Rear View Camera

[Sandy and Shirley]

We took our test drive yesterday and bought our 378TS today. Love the unit but have one thing that I think is missing. Either my dealer didn’t know how to do it, or it is indeed a missing feature.

The unit has a backup camera which is basically looking at the ground behind the unit.

What I find missing is a rear view camera so you can see what is behind you when you are driving down the road.

Is this a missing feature? If so, has anyone added one? And if so, what kind did your get and how did you install it and hook it up to the front monitor?

[chriscowles]

That camera is oriented to monitor your TOAD. Perhaps the angle is adjustable upward?

[Sandy and Shirley]

When I am driving in my car i have a rear view mirror so I can see what is behind me. All I would like is the ability to see what is behind me while driving the motor home. Not what is behind me in the lanes on my right and left, but what is behind me in my lane.

Maybe I'm just being unreasonable for wanting that visibility.

If I pull into a toll booth and drive a couple feet to far to pay the toll, I'd like the ability to back up a few feet without hitting the car behind me that pulled up close to my rear bumper. If I have no way of seeing that car, how do I do that?

Driving a motor home is going to be a new experience to us. How do the rest of you handle a situation like that?

[abjb]

Ours was adjusted to the full down position, half the screen was the MH back bumper.
I adjusted to full up, it's better but not much.
To be used as a rear view camera you'll need to modify the mounting bracket

[WDK]

It's mounted that way to keep you from running into or over small objects like kids or that car that might park right behind you, not to monitor your toad or to see who is following behind you....yes you can aim it to see or monitor whatever you want behind you but please don't discount the real reason it's there. Most of us will walk around our coaches before we move them but by the time you sit in that drivers seat and put it in reverse, what was there or not there can change in an instant depending on where you are.

WDK

WDK

[Sandy and Shirley]

Pardon me for being a "not even a newbie yet", I graduate to newbie in two more days!

I don't really want to give up the existing rear view camera, I want to add a second one. There are remote cameras that can be mounted in the back bedroom window and I was wondering if there was a way to "hook it into" the monitor screen in front.

[WDK]

I am not sure if there are more inputs on the back of your monitor....your already using 3.....right and left turn signals as well as reverse....or if the monitor supplied will except a wireless input....I think you would have to upgrade from the standard GT package or mount another monitor up front.

WDK

[Falcon35]

The way mine is set it is just right to check that the toad is OK.
When the toad is not hooked up I can see the folded tow bar and a enough behind that so I can stop before I back into something.

[chrisbailey13]

At the angle my camera is set I can see the rear bumper/tow hitch to about 12-15 feet behind the coach. That is plenty of distance to stop the coach if something comes into view while backing up, I can see the Toad on the Tow Dolly, and my motorcycle when towing in a trailer.


How much more visibility do you think you need?

[jsutherl]

I felt the same way. My monitor had an extra input. So I ordered another rear camera and a long cable, mounted it at about head height (when standing on the ground) and ran the wire up to the monitor. Running the wire was easier then I thought it would be, but that was the hardest part. The new camera faces straight back, not up or down.

It's really great. I leave it on that view almost all the time. It's especially great for seeing if you've pulled far enough ahead of that car in the lane next to you to be able to move over into their lane.

Make sure to mount it high enough that it can see over any bike rack you might put into the hitch.

If you're the diy type of person this a fun and not too expensive mod.

[Sandy and Shirley]

Thanks, I hope our monitor has that extra input also. What I’d like to do, if they even make one, is mount the camera on the rear window with suction cups and use a wireless connection to the monitor.

In the meanwhile I will point the current camera as far up as I can.

[kenandterry]

Sandy and Shirley

Don't aim your camera to view the horizon and leave a BIG blind area immediately behind you. I drive a school bus and we don't have cameras at all. When and if we need to back up, remember the catch phrase "GOAL" for "get out and look".

Have you even looked at the mounting bracket for your current camera? I relocated our camera so that I can JUST see the bumper at the very bottom of the monitor. I don't need to see anymore that that. It allows that I can line my trailer hitch up solo. It also allows me to see as much of my TOAD as I need. Any further our directly behind me.........we can see what we need to see with the two side mirrors.

Like the sticker on the back of semi trucks with trailers.......

"If you can't see my mirrors, I can't see you."