Hard-wire Dash Cam Install

[warvet]

Fire, thanks a lot man. I went ahead and used the "add a fuse" .......but you showing me the location of the fuse box and which fuse slot to use is what got this done. Thanks a lot. Nicely powered on with the engine....and off when the truck is off. I only use my radar detector on trips....which isn't often, but it's there and ready to use. I work on a federal installation, so they aren't allowed.......so 99% of the time, I don't have it hooked up.

 

[Mrdlbrowntx]

Looking for feedback on Dash Cams. With the price of our trucks approaching the cost of a small house I'm wondering what y'all might be thinking about or doing concerning installing a Dash Cam in your truck. I've been looking at 2 channel devices that are equipped with a parking mode feature. There are several out there. Looking for ideas on who's using what, how did the installation go (permanent or removable) and how do they look from the inside and outside.

 

[Scott4399]

Thank you so much for this. I installedd my dashcam perfectly today because of your post. Thank you

 

[JAK]

Does anyone know if there is another switched 12v slot in the fuse box besides fuse 66? I'm really bad at these electrical stuff and I'm trying to hardwire a radar detector and a dashcam. I'm planning to use an add-a-circuit.

Any help would be appreciated!

 

[TurdFerguson]

Does anyone know if there is another switched 12v slot in the fuse box besides fuse 66? I'm really bad at these electrical stuff and I'm trying to hardwire a radar detector and a dashcam. I'm planning to use an add-a-circuit.

Any help would be appreciated!

Does anyone know if there is another switched 12v slot in the fuse box besides fuse 66? I'm really bad at these electrical stuff and I'm trying to hardwire a radar detector and a dashcam. I'm planning to use an add-a-circuit.

Any help would be appreciated!

When I did mine I pulled the center console (2 screws) and spliced into the cigarette lighter adapter. it is 12v on and off with acc. Very easy to mouse behind the glove box and up the pillar on the passenger side.

 

[Neurobit]

May I ask why you need or have a dash cam? just curious

Mainly, to protect yourself in case of disputes after an accident where it’s your word against the other party, and there are no witnesses.

 

[JAK]

I've seen pictures of this step. It scares me just a little ripping the entire center console out. I guess I'll do that if there is no other way.

Anyone know if I can insert both hot wire from the dash cam and the radar detector into the add-a-fuse circuit and plug it in F66 with a piggyback 7.5amp fuse?

 

[Kazoo]

My wiring kit requires ACC & FULL TIME POWER, can you get that in that fuse panel?? I just purchased my Ram this week, very new to the 5th Gen....

Thanks in advance,
KK

 

[ExcursionDiesel]

May I ask why you need or have a dash cam? just curious

If you've ever had someone hit you without witnesses, you'll want a dashcam!

 

[ExcursionDiesel]

My wiring kit requires ACC & FULL TIME POWER, can you get that in that fuse panel?? I just purchased my Ram this week, very new to the 5th Gen....

Thanks in advance,
KK

I had a hard time finding a tap for battery (unswitched) power. There is a massive cable near the drivers kick panel to the left of the fuse box under the dash that is a direct battery feed. I suspect it provides all cab power. It has a thick white square connector with exposed cable end inside it. I took a blue buttsplice crimp connector and cut half the plastic off to expose the metal barrel on one end. I crimped it to my B+ wire to make a male plug and pressed it into the gap in the back of the white square plug so it contacts the big battery cable. It fits snug and makes a good tight connection. No need to unplug anything. The B+ wire has an inline fuse. Wire-tie the B+ wire to the large battery cable near the white plug so it can't pull out. Works great.

 

[ExcursionDiesel]

Looking for feedback on Dash Cams. With the price of our trucks approaching the cost of a small house I'm wondering what y'all might be thinking about or doing concerning installing a Dash Cam in your truck. I've been looking at 2 channel devices that are equipped with a parking mode feature. There are several out there. Looking for ideas on who's using what, how did the installation go (permanent or removable) and how do they look from the inside and outside.

I am using the Viofo A129 Dual HD dashcam. It's full HD with a front and rear camera. The front cam is wedge shaped and sits high on the windshield near the headliner....out of the way. The rear cam is up high and dead center of my back glass and I bent a 1" wide aluminum strip to make a bracket that slips behind the headliner to hold the rear cam so it isn't touching the glass which would interfere with opening the back window. It is at the extreme edge of the glass up high, just low enough to have a full rear view.

The dashcam records full HD front and rear 24/7 since it has a parking mode which uses time elapse or reduced bitrate while the ignition is off for more than a selectable time. I hardwired everything. All wires are totally hidden. The 3 wire hardwire kit is 20 bucks and has an inline device to turn off the cam if battery power falls below a user selected value. I selected 12.2v. That allows it to run at least 24 hours parked without deep cycling the battery. Any longer and it shuts off. You can go as low as 11.8v for longer park mode time. It prevents draining the battery so the truck won't start.

