- First Name
- Mark
- Joined
- Oct 30, 2021
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- Location
- St. Jacob, IL
- Vehicle(s)
- 2021 Badlands | 2020 Escape
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- #1
My wife was recently involved in a fender bender in a parking lot. She backed out of her spot, then noticed a nearby car was also backing out. The wife stopped, then tried to honk the horn while at the same time put the car back into drive to get out of the way. She was ultimately unsuccessful at either, and the other car smacked into her bumper. Since my wife was stopped it was clearly the other driver's fault, yet they told their insurance company my wife backed into them. Classic my-word-against-yours. So, I decided it's time to get some dash cams.
I'm not planning on publishing any dash cam content on YouTube, so having the highest quality video was not a priority. I wanted front and back cameras with high enough quality to read the license plate of a vehicle close enough to hit me and GPS monitoring (speed/position). The wife's car spends a lot of time in a parking lot at work, so I also wanted a mode that activates the camera if the vehicle is molested while parked. A bit of shopping at Amazon turned up the highly rated REDTIGER F7N, so that's what I went with. I will not be using the parking mode for my car (more below).
NOTE: This camera is advertised as "4K," but it's not. The front camera is 2160p max, and the rear is 1080p. That pisses some people off, which is reflected in the reviews. Personally, I don't care about resolution as long as I can read a license plate. The price/performance equation for this camera was right for me. If you want a camera with high enough resolution to post pretty videos on YouTube this probably isn't the best choice.
Installation was fairly easy. I started with the rear-facing camera. It's about one-and-half cubic inches in size. The signal cable has a very narrow connector--not much wider than the cable--approximately one foot from the camera, which really simplifies installation. The camera is weather proof, so it can be mounted externally, but I decided to keep it inside. I tried a couple of different mounting locations and decided on the window frame in the rear hatch. You can use the adhesive pad that comes with the kit, but the angle of the window frame will aim the camera more toward the ground rather than back, so I fashioned an angled shelf out of a few pieces of scrap plastic and hot-glued it all together. Hot glue works to mount the camera as well, and if you decide for some reason to uninstall it the glue peels off with just a bit of effort.
The photos below show the camera hot glued in place on the fabricated shelf. After that, I used an awl to punch a hole in the rubber seal around the wiring bundle running from the hatch to the roof, then pushed the small connector through the hole. If you pull the rubber off you can see where your awl is going to avoid damaging existing wiring. It's a bit of a pain to get the seal back in place, but it's worth it to take the time so as not to damage anything. Once the cable and connector are routed through the seal, you can access the connector by peeling the rubber gasket back and pulling down on the headliner. Leave enough slack in the cable between the camera and the rubber seal so the hatch may open without putting stress on the cable. I don't believe the cable running through the seal will cause a water leak, but I'll check after I wash the car or drive in the rain. If it does leak I may have to make a hole and run the cable through the hatch seal as well. I connected the camera to the signal cable, then routed the cable along the headliner to the front window.
The camera comes with a small plastic trim tool which you can use to tuck the cable into crevices and up over the headliner. Slide the tool between the trim pieces and the headliner to create a gap, then push the cable into the gap until it's no longer visible. I would advise against pushing on the cable with the tool to avoid damaging the cable. With a little time and care the cable will be completely invisible. Take care not to push too hard into crevices over and around the passenger seat windows where the airbags are installed.
Next, I connected the power cable. The camera comes with a lighter plug for power. You can plug into the 12V outlet under the radio stack and tuck the cable behind seals and trim pieces up to the camera to keep it out of sight, but I didn't want to give up my power outlet. Instead, I purchased a hardwire kit. I got one that utilizes fuse taps to avoid any wire cutting/splicing. That means you need to pull the cover off the fuse panel under the glove box, and you need to know which fuse slot to connect to. A peek in the owner's manual showed several unused fuse slots. I wanted one that is hot only with the ignition on, and after a bit of testing I found slot 3 fits the bill (slot three is the one without a fuse in the photo below).
