Well I was asking, but there wasn't anything so...I just dug in and did it. I got the rear wall structural drawing from Jayco and below the center marker light there is a crossbeam which concerned me. Turns out it's not bad. You can feel where it is by pressing on the wall.
Hopefully this will help people with installing on this model, and it will probably work the same for other models. I'm hoping that this write up makes things very clear for others looking to do this. This will be a bit of a long post, and the images are larger but that way there is a good view.
Tools/Supplies Needed:
- Utility or other knife
- Philips Screwdriver
- Flathead Screwdriver
- Drill
- Drill Bits
- 3/4" or so Hole Saw
- Fish Tape
- Needle Nose Pliers
- Wire Cutters
- Wire Crimpers (If using crimp on connectors)
- Wire strip tool (Optional, but I love these things)
- Soldering Iron (Optional)
- Electrical Tape
- Posi-Tap or other wire tap device
- Self-Tapping Screws
- Wood Screws
- Outdoor Clear Silicone Sealant
- Disposable Latex Gloves (For working silicone sealant)
The first thing you need to do is use a utility knife or other knife to cut the silicone sealant on the top of the center marker light. Be careful and just use light pressure. Once that is done you can pry on the bottom with a screwdriver. You can use a spare rag to place on the back of the camper so you don't pry on the panel and scrape it. You can see where to pry if you look from the bottom.
Here is the marker removed and wires pulled out:
As you can see, there is no extra wiring for an always on connection, so the camera will run off of the running lights. This is fine with me. The red/green wires are positive, with the white being negative. The next thing to do is to decide where to mount the camera.
With the wires pulled out, you can feel inside and you should be able to feel the crossbeam. The siding isn't attached or glued to the crossbeam here and if you push from inside you can feel the panel push away from the crossbeam.
Now on this one the panel is ribbed and I could kind of count how many ribs down it was by feeling inside. Then since I knew the beam was 1 1/8" thick from the structural drawing, I could measure down so that I could do two things:
1 - My hole would not hit the crossbeam.
2 - I would be able to screw into the crossbeam with the upper two screws of the camera mount and ensure that it would stay securely mounted.
Here's the measurements from the center of the center marker hole:
The new hole center is about 4 3/32" from the center marker light. Other models are different, so get a structural drawing from Jayco if you can.
I used a 3/4" hole saw for the hole. The provided grommet with the Furrion would be too small to be able to get your finger or fish tape through.
The next thing to do after your hole is drilled, is to fish the wire through. String the wire through the included mount piece - I think it's silicone or something like that. Next use a fish tape to go down from the top center marker hole to your new hold. While you push it down, pull outwards slightly on the rear panel from the new hole or center marker hole to help the tape get past the crossbeam.
Here's the fish tape. I used needle nose pliers to pull it through the hole:
Use some electrical tape to tape the camera power wire to the fish tape and then pull it back out the upper hole.
The next thing to do is to connect the camera power wire to the positive and negative wires for the center marker lights. I pulled out some additional wire and used Posi-Tap's to accomplish this using some spare wire I had to bridge between the Posi-Tap and the camera wire. I did this because the camera wire is so small for that size of Posi-Tap.
Next what you want to do is strip the end of your bridge wire and attach them to the camera power wires, being careful not to touch them together.
Posi-Taps installed:
IMPORTANT: Now is the time to test the camera! Not later! At this point I hooked up my truck to the 7-Pin connector on the trailer, and connected the camera and followed the instructions to pair the camera. It worked great! So we can continue.
Now that I know the camera works, I then used electrical tape to tape the Posi-Tap up so nothing will come loose. I also then soldered the bridge wire and camera power wires together. You can use whatever connection method you like. Once they cooled, more electrical tape.
Now you need to stuff all the wires and connectors back into the center marker light area. With the large Posi-Taps it was a bit of a squeeze but it made it.
Here is the center marker reinstalled:
Next, we need to mark where to mount the silicone backer for the camera. I actually just held it where I wanted and drilled through the 4 holes after carefully ensuring the top two would hit the crossbeam. In order for this to work, I had to cut some of the center hole in this silicone piece so that it could be moved up and allow the wire to go through the hole correctly.
Once I had the holes drilled, I filled the new hole with silicone as best as I could, and also around the wire, leaving a little bit to tuck into the back of the camera. Screwed in the camera using wood screws for the top two holes and self-tapping metal screws on the bottom two. It feels nice and secure.
The last thing to do was to silicone around the perimeter of the camera mount, cover the screws, and also redo the silicone on the marker light.
Here it is finished:
Linear Mode
