Cameras for truck/trailer

[Steve from SoCal]

Dash cams are popular as stand alone systems, on a multi channel video system in a truck are they the best choice?       My truck is at the point where installing cameras and DVR for forward, side and rear view imaging is here.     These are the camera positions I think I want?    A dash cam for historical data, a hitch cam for loading/observation, a rear truck body cam and, rear trailer cam for historical/ real time observation.    Perhaps a right side cam for blind spot observation?       

The above system would have 5 cameras, a 4 channel DVR could record all the historical data, the hitch cam being live data only.     Video quality and focal length/field of view are different for a couple of the cameras and conditions, the hitch for example and, the rear body cameras.     Backing up a wider field of view on the trailer than when recording on highway events?       What do I want in cameras and how are the parameters of the cameras manipulated are considerations.     I have no familiarity with CCTV or video cameras, this is all new to me.     While I am not looking for broadcast quality, I do want a system that has good image quality and robust hardware.      Price is secondary to performance but I don't need an over performing system either.

I have no particular qualms with parts and pieces vs a complete system, no constraints on system type, hard wire systems seem to be a better choice for this use.     What do I want and where do I find it?

 

Steve  

[Morelli]

Steve,

If you do not mind doing some work, I have done something along the lines you have for my truck.  I use the Voyager system with 4 camera (but supports 5) because the control head is nice and the remote allows me to do a lot of things.  I then got the adapters and used a black box system to record everything from all camera.  When I get back to the shop will post some pictures to the show the recording head.

Cabling is very easy.  Parts a little pricey.  Easy to use.  Do not know if that is something of interest.

-Roberto

[Chad Heiser]

I will second the Voyager recommendation.  I use them on my set up.  I have six cameras in my system.  Voyager is high quality and pretty idiot proof on the installation side (although I did recently see an installation of a Voyager system that I used the word idiot in a different context, but that is another story ).  

Everything is hard wired, so no wireless interference.  I will eventually add recording to my system, but I just haven’t done it yet (for various reasons).  Voyager makes an in line DVR for their systems, but I am interested to see what Pug did to record in his system.

[Morelli]

OMG, completely forgot about this ...  So sorry, I will post the information this weekend.  At the time, Voyager did not have a DVR system so made my own.  The voyager DVR is excellent also, well integrated !  On our Volvo truck, we doing Voyager again, never had a days worth of problems with it.

[Steve from SoCal]

I looked at "Voyager" can you link the system you have?     The number of active cameras would only be 4 at any given time, maybe three?

 

Thanks,

Steve

[Chad Heiser]

Here is a Voyager system from RVcams.com.  I have purchased equipment from them in the past and have been very happy with their service.

http://www.rvcams.com/p/14/VOS74TQkit.html

Here is Voyager’s new DVR system.

http://www.rvcams.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=DVR4100&Store_Code=rvcams

And this is the hard wire connector to go between the truck and trailer (comes in either a 2 camera or 5 camera version).

http://www.rvcams.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=VOSBHC2K&Store_Code=rvcams

 

 

[Jack Mayer]

Voyager makes a nice system. Pricey. But nice.  We install them for some people.

Take a look at Rear View Safety as an alternative. They also make quality equipment and have DVR capability. They are probably number one in the commercial camera safety world.

[Morelli]

The system I put together records 4 channels in parallel with GPS data, date, time and speed.  The requirement I had was it had to solid state, no moving parts at all, as compact as possible, easy to get to.

The voyager unit I have is this:

http://www.jensenrvdirect.com/voyager-4-camera-switch-box.html

I have 4 cameras ...  Front, Rear, Left & Right ...  I have an additional camera on the tow ball, but if I needed I could expand that to have more by using an aux port to switch controller to gain up to 4 additional cameras.

I used this DVR unit:

https://www.supercircuits.com/advanced-solid-state-mobile-dvr-mdvr21sd

I used then a 4 voyager 'Y' cables and made a proper wire harness to connect the two units.  Voyager does it thing and the DVR does it using one set of cameras.  So what I see on my display is what is being recorded by the DVR.

I hope that helps.  The unit is extremely compact and has some great features.  Its limited to your imagination and skill set.  I also have the wireless ethernet module so I can do remote control without cabling into it.

-Roberto

[stephenyang]

haloview backup camera for my  truck