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Roothy’s tow car now has eyes in the back of its head!

Words and photography by John Rooth

About six months ago I was hanging around 4WD Megastore looking for some maps before our next trip when one of the sales blokes asked me if I’d ever tried a reversing camera. I told him I’d used a few of them over the years, mostly on high end motorhomes, but mentioned that they’d have to be hellishly complicated and impossible for a do-it-yourselfer to fit.

That conversation must have been passed up the line because next thing I know Earl from the 4WD Megastore at Bankstown has called to chat about reversing cameras! His line was that the technology has become super reliable and fitting was pretty easy for someone with a bit of common sense. Despite that last factor he still offered to supply one for our project tow vehicle so I could find out for myself.

The box arrived, I opened it and that was about that for several months. I get frightened by technology and just looking at all those wires and bits and pieces put me right off. Anyway, he’d said he’d send a dual camera system and I could only find one camera in the package.

Until I finally got around to reading the instructions and realised that the little marble sized thingy was the second camera! And unless I was wrong – a common problem around here, ask the wife – it looked like hooking the system up wasn’t much more than the usual hassles of running wires and cables.

So, after one too many bravery drinks the night before, I pulled the parcel off the shelf and set a couple of days aside to fit it. Wrong, the camera was working by morning smoko and the job done just in time to catch a counter lunch. Rather than being complicated it turned out to be dead simple.

As you can see from the photos the hardest part of the job was getting a grip on what went where. With everything laid out on the table it soon made sense and the instruction booklets filled in the gaps. Basically the screen has a lead coming off it with three wires and two cable connectors for the video camera. The wires are a black earth, a red power and a green wire that goes to the reversing light switch. This latter is optional – when connected it automatically turns the system on when you’re reversing. In manual mode – just the earth and power hooked up – you can switch the screen on anytime you want.

So my first job was to find a blank bit of dashboard in easy view to mount the flat screen. After trying a few places (involving taping the screen temporarily and then going for a drive) I elected to use the mount supplied and put the screen on top of the dash. Thanks to the curves of the dash and the bonnet on the 80 Series it doesn’t interfere with the driver’s field of vision yet is as easily checked as a the rear view mirror it makes obsolete.

The mount came with double sided tape and a flexible base plate so the screen was in position in minutes. Once I’d tapped into the power/earth leads to the UHF radio and plugged in the cameras the system was up and running. It’s that easy and you can switch between cameras on the screen just by pushing a button. There are buttons for all the usual TV things like colour, brightness and contrast but, sorry my sweet, there’s no volume…

As usual, running the cables was the toughest part of the job but I’m getting used to Toyota plastics so the job was done without breakage for a change. I’d followed Earl’s advice and trialled several difference camera positions before deciding to mount it inside on the back window frame. This made sense for a lot of reasons including keeping the camera out of the weather (it’s waterproof, but so are thieves…) and keeping the cabling inside the car. But I hadn’t realised that the reflection from the main camera’s LED lights (which automatically switch on at night) would pretty much destroy night time vision. You can see the big things but the details around the edge of the screen tend to get a bit fuzzy. No worries, I know how it feels.

Right, now all that’s left is to run another cable the length of the van and mount the little camera somewhere on Vicki’s tail. I haven’t done that yet because I’m still marvelling at the possibilities of having a second camera that’s so easily placed. I’ve got a feeling the four wheel drive boys would love this sort of technology, they could watch the rocks bashing into their diffs with ease.

But before I answer the call of nature – OK, so it’s Chooka banging his dart’s case on the door – I’ve got to mention the sheer quality of the pictures available on both cameras. This is fair dinkum TV type vision, detailed and with plenty of colour albeit fish eyed a fair bit to widen the field of view. To think that it was all wired up and ready to run in less than a half a day by someone who can barely use a TV remote and has never been able to actually record something off the video!

Wow, is that good or what? But the truly good part is how essential a rear view camera becomes once you’ve actually used one. Apart from making hooking up a breeze and apart from being able to see clearly behind the caravan, it’s added a huge measure of peace of mind to my driving. With three kids under ten running around our place, being able to see behind the truck is a potential life saver!