The A129 is top rated by users who have also used more expensive brands. $170 for the A129 and $20 for the 3 wire hardwire kit. Another $15 for a Center Polerized Lens filter to eliminate front windshield glare and dash reflection in the image. $15 for the Bluetooth remote mount button used to trigger an HD photo on demand (optional).

The dashcam has 5ghz wifi interface and smartphone app to view recordings or live images anytime. Also great for aiming the cams during install.

Uses up to a 256GB micro SD card (not included). Get one rated at 100MB per second. You'll have to format it using the dashcam. Microsoft doesn't format Fat32 over 32GB.

The A129 has NO BATTERY. It uses a super capacitor which won't fail in high temps. Dashcams are notorious for dying due to heat if you live where the summer sun gets hot. The cam sits baking in the sun behind glass. No matter what you get, consider models that use a "super cap" instead of a battery.

 

[TurdFerguson]

My wiring kit requires ACC & FULL TIME POWER, can you get that in that fuse panel?? I just purchased my Ram this week, very new to the 5th Gen....

Thanks in advance,
KK

Make sure you use a voltage cutoff. or make sure your camera has a built in cutoff. 12v Auto batteries are not meant to run long / slow discharge cycles. They are meant for quick high draw cycles. If your camera doesn't have a cutoff or you don't use one you will ruin your battery. Also (I would have to redo my research on this) even setting your discharge limit to 11.2v or similar (much lower and your battery is pretty much ruined) you are not going to get a very long parking mode run. Maybe 6-8 hours. A better bet is an external power bank - lukas and blackvue both sell them I believe - but you still wont get much more than 8 hours. In my 2011 I had a switch on a regulator that I would turn on when parking in a parking deck short term ( couple hours). I used it so infrequently that when I moved the cam to my 2019 I did ACC only.

 

[Patsy1099]

^This
I have tried all different settings and have killed multiple batteries on both my vehicles. It wasn’t this camera though. But it did have multiple settings to avoid battery drain. Bottom line is that it eventually ruins the battery. Especially in the winter. I would avoid parking mode if it runs off the vehicle battery. Your best bet is to have a camera that has an option to run its parking mode of an internal camera battery or install a separate aux battery (pita) for your toys.

 

[ExcursionDiesel]

Mine runs overnight with the cutoff set to 12.2v. It's connected to a point that has a direct run to the battery. Anything below 12.0v is draining the battery too much and stresses it. I'll accept some reduced battery life for monitoring since my truck sits behind factories during the day.

 

[SPYvSPY]

With my F150, a add-a-fuse setup would barely fit, so I just wrapped the hot wire around a fuse and plugged it back in. Since the fuse is unused in the RAM, that sounded good as well.

Where did you find the info for the fuse box? I need to find an always-on fuse and not sure I want to do the suggested method involving the connector.

 

[firecadet613]

Where did you find the info for the fuse box? I need to find an always-on fuse and not sure I want to do the suggested method involving the connector.

Look in the owners manual to see what fuse powers what. Use a volt meter to confirm your findings.

 

[SPYvSPY]

Look in the owners manual to see what fuse powers what. Use a volt meter to confirm your findings.

I did that and the manual kinda pisses me off. It has a list of fuses but not a map of the locations on the box. And at 50 YO I'm too f******g old to see the tiny raised dimples that pretend to be numbers.

 

[CRH]

Fire, when I removed the pannel below the steering column I found the fuse box (eternally grateful for your post) but no lid on it with the fuse layout. Ergo, no guide to which fuse is which. Using your step by step will work for me (thank you again) although I'm using a micro add-a-fuse connector. So, if this is a noob question please forgive. How did you know that fuse name was in that location? I can't find a schematic for that block anywhere. The owners manual lists them, but doesn't show whre those positions are in the box.

 

[geotex1]

Simple solution to the battery concern would be to wire up a small, rechargeable AGM with isolator. Back in the day, you could buy a drop in from Directed, but you make need to build one off a trailer breakaway battery kit. Easy to do, won't jeopardize your starting battery, and your camera can remain on.

 

[CRH]

I did that and the manual kinda pisses me off. It has a list of fuses but not a map of the locations on the box. And at 50 YO I'm too f******g old to see the tiny raised dimples that pretend to be numbers.

Tiny rasied dimples? There are tiny raised dimples on the board by each fuse? Spy I'm 63 so just seeing the Amps on the fuse is a stretch, lol! Did you ever find a schematic?