Running Power to Voyager Rear-view camera

[garybair]

Am installing a Voyager wireless rear-view camera, and working on getting power the the camera. The trailer is a 2015 international 28 (rear bed) and the mounting location of the camera will be somewhere between the upper Airstream Logo and under the center, upper clearance (running) light.

Was hoping to tap into power at the upper center clearance light. I carefully popped off the clearance light, but there is so little slack in the wires I can only lift it up about 1/2" off the shell. No room to tap into the wires there.

I called the local airstream shop, that installs the Voyagers, and they told me they don't tap into the clearance lights power, for that reason. They do mount the camera in that same spot, roughly, but they run power from inside the trailer somewhere, up the shell and to the camera. Quite laborious.

Must be something easier.

The closest power inside I have back there is at the upper cabinet (it's a rear bed model) interior lighting. Will have to look when I get home, but maybe there's a spot I can just drill directly through outside shell straight through right into that cabinet (and hope I don't hit anything important :-/ )..

Any ideas, I'm all ears. thanks,
Gary

[Lets travel]

I'm tring to do this very same thing and was hopeing to tie into the center light. Why does airstream have to make this so hard. Hope you get alot of idea's to this issue many out here would like to know.

[garybair]

I decided to bag the idea of connecting to the clearance lights. I checked all 3 and none of them had much slack in the wires. Fortunately didn’t break any of them..

So, we still mounted the camera about 4-5" below the center clearance light and tapped into power in the port-side aft closet, from the wires powering the USB charging port. The entire thing took about 3 hours, including thinking time (2 people makes it easier to pull wires) – could do it quicker knowing now what we didn’t know when we started. Perhaps this will help others..

Here's how we got the wire routed.

Note this is a rear bed (north-south bed), international serenity 28. It has a cabinet over the bed and a closet on each side.

1. Remove the sliding doors on over-bed cabinet. (they lift up and inward at the bottom)
2. Pop out the center and port-side spot lights inside the cabinet ceiling, to get some access into the space above. These just pull straight down. Careful as the springs are strong and can pinch your fingers, mouse trap style, or you can cut your fingers on the sharp edges of the light fixture, when the springs try and pull the fixture back up.
3. Removed the false ceiling in the port-side closet. 2 small Philip heads screws hold it up. Easy.
4. Using an electrician fish tape, push it up into the over-bed cabinet center spot light hole and towards the right (port-side). You can continue guiding it with your fingers through the next spot light hole, to get it up and over the cabinet side wall and into the top of the port-side closet.
5. Taped the end of some 2 conductor wire (about 15 feet long to give us plenty to work with) to the end of the fish tape, and pulled it from the port-side closet through the center spot light hole in the over-bed cabinet. We pulled a good 5’ through.
6. Next we marked the hole locations for mounting the camera bracket, centered and about 4-5” below the center clearance light. Drilled pilot holes for the 4 screws that would hold bracket down, and drilled a pilot hole then worked up to a ¾” hole in the center for the rubber grommet that comes with the voyager kit.
a. We considered using a smaller hole, and smaller grommet, but decided that we’d would keep the stock wiring harness and connectors intact, in case I need to return anything for warrantee work. The over-kill connector that comes with it requires a ¾” hole.
7. From the exterior, pushed a flexible snake with LED light on the end (I think a ¼” wooden dowel would work as well) into the center hole and on the inside had a friend guide it out of the center spot light hole in the cabinet.
8. Taped the 2 conductor wire onto the end of the snake and pulled it to the exterior right out of the center hole where camera mounts.
9. Now it was just a matter of connecting all the wires together, used heat shrink tubing on the various connections. (Don’t forget to thread it all through the camera mount bracket first!)
10. Did a temporary power up with some alligator clips to make sure the entire wiring had good continuity, no opens or shorts. Did a quick test with the display. It all worked.
11. Then pull the excess wire back into the port-side closet. (We left some slack in case we need to pull the part with stock connector out from the exterior in case we need to remove the camera for anything.)
12. Seat the grommet in the ¾” hole.
13. Used some marine sealant on the 4 holes for the camera bracket mount, which I mounted on top of the grommet. It helped push the grommet down tighter.
14. Mounted the camera into the bracket, with the supplied hex bolts.
15. Back inside, tapped into the power for the USB port, and wired in a temporary in-line switch, until I figure out where I want to put a more permanent switch..
16. It had paired right up with the display. Worked like a charm right off the bat.
17. Pushed the 2 cabinet spot lights back into their holes.
18. Reinstalled the cabinet sliding doors
19. Reattached the false ceiling in the port-side closet.
20. All done – ready for trip to the coast tomorrow for 3 nights. J Can’t wait to try it out. No more guessing what’s right behind us.. Yay!

