Friendly advise to all friends here, get a dashcam

[ilikegunspdx]

just trying to make people aware that you can buy a $40-$100 dash cam and it can save you loads of trouble. Otherwise it's your word against theirs. Before we sent in the video to their insurance it was in a semi-permanent state of limbo because the at-fault party simply wouldn't answer the phone. And I have little doubt there would still be fighting and stress about it now.

Our kind of dash cam fwiw is both a rear view mirror, rearward cam, and front cam, and cost is around $80 for that one from Amazon. But that is only one kind and I have no idea if it's the best kind or anything like that. All I'm saying is make a cheap investment and get a dashcam, any dashcam that records front and back. There are possible benefits for self defense, mob situations, etc too.

The world is full of dishonest people and people with no honor. So plan accordingly. If you happen to work with honest people that's great, no need for video. But if they aren't you have a little ally working in your defense passively in the background. Just friendly advice and feel free to ignore. Thanks!

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[Alexx1401]

We have had them in all vehicles and our bikes for a long time for just the reason you stated here. They are cheap insurance. A LOT of people will blatantly cause a wreck and lie. Often if you do not have video it can be at min a PITA to get a claim settled. Few years back Wife was driving down a long winding road, double yellow, two cars showing off for each other pass her. Second car did not know he was flying into a 4 way stop at the bottom of the hill, to avoid the other cars he took a bank and rolled. When Wife went to check on him he was already telling everyone about some "other car" that caused his wreck. I called the County and they sent someone out to get a copy of the footage. I am sure they had his sign a statement saying what happened, then showed him the video and offered to let him plead guilty.

 

[kmk1012]

I've been wanting one for my vehicles but start looking at them, get confused as to what I need, then give up. Anyone have a link for a solid unit that doesn't record the driver (as I'd feel uncomfortable because I'm too dang good looking to be on camera, ask Brad Pitt). I really don't want wires, and if it's got a good rechargeable battery that I don't need to charge every day I might actually use it.

 

[Mono1]

ask Brad Pitt).

Priceless, Bro'

 

[Alexx1401]

I've been wanting one for my vehicles but start looking at them, get confused as to what I need, then give up. Anyone have a link for a solid unit that doesn't record the driver (as I'd feel uncomfortable because I'm too dang good looking to be on camera, ask Brad Pitt). I really don't want wires, and if it's got a good rechargeable battery that I don't need to charge every day I might actually use it.

Never seen one that is doing video of the driver and the road. I know a lot of ride share people use one that is but they are just using one turned into the vehicle. As for wire have not yet seen one that uses a battery. All of them seem to need a power source. You can power them with a battery like those you can use to charge a cell phone and such. If you want no wires I would buy something like a Go pro. Those do have mounts so they can be dash mounted and of course have built in battery.

 

[Flopsweat]

I've been wanting one for my vehicles but start looking at them, get confused as to what I need, then give up. Anyone have a link for a solid unit that doesn't record the driver (as I'd feel uncomfortable because I'm too dang good looking to be on camera, ask Brad Pitt). I really don't want wires, and if it's got a good rechargeable battery that I don't need to charge every day I might actually use it.

Unless you're switching between several vehicles, you're better off with a wired system. You can have one installed for about $100 - $150 plus the cost of the camera at Car Toys, Best Buy or any number of independent installers. You'll never see the wires.

 

[ilikegunspdx]

I've been wanting one for my vehicles but start looking at them, get confused as to what I need, then give up. Anyone have a link for a solid unit that doesn't record the driver (as I'd feel uncomfortable because I'm too dang good looking to be on camera, ask Brad Pitt). I really don't want wires, and if it's got a good rechargeable battery that I don't need to charge every day I might actually use it.

I wish I knew about the battery ones but I don't unfortunately. We bought ours for the primary purpose of a back up camera. I had one on another car previously that was wireless and I wasn't happy with it. It got interference from other cars and on the freeway you woudl sometimes see other peoples camera on your display as you are driving by!

Anyway the rear view camera ones have a second rear view mirror that attaches over your existing mirror. It has a front camera built in and a rear camera that you install and run a wire to the mirror. You splice the wire to your backup light if you want to use it as a backup camera. So when you shift into reverse it automatically turns on and shows you the backup lines.