Although there are no components powered from slot 3, there was a 10 amp fuse installed. To use a fuse tap you pull the fuse from the slot you want to use and replace it with the fuse tap. The kit I chose allows you to retain the original fuse, so even though it powers nothing I installed the 10 amp fuse originally in slot 3 into the fuse tap. You can see the fuse tap before and after installation below.
NOTE: Parking monitoring requires a hardwire kit; you cannot use the 12V power plug. Also, you will need a different hardwire kit than the one I used. For parking monitoring the camera needs two power wires: one that comes on with ignition (switched), and another that is always hot (unswitched). Additionally, the hardwire kit control box must monitor battery voltage to prevent completely draining the battery. REDTIGER sells a kit, but the fuse taps it comes with do not include a slot for the original fuse. I don't think that would be an issue as long as you select fuse slots that are listed as "UNUSED" in the owner's manual, but I can't say for sure. Cars that use CANBUS for communication are finnicky about power connections. For the wife's car I selected a different hardwire kit that includes fuse taps allowing retention of the original fuse. As noted, slot 3 on my car provides switched power, and slot 20 is always hot. You should do your own testing on your car to validate.
After connecting the fuse tap you simply plug the power cable into the provided connector, then connect the ground to a suitable point. There's a bolt with a nut conveniently located just below the fuse box that fits the ground connector perfectly. Simply remove the nut, slide the terminal on the ground wire over the bolt, then reinstall the nut.
At that point it's just a matter of securing the wiring and routing the cable up to the camera. I used zip ties to secure the cable. The most important consideration is that the cable doesn't contact anything sharp that can wear a hole in the insulation. Power cable routing up to the camera is a bit tricky, because the gaps around the door seal and dash are a lot tighter than the headliner. Also, you will be routing the cable near the passenger front and A-pillar airbags--be careful!
You can see in the photos below the route I chose. In the first you can see the control box peeking out from behind the fuse panel cover on the left (the small black box with white writing on it). The cable runs through the cable clip and behind the trim piece between the dash and the front passenger door.
From there, you can peel the rubber door seal back and continue tucking the cable behind the dash trim. Look carefully and you can see the cable coming from under the dash next to the glove box, and running behind the dash trim piece.
At the top of the trim piece you'll go around the bottom of the A-pillar and along the gap between the A-pillar and dash. As described earlier, use the tool to carefully create a gap, then push the cable into it. This area will be a lot tighter than the headliner, so take your time.
Once you get the cable all the way to the front of the gap you can just tuck it behind the A-pillar trim. I would discourage trying to push it too far back behind the A-pillar trim because there's an airbag back there. If you can't get the cable to stay out of sight a wadded up piece of cloth or paper towel pushed in on top of it should hold it in place.
The power cable coming up the A-pillar and the rear-camera signal wire coming from the back meet at the top of the A-pillar; they will run together above the headliner over to the camera. If you zip tie them together they will be easier to manage. You can see the trim tool between the headliner and windshield in the photo below, but the gap is big and the headliner is flexible enough that you really don't need the tool. I just pushed all the excess power/signal cabling up above the headliner followed by a wadded up piece of cloth to hold it in place and prevent rattles. Leave just enough slack for the cables to connect to the camera.
There's really only one place to mount the camera; it has to be on the passenger side. You can put it up near the top of the windshield, but the housing around the car's front camera system will force you to mount the camera farther to the right. I mounted mine a bit lower, near the bottom of the plastic housing, to keep the camera as centered as possible. From the driver's seat it's almost completely hidden by the rearview mirror.
And voilà! The camera automatically turns on/off when I start and stop the engine, so the camera records front and back at all times when the car is running. The camera screen illuminates briefly when the camera first powers up, then goes black to avoid overheat. You can turn the screen on any time by touching the power button. The screen may be configured to show front, back or both camera views. You can select the file size (1-minute, 3-minute, or 5-minute loops), and as the data card gets full the oldest files are automatically overwritten. There are separate data files for the front and back cameras. If you want to protect a given loop you press the up arrow button on the right side of the camera. I checked image quality from recorded videos and I can clearly read license plates from passing cars. In the photo below you can see that the image is plenty sharp. All-in-all, an easy upgrade, and worth the $time$ to avoid a he-said-she-said situation.
