Back up camera!

[eamarquardt]

I have two android phones, one of which I am testing as a backup camera, the other as the display camera. They connect over wifi with a wifi camera app, so there's not even a need for either one to have a working data plan. I use a couple of tough rubber bands to hold the "camera" phone onto the rear of the trailer

Works pretty well, very flexible, and the cost was minimal as I had the two phones already. Downsides are it's not waterproof (plastic baggie), not always connected and on (could be wired into license plate light though). The number of frames per second is a tiny bit low, but that may be fixable. You could get one of those plastic cell phone windows mounts with the suction cup to mount it temporarily to the bumper/rear hatch.

Clever solution but when backing up the trailer I usually have an observer. I want the camera/display for everyday driving and desire that it be permanently installed.

Cheers,

Gus

[robertey]

I was wondering if I could get away with enclosing the phone's on the rear in a waterproof enclosure and wiring it into the running light circuit to charge while in motion. Kinda low rent.

I've seen a similar but less cheesy setup to mine where the fellow used a camera that could be plugged in to the tow vehicle's trailer harness and plugged into the receiver. The same camera could be unplugged and moved to a hitch on the rear of his trailer as needed

The kind that screw onto the license plate are no good. Very hard to see when it's either very bright or very dim.

I drove a commercial vehicle with a very high definition rear camera/blackbox unified system, which was very nice. I'm sure it was also quite spendy. If you have a fancy bigscreen head unit that has a "DVD-in" you can wire a camera in to that.

[eamarquardt]

There are really so many ways to get rear vision you really have to decide using how easy you want the set up to be and how much you want to spend.

You could go get an old VHS, Beta, or whatever video camera, make temporary mounts for use when backing your trailer up or coupling up your trailer, get an old small screen tv, a small inverter to run the TV and a bit of wire and be "set". Depending on how much you look around I think you could put it together for less than $50 by using "old obsolete" technology.

Back up cameras start at about $20. You could mount one permanently on your you tow vehicle and one on your trailer and switch your display between the two as required.

You're limited by only your imagination, your ability to scrounge, and to a far lesser extent your funds.

Innovating and doing things "on the cheap" can be "great sport". It is also "great sport" to spend your wife's money (when it is, according to her, all her money) and get "instant gratification". I use both approaches as I see fit (and usually not how she sees fit).

Cheers,

Gus

[WhitneyK]

To avoid embarrassing myself, I wanna get a back up camera and display.

Any recommendations or thoughts.

Thanks and cheers,

Gus

Gus,
I work at AutoZone part-time and they have the Peak brand back up camera's. 3 models to choose from, can't vouch for reliability / dependability, but our display model has been on 24/7 for over a year now. Recently they had the one with a 3 1/2" display ($99.99) with a $40 mail in rabate. They offer that from time to time. Like everything else, you get what you pay for, but I don't want to sink much into one since I don't back up THAT much. They also offer a 2.5" display, I'd say the bigger the better.
My brother has one similar to the one mentioned above. He pulls a bumper hitch trailer with equipment alot, he say's there's no guessing at where you are / need to be, you only have to back up to the trailer once.