Probably the single biggest benefit to me (other than recording video) is that it pretty well completely eliminates your blind spots due to wide angle camera. Drawbacks is car led lights flicker in the mirror due to frequency of the lights. Prices range from $35-$299 based mainly on resolution. They don't record in the cabin.

I just ordered this one for my pick 'em up truck which will be nice cuz with the canopy I can't see jack out of the regular rear view mirror. Also it will improve the backup camera a lot I think. The one on our car that got smashed is wolf box brand and costs a bit more sue to higher resolution. It's ability to see in the dark is pretty amazing on that one. We'll see on this new one.

I mainly chose this $50 one due to cost, reviews, and has a 33' cable for the camera. Our other one (wolfbox) is the first one shown below.

 

[ilikegunspdx]

Unless you're switching between several vehicles, you're better off with a wired system. You can have one installed for about $100 - $150 plus the cost of the camera at Car Toys, Best Buy or any number of independent installers. You'll never see the wires.

Re wires also YouTube has videos for many cars about the best way to route it. This saves you trial and error. But basically you just use little plastic lever and tuck it between headliner and mouldings/panels.

Once you do it one time it's a breeze. You don't have to remove any panels or anything (the one exception to that might be the rear hatch where you may have to remove the cover panel to route from camera to the headliner). This is the same way car toys etc does it. There is no integration into your radio/ existing screens etc for this type of mirror. You install camera, run the wire tucking behind headliner as you go, and plug into the rear view mirror. Power is either via a lighter socket or you can run to the fuse box or code reader port. You can buy a fuse with a pigtail to accept the wire or buy an adapter that plugs into the code reader port.

 

[Flopsweat]

Re wires also YouTube has videos for many cars about the best way to route it. This saves you trial and error. But basically you just use little plastic lever and tuck it between headliner and mouldings/panels.

Once you do it one time it's a breeze. You don't have to remove any panels or anything (the one exception to that might be the rear hatch where you may have to remove the cover panel to route from camera to the headliner). This is the same way car toys etc does it. There is no integration into your radio/ existing screens etc for this type of mirror. You install camera, run the wire tucking behind headliner as you go, and plug into the rear view mirror. Power is either via a lighter socket or you can run to the fuse box or code reader port. You can buy a fuse with a pigtail to accept the wire or buy an adapter that plugs into the code reader port.
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I'm just thinking if he gets confused picking a camera (no offense) he's probably not going to be doing wiring. Personally, I have a heavy duty 5V source wired to the back of my cigarette lighter, going up the A pillar to a distribution block under the headliner above the windshield. The distribution block outputs 12V and 5V so I can put another camera, or a radar detector or whatever up there with minimal effort. If I go with a high-mount rear camera, I'll put a block back there too, and I have another lighter socket in the back of the SUV to run power from.

 

[ilikegunspdx]

I'm just thinking if he gets confused picking a camera (no offense) he's probably not going to be doing wiring. Personally, I have a heavy duty 5V source wired to the back of my cigarette lighter, going up the A pillar to a distribution block under the headliner above the windshield. The distribution block outputs 12V and 5V so I can put another camera, or a radar detector or whatever up there with minimal effort. If I go with a high-mount rear camera, I'll put a block back there too, and I have another lighter socket in the back of the SUV to run power from.

Imo the best thing to do (which I would do with my truck if it's possible) is buy a $50 hood reareview mirror camera and pay the the pros to install it. Then would still be pretty low cost and no work/time involved.

However I tried this with car toys and they will only install their own cameras. Their rear view camera was junk to be honest (tiny little inset screen) and was $274 for the cheapest one plus install. The $50 Amazon cameras imo are much better. Just need to find someone who can install. I bet a window tint/stereo type independent shop woudl do it. I'm gonna check it out cuz would save a lot of time.

 

[Flopsweat]

Imo the best thing to do (which I would do with my truck if it's possible) is buy a $50 hood reareview mirror camera and pay the the pros to install it. Then would still be pretty low cost and no work/time involved.