EDIT: Someone requested image examples:
I'm not planning on publishing any dash cam content on YouTube, so having the highest quality video was not a priority. I wanted front and back cameras with high enough quality to read the license plate of a vehicle close enough to hit me and GPS monitoring (speed/position). The wife's car spends a lot of time in a parking lot at work, so I also wanted a mode that activates the camera if the vehicle is molested while parked. A bit of shopping at Amazon turned up the highly rated REDTIGER F7N, so that's what I went with. I will not be using the parking mode for my car (more below).
NOTE: This camera is advertised as "4K," but it's not. The front camera is 2160p max, and the rear is 1080p. That pisses some people off, which is reflected in the reviews. Personally, I don't care about resolution as long as I can read a license plate. The price/performance equation for this camera was right for me. If you want a camera with high enough resolution to post pretty videos on YouTube this probably isn't the best choice.
Installation was fairly easy. I started with the rear-facing camera. It's about one-and-half cubic inches in size. The signal cable has a very narrow connector--not much wider than the cable--approximately one foot from the camera, which really simplifies installation. The camera is weather proof, so it can be mounted externally, but I decided to keep it inside. I tried a couple of different mounting locations and decided on the window frame in the rear hatch. You can use the adhesive pad that comes with the kit, but the angle of the window frame will aim the camera more toward the ground rather than back, so I fashioned an angled shelf out of a few pieces of scrap plastic and hot-glued it all together. Hot glue works to mount the camera as well, and if you decide for some reason to uninstall it the glue peels off with just a bit of effort.
The photos below show the camera hot glued in place on the fabricated shelf. After that, I used an awl to punch a hole in the rubber seal around the wiring bundle running from the hatch to the roof, then pushed the small connector through the hole. If you pull the rubber off you can see where your awl is going to avoid damaging existing wiring. It's a bit of a pain to get the seal back in place, but it's worth it to take the time so as not to damage anything. Once the cable and connector are routed through the seal, you can access the connector by peeling the rubber gasket back and pulling down on the headliner. Leave enough slack in the cable between the camera and the rubber seal so the hatch may open without putting stress on the cable. I don't believe the cable running through the seal will cause a water leak, but I'll check after I wash the car or drive in the rain. If it does leak I may have to make a hole and run the cable through the hatch seal as well. I connected the camera to the signal cable, then routed the cable along the headliner to the front window.
The camera comes with a small plastic trim tool which you can use to tuck the cable into crevices and up over the headliner. Slide the tool between the trim pieces and the headliner to create a gap, then push the cable into the gap until it's no longer visible. I would advise against pushing on the cable with the tool to avoid damaging the cable. With a little time and care the cable will be completely invisible. Take care not to push too hard into crevices over and around the passenger seat windows where the airbags are installed.
Next, I connected the power cable. The camera comes with a lighter plug for power. You can plug into the 12V outlet under the radio stack and tuck the cable behind seals and trim pieces up to the camera to keep it out of sight, but I didn't want to give up my power outlet. Instead, I purchased a hardwire kit. I got one that utilizes fuse taps to avoid any wire cutting/splicing. That means you need to pull the cover off the fuse panel under the glove box, and you need to know which fuse slot to connect to. A peek in the owner's manual showed several unused fuse slots. I wanted one that is hot only with the ignition on, and after a bit of testing I found slot 3 fits the bill (slot three is the one without a fuse in the photo below).
Although there are no components powered from slot 3, there was a 10 amp fuse installed. To use a fuse tap you pull the fuse from the slot you want to use and replace it with the fuse tap. The kit I chose allows you to retain the original fuse, so even though it powers nothing I installed the 10 amp fuse originally in slot 3 into the fuse tap. You can see the fuse tap before and after installation below.
