metres of twin 1mm cable to power the camera, so with a fuse holder & switch the price comes in at about £50.
I'll let you know how I get on with it.

Tim.

Update.
Tried the camera out on a 200 mile trip away at the weekend, now I wonder how I would do without it! Great on the motorway, reversing into tight spaces etc is a lot easier. Not so good in the dark when its raining. One small problem was when we were returning home on Sunday, the view on the screen was cloudy caused by condensation on the inside of the camera housing.
I've just had the housing apart & found out the cause of the problem ( I hope) the housing is made of aluminium & weatherproofed with rubber gaskets in between the various parts. The part that leaked is a clamp that seals the glass..It was distorted so I filed it flat. Hopefully that should cure it.

Tim

Tim,
that sounds interesting and definitely within my budget. Can I ask which kit is it?

Regards

Spadabry

Spadabry wrote:Tim,
that sounds interesting and definitely within my budget. Can I ask which kit is it?

Regards

Spadabry

Hi Spadabry,

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/120877650566?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649#ht_5270wt_1140

Tim.

Just thought I ought to let you know where I am with my reversing camera kit.

Basically, I have gone hybrid, I purchased a new/secondhand reputable 7" monitor off ebay, which could be also be used as TV/DVD as well as reversing monitor ( I realise most can) then I bought a seperate camera from hong kong off ebay to go with my monitor for a nominal sum. I'm still testing where to position both the monitor and the camera. The monitor so it's not immediately noticable from prying eyes and as a result a theft item. The camera where it can be positioned to do it's job. I have a VW T25 camper and as such the tailgate is not vertical but has a double slope such that positioning a camera immediately at the top of the tailgate, the camera would not be able to view my rear bumper or towing hook, if I place it at the bottom around the number plate it could suffer alot of mud/road dirt and the viewing angle would be head on.

Any thoughts

Hi Spadabry,

Just a thought ….. Can you get a “mirror image” with this Monitor ??

Regards,

Brian

Hi Brian,
don't know but I will have a look, I do know it has three channels though. I will contact the company that originally supplied the monitor (I spoke to them when I first purchased the monitor for it's history which they confirmed), the imstructions with the monitor are a bit vague but there are various menus when running.

deckie wrote:
Hi Spadabry,

Just a thought ….. Can you get a “mirror image” with this Monitor ??

Regards,

Brian

On mine, upon connecting it up, the picture is displayed one way, if its then dis-connected & re-connected, the picture is reversed!!

The WEIRD thing is, that once connected (either way) if its SWITCHED OFF & then back on, it somehow 'remembers' the setting

modelman wrote:
On mine, upon connecting it up, the picture is displayed one way, if its then dis-connected & re-connected, the picture is reversed!!
The WEIRD thing is, that once connected (either way) if its SWITCHED OFF & then back on, it somehow 'remembers' the setting

Hi Modelman,
Thats a new one to me (we live and learn !!)
Brian

At leisurepower, we use mainly DRW electronics twin lens reversing cams and 7" dash mounted, or mirror mounted monitors, and have found them to be great value and good quality at £169.00.

Dave woods (DRW) will sell them to you direct for self fit, or we will give an installed price.

The fitting tends to be more than the actual system as it is a time consuming excercise.

If anyone wants details, PM me, I do not like posting commercial links in forum.

Cheers

Nick