These 5 RV Cameras Can Make Your Towing Safer and Less Stressful!

2 months ago
Chad

For the past eight years, across three RVs, one of the first things I've always done is put a rear observation camera on the back of the rig. I call it a backup camera sometimes, but honestly it gets used more for watching what's behind us while we're driving than it does for actually backing up — it's tough to judge distance to other cars using mirrors alone, and a big RV like ours needs that extra set of eyes. This time around, I decided to take it up a notch and add four more cameras to the setup.

Recapping the Rear Camera and Truck Monitor

A couple weeks ago I showed you the rear camera on the back of the RV and the 7″ Furrion monitor in the truck. Installing the rear camera couldn't be simpler — plug it in, four screws, done. This RV, like our last two, already had the Furrion camera mount and wiring in place. That pre-wiring runs on the same 12-volt system as the marker and running lights, meaning the camera only powers up when connected to the truck. That's a good thing — on our very first RV, the camera was wired straight into the RV's own 12-volt system and ran 24/7 even when nothing was watching it, which will drain a battery fast.

The monitor side is the Furrion 7″ screen. They also make a 5″ and a 9″, but the 7″ is the right call once you're running multiple cameras on it. I also mounted a new bullet-point mounting system in the truck for it, which I really like.

Wiring the Upfitter Switches to the Dash

A lot of you asked after that last video how I wired the truck side of things, so here's the rundown. Our truck has upfitter switches on the ceiling that connect to a relay system under the hood — flip a switch, a relay trips, and power gets sent down a line. From there, it's on you to wire that line to whatever you're powering. Every Ford truck we've dealt with has been a little different, but for ours, it meant connecting a bundle near the relays to a passenger-side bundle that runs through the firewall into the footrest area, then running a wire from there up over the dash to a female 12-volt connector under the dash tray — the same style of accessory plug you'd find in any car. It's a pain to set up the first time, but once the wiring's in, everything after that is just plugging things in and flipping switches.

A New Tool for Testing Trailer Lights and Brakes

Normally, testing cameras, running lights, or brakes means hooking the truck up to the RV's seven-way, or if I'm bleeding brakes, pulling the breakaway cable back and forth so I don't leave the brake controller engaged too long. This time I picked up a small tester — about the size of a mini ammo box — with a seven-way built in, a charging port, and adapters for round and flat connections down to a two- and three-wire six-way. It comes with a remote that lets me trigger taillights, 12-volt aux, turn signals, and brake lights without anyone in the truck. I used the taillight setting to power up and test the new cameras without ever having to move the truck into position. It's about $150 on Amazon, and it's already saved me a ton of time.

Boosting the Rear Camera Signal

The rear camera works fine, but it's not quite 30 frames per second — it stutters a bit and occasionally cuts out for a moment, which makes sense given there's no additional antenna boosting the signal all the way from the back of the RV to the cab. Our old Visionworks camera had huge antennas and still needed a signal extension, so I picked up an antenna extension made for Visionworks (Furrion doesn't make one of their own, but it uses the same coax connection) and ran it up the roof as far as it would go — about 35 feet of cable. I tested it sitting still with both the stock antenna and a 7dB gain antenna, and honestly they all looked about the same parked in the driveway. The real test is in motion – see below.

Adding the Side View Cameras

The next two cameras came as part of a three-camera kit, and there are plenty of videos out there already covering the basic install, so I'll just cover what was specific to our RV. Starting on the passenger side, I removed the existing running light and used a multimeter to confirm which of its two wires was 12-volt and which was ground — for us, black was 12-volt and white was ground. The cameras themselves have four wires: 12-volt for the camera, 12-volt for the light, ground, and a trigger wire we're not using (that's for wiring into a turn signal so the camera comes on automatically). Since I needed to join three wires together at each connection, regular butt splices wouldn't cut it, so I used waterproof self-stripping connectors instead — stick the wires in, crimp with pliers, and it seals everything in one step. Both side cameras paired automatically since they came in the same kit as the rear camera, and both went in easily.

Adding a Garage Camera

With three cameras connected, it was time to tackle the garage. Every time we pull over on a travel day, I go back and do a load check to make sure everything's secure, and lately the motorcycle's been fishtailing a little in its chocks, so having a camera on it while we drive is going to be a real help. Every Momentum we've owned has had a free Furrion camera wire already run into the garage, but ours sits behind a cabinet, so I routed the cable out and mounted the camera to the ceiling. Pairing it to the Furrion system wasn't smooth at first — it would say it was connected but show no video signal — so I pulled the monitor out of the truck, brought it back to the garage next to the camera, unpaired and repaired it there, and that fixed it. Once paired and getting two bars of signal, I mounted the camera for good, angled down as far as it would go for the best view.

An “Anywhere” Camera for the Truck

The last camera of this project went on the truck itself. A few years back I swapped the factory bed camera for a much sharper third-party version from Custom Solutions PNW, which makes hitching up to the ball a lot easier. This time I added their “anywhere” camera, mounted low on the toolbox to get a clean view of the hitch and ball lining up. This install was more involved — instead of a simple swap, it connects to a harness that terminates near the spare tire. I routed the cable down behind the taillight, up over the frame, and used their pigtail to tie into the truck's wiring harness, then pulled as much slack as I could up into the bed. It came up about six inches short of reaching the toolbox, so for now it's temporarily laid in place while I order a longer cable and decide on final camera placement — I may end up moving it to the side for a better view coming in on an angle. The image comes in mirrored, like looking in a real mirror, which matches how the bed camera displays, so that's exactly what I'm used to.

First Travel Day with the New Cameras

Hitching up on our first day out was perfect — I used the Custom Solutions bed camera to get a rough alignment, then the new toolbox camera to nail it on the first try. All four cameras came in great once we got moving, and the rear camera in particular was noticeably smoother with the extension and 7dB booster antenna in place, so that's staying on the rig for good.

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