NOTE: Parking monitoring requires a hardwire kit; you cannot use the 12V power plug. Also, you will need a different hardwire kit than the one I used. For parking monitoring the camera needs two power wires: one that comes on with ignition (switched), and another that is always hot (unswitched). Additionally, the hardwire kit control box must monitor battery voltage to prevent completely draining the battery. REDTIGER sells a kit, but the fuse taps it comes with do not include a slot for the original fuse. I don't think that would be an issue as long as you select fuse slots that are listed as "UNUSED" in the owner's manual, but I can't say for sure. Cars that use CANBUS for communication are finnicky about power connections. For the wife's car I selected a different hardwire kit that includes fuse taps allowing retention of the original fuse. As noted, slot 3 on my car provides switched power, and slot 20 is always hot. You should do your own testing on your car to validate.
After connecting the fuse tap you simply plug the power cable into the provided connector, then connect the ground to a suitable point. There's a bolt with a nut conveniently located just below the fuse box that fits the ground connector perfectly. Simply remove the nut, slide the terminal on the ground wire over the bolt, then reinstall the nut.
At that point it's just a matter of securing the wiring and routing the cable up to the camera. I used zip ties to secure the cable. The most important consideration is that the cable doesn't contact anything sharp that can wear a hole in the insulation. Power cable routing up to the camera is a bit tricky, because the gaps around the door seal and dash are a lot tighter than the headliner. Also, you will be routing the cable near the passenger front and A-pillar airbags--be careful!
You can see in the photos below the route I chose. In the first you can see the control box peeking out from behind the fuse panel cover on the left (the small black box with white writing on it). The cable runs through the cable clip and behind the trim piece between the dash and the front passenger door.
From there, you can peel the rubber door seal back and continue tucking the cable behind the dash trim. Look carefully and you can see the cable coming from under the dash next to the glove box, and running behind the dash trim piece.
At the top of the trim piece you'll go around the bottom of the A-pillar and along the gap between the A-pillar and dash. As described earlier, use the tool to carefully create a gap, then push the cable into it. This area will be a lot tighter than the headliner, so take your time.
Once you get the cable all the way to the front of the gap you can just tuck it behind the A-pillar trim. I would discourage trying to push it too far back behind the A-pillar trim because there's an airbag back there. If you can't get the cable to stay out of sight a wadded up piece of cloth or paper towel pushed in on top of it should hold it in place.
The power cable coming up the A-pillar and the rear-camera signal wire coming from the back meet at the top of the A-pillar; they will run together above the headliner over to the camera. If you zip tie them together they will be easier to manage. You can see the trim tool between the headliner and windshield in the photo below, but the gap is big and the headliner is flexible enough that you really don't need the tool. I just pushed all the excess power/signal cabling up above the headliner followed by a wadded up piece of cloth to hold it in place and prevent rattles. Leave just enough slack for the cables to connect to the camera.
There's really only one place to mount the camera; it has to be on the passenger side. You can put it up near the top of the windshield, but the housing around the car's front camera system will force you to mount the camera farther to the right. I mounted mine a bit lower, near the bottom of the plastic housing, to keep the camera as centered as possible. From the driver's seat it's almost completely hidden by the rearview mirror.
And voilà! The camera automatically turns on/off when I start and stop the engine, so the camera records front and back at all times when the car is running. The camera screen illuminates briefly when the camera first powers up, then goes black to avoid overheat. You can turn the screen on any time by touching the power button. The screen may be configured to show front, back or both camera views. You can select the file size (1-minute, 3-minute, or 5-minute loops), and as the data card gets full the oldest files are automatically overwritten. There are separate data files for the front and back cameras. If you want to protect a given loop you press the up arrow button on the right side of the camera. I checked image quality from recorded videos and I can clearly read license plates from passing cars. In the photo below you can see that the image is plenty sharp. All-in-all, an easy upgrade, and worth the $time$ to avoid a he-said-she-said situation.
EDIT: Someone requested image examples:
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