Tow Vehicle Camera System- stock touch screen for display

palmeris · February 11, 2021

Towing a 40ft long 5th wheel with my 2014 F450 which only had the stock tailgate camera that comes on automatically when in reverse- which is great for backing into a parking spot or hooking up to a conventional receiver hitch but that's about it.

Wanting to add a 3rd brake light camera to see into the bed while hitching 5ver or gooseneck and not wanting to have additional monitor screens cluttering the dash or windshield led me into researching how to be able to display other cameras on the factory 8 inch MY Touch display screen via a hardwired solution.

I chose the MY Touch Pro Lock Pick. It installs between the factory wring harness connector and the my touch screen, comes with the wiring harness so its plug and play. The lock pick has additional RCA type video inputs on it. 1 for a backup camera if you don't have the factory tailgate camera, a 2nd back up camera, and 2 other inputs that can be configured via dipswitch and programing setting to be either a single automatic front camera that comes on when in drive and under 7 mph or two left / right blind spot cameras that come one with the activation of the associated turn signal.

Lock Pick allows you to select alternate back up camera input (B2) to display automatically when in reverse and you can also turn on any of the lock pick inputs at any time regardless of what gear you are in. You can toggle thru the camera inputs or turn them off entirely and can even enable the factory AUX video / audio inputs that are in the dash console to be active while in any gear.

The lock pick uses the vehicles communication protocol (CAN BUS ?) to switch the views and is controlled by using the voice and phone buttons on the steering wheel. All factory functionality of these buttons as well as all the SYNC and my touch screen functionalities are retained.

By having the lock pick display the alternate back up input ( B2) the 3rd brake light camera is displayed automatically when in reverse to see in the bed while hitching. Place in drive and it switches back to whatever was previously viewed up on the my touch screen , NAV for example.

The 3rd brake light camera also has 2 blind spot views that are displayed by left and right turn signals but it requires trigger voltages from the corresponding turn indicator lamps to display. These views are only displayed while the B2 input is active , so is not fully automatic. However, since lock pick allows you to view any input in any gear you can select B2 to be active while in drive, activate the turn signal and get the corresponding wide angle side view from the 3rd brake light camera. This configuration can be used when no 5th wheel trailer is connected and truck blind spot viewing is desired for example

The left / right video inputs on the lock pick are programed to display the RV Trailer side blind spot cameras. These cameras are placed on the side of the trailer and have a 120 degree wide view starting at the trailer tires . They use extension cables to route to the front and connects to the F450 via a disconnection kit , the other end at the lock pick adaptors are used to split out the video and power.
The Lock Pick has a special feature programing mode that tells F450 via can bus to display the left /right inputs with turn signals , so these automatically display with turn signal use.

There is also a rear RV camera that uses the same extension cables, disconnect kit and adaptors with an additional 3 position video switcher that has 3 video inputs with it's 1 video out put connected to the lock pick B2 input . So now when B2 is selected one of 3 video switcher inputs will be routed to the touch screen display. .

One video input is a straight pass thru and has the 3rd brake light camera as its input , the other 2 inputs have 12 volt triggers that will switch the video once the voltage is applied. The triggers are activated by a round 3 position toggle mounted next to the ciggy outlet, it is a ON-OFF-ON configuration. The CENTER off allows the pass thru (3rd brake light) signal and the REAR position brings up SV1 which is the rear trailer camera and the FRONT position brings up SV2 which is the f450 front license plate camera.

The lock pick is also a power supply, has multiple power leads to power cameras. I use it to power the 3rd brake light and front license plate cameras. For powering the 3 RV cameras I used up fitter switch #2 and these adaptors

So the system has a total of 8 camera views , 5 from the truck and 3 from the trailer- it is not the fancy 360 views, or a security system, or a dash cam, or a driver fatigue system- it allows the use of video as a tool for towing, hitching, backing, etc. without having to use external monitors or depending on wireless signals which was the criteria for this install.

The installation was fairly complex and took several weekends of my spare time to accomplish with several adult beverages consumed in the process. Will post up some photos if anyone wants to see.