Marusho
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December 1, 2018: In this older post I mentioned that I am working on patterns for Rambox horizontal inserts. I have finished that project and the files are found in a new post at
https://5thgenrams.com/community/th...terns-instructions-photos-download-here.4250/
I have a Longhorn crew cab with sliding rear window and USB outlets at the rear of the center console. If your truck is different you may not be able to use my technique for mounting a dashcam on the rear window.
It is not possible to mount directly to the rear window with either a suction cup or adhesive, without damaging the plastic sheet with embedded defrost wires. My solution allowed me to mount a camera using the plastic upper window channel, without altering it or harming it. I was also able to hide the wiring with no effort, by running it behind the rear seat and under the floor mat. There is one problem with the install which I'll explain later, and perhaps someone can help me solve that. (NOTE: Solved problem myself - keep reading).
Referring to the photo far below showing the front, side and rear of the camera and mounting bracket.
The camera is an "Original Dashcam Company" model K9 (aka 4SK-9S) for which I paid $15 new and postpaid from B&H Photo in NYC, on sale. It can be had for $25 any time. It's a low-end camera but competent and very well thought out, with almost-intuitive setup and operation. It's nominally 1080p, but then no consumer camera is truly 1080p. It records at 204mB per minute, so a 32gb micro SD card will record for about 2.5 hours. It loops using your choice of clip size from 1-10 minutes. But this isn't a review of the camera.
The top of the camera has a T-shaped slot into which their proprietary mount fits. Instead I placed a 3 X 25mm screw in this slot with the head down. I attached washers and nuts to build a secure attachment to the camera and to an L-shaped bracket.
The guts of this arrangement is a piece of acrylic sheet which had been folded over to form a card holder for a store display. I had bought an assortment of Plexiglas scraps many years ago and this piece finally found a use.
The two sides of the plastic card holder grip pretty tightly, but not well enough to remain clamped on the window channel. I connected the L-bracket holding the camera to the holder using a 1/4" bolt and wing nut, which serves double duty as a clamping mechanism. To remove the entire unit you simply back off the wingnut a few turns and pull.
You could substitute two sheets of your choice of material, and get the same gripping action, but it wouldn't be as elegant.
With the headrest folded down, all controls and ports are accessible, and it is easy enough to change the menus while sitting on the back seat, so there's no real need to ever remove the thing.
With my setup there is 3/4" between the holder and the glass, and the camera lens housing rests against the glass, preventing it from changing direction. I have also positioned the lens such that it is between two defrost wires.
The resulting view is exactly what I want, with only a small part of the tailgate shown and a bias towards the passenger side of the truck.
The holder is 1 5/8" from the center pane. This is necessary because there is a mechanism inside the channel. When opened, the window mores to the driver's side, so the camera can't be mounted on the driver's side. Even though it blocks the rear view a little, I doubt that anyone would care.
Because of the dark windows, the camera is almost impossible to see. Of course the tint means that the exposure is not ideal.
Wiring: I can't stand the look of dashcam wiring, which is why I decided to install the rear camera first and to continue ruminating about how to install the front camera (a Viofo A119, similar to the 2-camera model ExcursionDiesel is using below). My model does have a 12V outlet on the top of the dash, below the mirror, but I am not impressed. When will manufacturers realize that people need an outlet at the top of the windshield?? For that matter, when will they stop putting us through the inconvenience of installing aftermarket contraptions when, as they used to say on the program, "The Six Million Dollar Man", "we have the technology".
Back to wiring up the rear camera: The 4 rear USB outlets are live at all times, which is not good news for a dashcam. Further, there is no 12V outlet in the rear. I am convinced that there is no way to set these outlets to come on with the ignition, so if using one of them for the rear dashcam (we need a new word, like "buttcam", when used facing rearward) you'd have to remember to unplug it. This is of course, unacceptable.
I discovered that of the 9 USB ports, there is one and only one which is controlled by the ignition. The charge-only port at the rear of the upper compartment of the center console is thus controlled. This compartment is meant to hold a tablet. The compartment even has a notch for wiring to exit, at the front, so no need for me to pinch the cable to my buttcam. I suspect that the 10' USB extension cable which I will receive in a few days, will be the ideal length. I'll submit one final edit to this post when I determine the answer to that question.
Running the wiring is simple. It drops straight down from the camera, behind the RH passenger seat, then runs across the floor and under the folding storage gizmo. Then it runs under the floor mat, up the passenger side of the console, in through the handy wire slot to the afore-mentioned switched USB outlet. Unless you are the princess from "The Princess and the Pea" you cannot feel the wire beneath the floor mat/carpet.
But wait, there's more!
