Rear view camera

[jpgale]

Hi all,

With my last trailer I ended up with a haloview 3 camera system, with the side cameras and the rear camera in the factory mount looking down. I liked to be able to see the sides of the trailer for when I am actually reversing the trailer. With the the new eagle I decided to get the furion because of the side light prewire. Again it was going to be a 3 camera system (that is what I ordered), I got to thinking, I always wanted to have 2 cameras on the rear one to see traffic behind me, and the one to see the rear of the trailer. I got to thinking about this with the new trailer, then I had an idea the eagle comes with a towing hitch so it would have a 4 way plug at the rear near the hitch. This 4 way plug should provide power when the lights are on just like the other cameras. I formed a plan to make a hitch based camera mount and power it from the 4 way on the trailer. Here is how I did it.

I ordered some stuff off Amazon
https://a.co/d/iCfSEJJ The new furrion camera I would need
https://a.co/d/2Yox82M A 2 inch hitch extender
https://a.co/d/9GdMwIm A 4 way trailer wire extension
https://a.co/d/i99u9W7 And finally a new bolt lock hitch lock pin

To make the camera mount I started with the hitch extender and cut the end off to reduce the length it sticks out.

I then ground the cut off end close to square and cut an opening for the wire to work through

Now I needed to have something to attach to the hitch extender to hold the camera. I started off with a template (I use old soda can boxes for this) and then cut out the plate from some steel I had in the garage.

I used a punch to mark the location of the holes to line up with the camera. I forgot to mark the location of the wire here I had to come back later and quickly do that

 

[jpgale]

I cut the plate out and squared off the sides

I then drilled and taped the screw holes, I was using M3 screws as I had a heap in the garage and they fitted the camera nicely. Noticed the added hole for the wire of the camera to pass through, If I did it again I would make it much bigger as it was interfering with the hitch extender.

I then test fitted the camera to the plate

I then took the plate and put it on to the hitch extender and welded it on. My welding is very bad but my grinding is ok. I put the hole I made in the extender on the intended bottom of the camera mount so that water could possibly drain if needed. I also used some extra wire to have a guide in the mount but I found it did not work great mainly due to needing more size in the hole.

At this point it was time to paint the new mount, I was not happy with the result here, the primer I got stated it should be painted on immediately. After shooting the primer it looked running but I followed the instructions and the top coat mixed with the primer and started to run. I was not happy with the result, the second coat got a good amount of colour and I left it to dry

 

[jpgale]

While the paint was drying I decided to wire the camera to the 4 way. I used the plug that comes with the camera and cut the 4 way extender near the plug that would go into the plug on the trailer. I wired in the ground to the plugs ground and the power to the running lights wire on the plug. By attaching the ground here I have easy removability if I need it. I heat shrinked as needed.

Then I used my pick up trailer hook up to test that the camera would work on this lead. This was a total success.

I used a little trim tape to act as a foam attachment on the camera to help damp the vibrations a little. I mounted the camera and put electrical tape around the connectors to keep them attached (even thought they are fine on the top camera )

I then took it to the trailer and put it in the hitch and connected the plug, I then turned the lights on and checked it worked.

It did not come out perfectly and I have not been able to try the camera on the road yet but I am happy with how my fabricating came out as I have not done much metal fab since my equivalent of high school until recently with my FF mk4 build and this. My welding is very bad I know this but hopefully with some practice I can get to quite bad.

Thanks

James

 

[pcmem]

Nice job on that mod. I've been thinking of doing that with a magnetic mount but like the way you built up a receiver hitch for better security. Looks like it will work out nicely.