Gary

[BAB]

I just installed my second Voyager on my trailer. First time was on a '12 28' International CCD. Second time was on a '15 Classic. In both cases, I was able to use the middle clearance light's power to run the camera. In each instance, once I unscrewed the light I was able to pull up about 3-4" of wire out of the trailer body. It was not easy to pull the wire, but it is possible, at least it was for me -- I'm batting 2 out of 2. Just wondering if you had pulled a bit harder you would have found the wire adequate. It did take some serious (but careful) tugging.

[Biomass]

Can someone send pictures of their installations. Even if just the finished camera.

[printman]

Are you guys all happy with the voyager? I've been thinking of doing this also but can't decide on which camera. Can you tell me the model of the camera? Does the length of trailer affect the wireless signal at all?

[SteveSueMac]

Here's a pic of the location of the camera (while celebrating our 31st anniversary :-) ).

Total length from trailer bumper to truck hood is roughly 50'. No problems with the wireless signal reaching that far at all - it's always 100% locked in.

It's expensive - there are cheaper options, but I'm very glad I had it installed at the Mothership while we were having some other work done. I thought I would use it pretty much just for backing up but I have it on all the time and it's a wonderful driving aid to eliminate blind spots while driving.

Good luck!

[BAB]

Here's mine. Did it in about an hour. (I did spray it silver to match the trailer.)

[SuzyHomemakr]

I went with a pair of $30 Pyle PLCM18SC License Plate Mount Rear View Backup Parking Assist Cameras from Amazon, and they work great! One on the truck, one on the Airstream. I did have to fabricate a power cord that runs along the inside of the trailer beside the video feed. The video is on my BOSS stereo in the dash. I had my installer put in a switch, so I can flip on the camera to see if I have any tailgaters.

If someone wants to duplicate my system, let me know, as I have a bunch of the compatible plugs left over.

Wow is it cool backing into a campsite in the dark, with my camera and off-road daylite backup lights! If you're camping behind me, I hope you won't be too mad when I light up the inside of your rig like an alien invasion!

[Panama Red]

Originally Posted by printman

Are you guys all happy with the voyager? I've been thinking of doing this also but can't decide on which camera. Can you tell me the model of the camera? Does the length of trailer affect the wireless signal at all?

That was my question also. Will a wireless signal at the back of a 31 footer make it up to the truck?

-Red, wanting to do this...

[dznf0g]

[SteveSueMac]

Originally Posted by Panama Red

That was my question also. Will a wireless signal at the back of a 31 footer make it up to the truck?

-Red, wanting to do this...

See post 7 above.

Steve - imitating your sign offs by promoting my posts

(How'd I do? )

[Panama Red]

Originally Posted by SteveSueMac

See post 7 above.

Steve - imitating your sign offs by promoting my posts

(How'd I do? )

Thanks! Not sure how I missed that... Self promotion and a catchy sign off? Most excellent!

-Red, running out of catchy sign offs...

[fth]

My interest too.

[garybair]

The Voyager system I just installed is a WVOS511 with WVCMS10B camera and AOM562 5.6" display.

Has worked great so far except the image on the display is Not reversed, as the literature led me to believe, and as one would expect to see when looking in a mirror. The image I see is as if I am looking out the back window of the trailer.

There must be a way to mirror it but neither the camera nor display docs say how. There is not an obvious switch nor menu. The image drives me bonk when driving as its just wrong, backwards from what to expect looking in a rearview mirror.

What's the trick to reverse the image?

My camera install looks like everyone else's, just below the center clearance light.

[printman]

I have a stupid question. If you run power off the clearance lights, won't you always have to have your lights on for the unit to work?

[BAB]

Yes. I use the parking lights.

[dznf0g]

The alternative is to run power from a circuit that is powering the camera all the time, unless the disconnect switch is off. Does that shorten the camera life? probably, IMO. I thought it out, since my rear section was off (due to body damage) at JC. I decided powering with the running lights was the way to go. JC ran the wires and drilled the shell for free for me during the panel replacement....and mounted the bracket.

[SteveSueMac]

Originally Posted by printman

I have a stupid question. If you run power off the clearance lights, won't you always have to have your lights on for the unit to work?

Not stupid at all.

Yes. If you're like me - you love doing that anyway :-)

I don't know how else you could wire it without running something to the battery - but then maybe go with a wired camera at that point.

Is there a concern about driving with the running lights on?

[Rocinante]

We added a toggle switch inside the trailer that enables us to shut off the camera. This can be helpful if you're concerned about parasitic battery drains while boondocking with the batteries connected, or about running the camera when you don't need it.