Mega_Mod: Concept to Reality

Further down was the conceptual layout. Here are now a few pics of the real deal:

Starting from the back - here is the camera mounted to view - slightly tilted - towards the center and the hitch ball. There was no other place other than to drill through the licence plate (not allowed). So unless I get me one of the licence plate cameras it will stay here.



Here is the connector to the Camper. This is the same as described in one of the previous posts.




From there the camera and the connector terminate in a junction box, notice the silicone to seal of the environment:



The junction box mounted to the bottom of the truck bed.




I followed the original cable harness and tugged the cables into the plastic protector as best as I could. I used some heat shielded tape in some areas to really keep them protected.





From there I made my way into the engine compartment. Going through the firewall is always a problem. I used the plastic cover where usually the clutch pedal goes out. I drilled a hole, used a rubber grommet and then used more of the heat shielded tape.







Ones inside I routed everything to the center console and added a main switch next to the steering wheel.



Overall this took me a full Sunday due to my efforts to get the cables protected as best as I could.

Mega_Mod: Back Up Camera 1 & 2

After I lost my back up camera on the Excursion I really started missing this feature. I tried to install the 7" screen from the Excursion but I could not find a place for it. So I moved away from the Laptop setup from the Excursion and I purchased a Garmin Nuvi 5000 large screen GPS.



I decided for the Garmin 5000 because I like the features of Garmin GPS systems and this unit has a Video In.

So here is my set up:

As you can see I use the Garmin as a video display. It turns on automatically whenever video starts streaming (i.e. when I reverse). From there I connect to a video splitter/switch. This allows you to typically switch between three video sources to display on a TV. I tested the unit and it allows also to switch power at the same time the video is switched. So I really use it to switch power and video at the same time from the Camper Cam to the Truck Can or visa versa. It allows you to connect to a third video source as well. This is currently not used as I don't want to stream movies while driving. But maybe one day this is set up for the co-driver.

From there backwards I have a regular on/off switch which gets power from a toggle switch. The toggle gets either permanent power or power from the Reverse Light circuit.