However I tried this with car toys and they will only install their own cameras. Their rear view camera was junk to be honest (tiny little inset screen) and was $274 for the cheapest one plus install. The $50 Amazon cameras imo are much better. Just need to find someone who can install. I bet a window tint/stereo type independent shop woudl do it. I'm gonna check it out cuz would save a lot of time.

You can literally just search for "dashcam installer" and they are everywhere.

 

[made in china]

I wanted to get a dashcam for my work truck.

But my employer said no because being a municipal agency, we'd need to store all video recorded and make it available through FOIA, freedom of information act. They'd rather pay out for the rare accident than pay to manage the data.

I see crazy stuff every day, lots of near misses, I could make my own YouTube channel from the crazy crap I see during the day.

 

[kmk1012]

I'm just thinking if he gets confused picking a camera (no offense) he's probably not going to be doing wiring. Personally, I have a heavy duty 5V source wired to the back of my cigarette lighter, going up the A pillar to a distribution block under the headliner above the windshield. The distribution block outputs 12V and 5V so I can put another camera, or a radar detector or whatever up there with minimal effort. If I go with a high-mount rear camera, I'll put a block back there too, and I have another lighter socket in the back of the SUV to run power from.

It's not that I'll get confused with any wiring but I don't want to make my $80k truck look like I went to Walmart and bought the finest thing they offer. Thanks for the judgement though, really helps. I'm not afraid to spend $$$ to get a quality product, I'm just not into saving a couple dollars just because of price, I was raised smarter than that.

 

[Flopsweat]

It's not that I'll get confused with any wiring but I don't want to make my $80k truck look like I went to Walmart and bought the finest thing they offer. Thanks for the judgement though, really helps. I'm not afraid to spend $$$ to get a quality product, I'm just not into saving a couple dollars just because of price, I was raised smarter than that.

Then take it to a professional.

 

[kmk1012]

Then take it to a professional.

I'll do that, I'm sure my sons will learn lots from that.

 

[Flopsweat]

I'll do that, I'm sure my sons will learn lots from that.

I'm sorry you took offense at my saying you get confused after you said that you get confused, even though I took the effort to mention that I wasn't trying to offend. Can we move on?

 

[Mono1]

I don't want to make my $80k truck look like I went to Walmart and bought the finest thing they offer.

HEY HEY HEY! Watch it BUD!

 

[kmk1012]

I'm sorry you took offense at my saying you get confused after you said that you get confused, even though I took the effort to mention that I wasn't trying to offend. Can we move on?

A bit of a stretch and outta context to get to what you initially replied but moving on as well.

 

[Mark W.]

I drive dump truck for a paving co. The other day I was traveling towards Corvallis from the south on hwy 99. Doing about 30-35mph loaded to 104,000 or so Lbs. From a side street out at about 15mph not even slowing down for the stop sign out comes a Honda Pilot driven by a 20 something woman. As she looks at me baring down on her from about 30 yds away I lockup my trailer brakes and miss her drivers door by about 15 feet. Had my truck not had 14 disc brakes and 2 drums or had I not been looking directly forward I would have turned that Pilot and that girl into a pie pan.

I was sitting at home hours later when I get a message on the phone. I open it and its my equipment manager (the guy who oversees our 25 trucks, drivers and the mechanics) he wanted to thank me for the good job avoiding the accident. He must watch the videos at night instead of TV lol.

Had I hit her I have no doubt the video would have saves my bacon. Cause last time I was in an accident with a truck some woman hit the back three tires of my trailer as she tried to cut inside a right turn. Her insurance co threatened to go to court. So our insurance co said it was my fault and paid out. Granted a dash cam wouldn't have shown the trailer. But it couldn't have hurt.

 

[Alexx1401]

It's not that I'll get confused with any wiring but I don't want to make my $80k truck look like I went to Walmart and bought the finest thing they offer. Thanks for the judgement though, really helps. I'm not afraid to spend $$$ to get a quality product, I'm just not into saving a couple dollars just because of price, I was raised smarter than that.

Sounds like an easy work around then is a Go Pro or one of the many clones now days. They make mounts for them to go as a dashcam. Built in battery that will go a good while and easy to charge up. Also simple to just take with you when you get out so its not sitting there to be seen.