I have actually started fabricating Rambox inserts, since Mopar has dropped the ball. I've completed only one of the 4 all-different horizontal inserts, but am planning to publish the patterns, photos and notes right here if I finish the project. If interested, please encourage me.
https://5thgenrams.com/community/th...terns-instructions-photos-download-here.4250/
I have a Longhorn crew cab with sliding rear window and USB outlets at the rear of the center console. If your truck is different you may not be able to use my technique for mounting a dashcam on the rear window.
It is not possible to mount directly to the rear window with either a suction cup or adhesive, without damaging the plastic sheet with embedded defrost wires. My solution allowed me to mount a camera using the plastic upper window channel, without altering it or harming it. I was also able to hide the wiring with no effort, by running it behind the rear seat and under the floor mat. There is one problem with the install which I'll explain later, and perhaps someone can help me solve that. (NOTE: Solved problem myself - keep reading).
Referring to the photo far below showing the front, side and rear of the camera and mounting bracket.
The camera is an "Original Dashcam Company" model K9 (aka 4SK-9S) for which I paid $15 new and postpaid from B&H Photo in NYC, on sale. It can be had for $25 any time. It's a low-end camera but competent and very well thought out, with almost-intuitive setup and operation. It's nominally 1080p, but then no consumer camera is truly 1080p. It records at 204mB per minute, so a 32gb micro SD card will record for about 2.5 hours. It loops using your choice of clip size from 1-10 minutes. But this isn't a review of the camera.
The top of the camera has a T-shaped slot into which their proprietary mount fits. Instead I placed a 3 X 25mm screw in this slot with the head down. I attached washers and nuts to build a secure attachment to the camera and to an L-shaped bracket.
The guts of this arrangement is a piece of acrylic sheet which had been folded over to form a card holder for a store display. I had bought an assortment of Plexiglas scraps many years ago and this piece finally found a use.
The two sides of the plastic card holder grip pretty tightly, but not well enough to remain clamped on the window channel. I connected the L-bracket holding the camera to the holder using a 1/4" bolt and wing nut, which serves double duty as a clamping mechanism. To remove the entire unit you simply back off the wingnut a few turns and pull.
You could substitute two sheets of your choice of material, and get the same gripping action, but it wouldn't be as elegant.
With the headrest folded down, all controls and ports are accessible, and it is easy enough to change the menus while sitting on the back seat, so there's no real need to ever remove the thing.
With my setup there is 3/4" between the holder and the glass, and the camera lens housing rests against the glass, preventing it from changing direction. I have also positioned the lens such that it is between two defrost wires.
The resulting view is exactly what I want, with only a small part of the tailgate shown and a bias towards the passenger side of the truck.
The holder is 1 5/8" from the center pane. This is necessary because there is a mechanism inside the channel. When opened, the window mores to the driver's side, so the camera can't be mounted on the driver's side. Even though it blocks the rear view a little, I doubt that anyone would care.
Because of the dark windows, the camera is almost impossible to see. Of course the tint means that the exposure is not ideal.
Wiring: I can't stand the look of dashcam wiring, which is why I decided to install the rear camera first and to continue ruminating about how to install the front camera (a Viofo A119, similar to the 2-camera model ExcursionDiesel is using below). My model does have a 12V outlet on the top of the dash, below the mirror, but I am not impressed. When will manufacturers realize that people need an outlet at the top of the windshield?? For that matter, when will they stop putting us through the inconvenience of installing aftermarket contraptions when, as they used to say on the program, "The Six Million Dollar Man", "we have the technology".
Back to wiring up the rear camera: The 4 rear USB outlets are live at all times, which is not good news for a dashcam. Further, there is no 12V outlet in the rear. I am convinced that there is no way to set these outlets to come on with the ignition, so if using one of them for the rear dashcam (we need a new word, like "buttcam", when used facing rearward) you'd have to remember to unplug it. This is of course, unacceptable.
I discovered that of the 9 USB ports, there is one and only one which is controlled by the ignition. The charge-only port at the rear of the upper compartment of the center console is thus controlled. This compartment is meant to hold a tablet. The compartment even has a notch for wiring to exit, at the front, so no need for me to pinch the cable to my buttcam. I suspect that the 10' USB extension cable which I will receive in a few days, will be the ideal length. I'll submit one final edit to this post when I determine the answer to that question.
Running the wiring is simple. It drops straight down from the camera, behind the RH passenger seat, then runs across the floor and under the folding storage gizmo. Then it runs under the floor mat, up the passenger side of the console, in through the handy wire slot to the afore-mentioned switched USB outlet. Unless you are the princess from "The Princess and the Pea" you cannot feel the wire beneath the floor mat/carpet.
But wait, there's more!I have actually started fabricating Rambox inserts, since Mopar has dropped the ball. I've completed only one of the 4 all-different horizontal inserts, but am planning to publish the patterns, photos and notes right here if I finish the project. If interested, please encourage me.
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