giorgioF150
I really like your truck. I like the way the round fog lights look on the truck.
But , I am partial to the Stepsides

I really do not understand the necessity of a rear view camera. It looks really slick showing up on the monitor, but seriously what do you need to see??? If you are worried about hiting something how about a backup sensor????
I just think you would be more distracted while driving by looking at the monitor.

Just my opinion.

 

MYST said it only comes on WHEN you put it in reverse .....

 

OK, Here's a start

https://www.f150online.com/galleries....cfm?num=10863

These are a couple of construction photo's, will post the rest after final installation and testing. I have reinstalled the visor and run the cable down the post. Have yet to run the cable from the camers forward, I mounted it in the tail gate handle, up to the cab and make the final connections.

Think I may have come up with a better way of seeing the hitch other than using a short link to hold the tailgate half way open. Will let you know how the trials come out.

And the reason to have one is if you pull flat bed trailers and low loads, or hook and un-hook frequently. Getting the plate number of the kid tailgating doesn't hut either!

 

Good stuff Vigness thank you! Did you glue the monitor in place when you were done? Which camera and monitor did you go with? I'm anxious to see the video quality. I think I could do this setup for < $300 with a night/day camera and a really good 5-7" monitor since the wiring for me is easy and I'm not really factoring that in (not that that part should cost too much).

 

And your truck is not really a 4X4, it just try's to act like one..

 

Now thats funny!

 

On anyone who puts in a backup camera, do not 'fall in love' with the night vision cameras.
They are not needed/indicated/useful on the back of your truck.

The infrared cameras tend to wash out in bright sunlight. They are best in low light conditions, say an overcast day, dusk. But at noon in a bright parking lot color and shape are way diminished.

And at night, you have backup lights, which provide plenty of light for the range a backup camera is useful.

The backup lights on these trucks are quite bright, so that you can see them through the heavily tinted rear window.

So seeing into the infrared is not helpful. The huge amount of white light pouring from the backup lights overwhelms the tiny little LED infrared lights that surround the camera, if equipped.

The infrared cameras are intended for 'stealth' use, places where there is no visible light source.
At best they put out about a tenth the lumens that even old dirty backup lights put out.
They are really for a different mission.
Chris

 

All good feedback Chris, thanks!

Are you saying bright lights actually make the infrared camera LESS useful at night? I have aux backup lights under the truck and it sounds like I'd have it even worse? I backup a low trailer at night a lot and with tinted windows and tonneau cover it can be a PIA. Any suggestions on cameras off of ebay to buy?

 

Did I ever say mine was a 4x4?? Dont be mad cause you cant afford to lift yours... BTW nice "power wagon" loser...

 

Sorry, this is a bit long;

CCD cameras are designed around specific light values. Over-technical way of saying they can be designed for bright sunlight, dim sunlight, darkness, infrared radiation.

If you pay the big bucks, you can get a CCD camera that performs well across the visual spectrum.
You will probably not buy one of those. A good fixed camera can run more than a premium headunit.

Not to worry, the 30 buck ones on eBay (60.00 for same part number most other places) give you almost life like pictures on any halfway decent monitor.

When you go to a wide angle view, better on rearview as it spots the stuff on the corners, the picture quality is degraded.
Fact of physics, if you take a wider picture and pipe it through the same size monitor, there is less information per square inch.

A 120 degree camera sees a LOT. While the color will often not be perfect, you will have no problem seeing a kid, cat, dog, 65 Nova, whatever, behind you. You may not be able to tell a Nissan from a Mazda at a glance, but you will be able to tell if it's in your space.

Remember, the picture is already being degraded by compressing 120 degrees into about 40 degrees on a typical monitor.

Then 'shift' its receiving spectrum further into the low light range.
It works fine at dusk, works fine overcast days, works fine in the far north, low sunlight areas.
Now look at the picture in a bright sunlight day, with the sun at a high angle. You will see what is left of the compressed color is washed out.
Contrast is about gone.

So it works well if it is not too sunny.
Not well if it is sunny.

But how about after dark? The range of a typical LED array surrounding the camera is about 15 feet.
Yup, not too far.
If you set the camera up in a dark room in your house, and use the infrared array you will get great contrast, lousy to non-existent color.
However, you really won’t be using it in full darkness.
On the back of the truck are backup lights. They throw enough light to see well with good contrast at 40 feet, or almost three times the range of the IR.

So you are not even using the IR. The camera sold with the IR is for night vision, night seeing. Again, you are not working in the dark, you are working with bright rear lights, lights that are MUCH more powerful than the LED IR lights that make your camera 'see in the dark'.

Any good camera will give you plenty of vision with the illumination from the backup lights. Any reasonably priced IR LED camera will wash out in bright sunlight.
Chris

 

Thanks for the compliment, that baby gets 32mpg. She's not much to look at is she?

Yep, maybe one day I'll be in the same financial status as you and be able to lift mine too. Keep up the good work and stay out of those little ditches...

 

I got a Pyle PLCM7000 and camera... I don't remember where, just did a search and took the best price. Left the add on the desk for the kids the add and guess what I got for fathers day...LOL

I do have it mounted, here's the basic run down of what I did;

Removed the screen and controls from the factory monitor kit, it had side mounted controls. I played around with mounting the whole thing in the visor but couldn't get it to come out right.

The face is a 1/8" piece of lexan (?) masked and painted on the back side for the screen, the power LED, and the IR sensor for the remote. It is held to the lexan with double backed foam tape. It was good enough to mount it in the factory mount so what the heck.

The controls were a little more interesting. They are surface mounted momentary switches on a circuit board with a pigtail to the monitor, so cutting them loose wasn't really an option.

What it came to was mounting the circuit board to the lexan with #2 machine screws with the heads painted black. For button actuators I used a trick from a high security payphone. The buttons are rivets with the head on the inside against the switches. For such small buttons I had to go to the fabric store and get some for denim jeans. They are hollow instead of solid so I'm still hunting to create a "button" on the user side. The whole thing is fastened to the visor with 2mm screws picked up at the local RC hobby shop. Pyle has a conector simular to a mini-din right off the monitor so the conector is right where the cable pops out from behind the post.

I didn't get a wide angle camera, but came up with a better way to see the hitch for backing / hook-up than proping the tailgate halfway open. The final version isn't finished, but the prototype is a double magnetic cabinet door catch with tape over the magnets to protect the truck, and a piece of leftover plastic " replacement mirror" from the wal-mart auto section from when I smacked a mirror at the toll gate a while back. Mounted the mirror at approx. 45 degrees and I can see the hitch perfectly. After the first few times I have it down. Back up until the back up alarm starts beeping, look at the monitor and stop when under the hitch

The only thing to get used to was since I have an extended hitch instead of the ball on the bumper was the camera angle wasn't verticle alingment. Once I got used to going slightly beyond what I thought I should to compensate for the angle I hit it dead on every time, first time. No more getting in and out and back and forth to hook up.

When the last of the prototypes are worked out after a few are honey dos are out of the way I will post more pics and a sme more details.

While I had it appart I also got a pick of the mounting spot for the homelink for those that are intrested.

 

Thank's all for the info
I will check it out latter as I have a lot of work to do at the moment.

Salutes

Giorgio

 

ChrisAdams/Vigness, THANKS for taking the time to post your input and share your knowledge, I really appreciate it, this has been very helpful!