The popularity of dash cams seems to have increased immensely over the last couple of years, no doubt driven by the Russian YouTube videos and awareness around 'cash for cash' cons.
The range of webcams our there is mind blowing. In my daily driver, I have a Blackvue, wireless version which is probably one of the best in the market and looking at some of the captured videos, it would be hard to disagree.
My Choice
Personally, I wanted to install something that was both small and low cost. Given the fact that the car spends most of its time without the roof on, I couldn't really justify installing an expensive and visible dashcam that could be tempting to the scoundrels out there.
So, I went for the mini dash cam off Ebay, for about £20. Now, I am convinced that mine is some sort of Chinese copy, but the real version is about £60 or so on the web.
This is the one I went for. The newer versions have both GPS and a small viewing screen. Mine is the absolute basic.
Installation
The kit is very simple. It comes with a positive, a negative, a trigger wire (connected to the ACC) and photo connectors should you want to connect it up to an external monitor.
For me, the simplest place to route power from was from the feeds to the stereo, so I removed the radio, part of the dash and decided on the wire routing.
Placement
I have seem the dash cams mounted in various positions around the cabin, but after several test positioning, I decided on mounting it just behind the rear view mirror as high up the screen as possible.
Interestingly, the rear view mirror is slightly off-set to the left, which leaves plenty of room to mount the camera pretty much on the centre of the car.
Cable/ Wire Routing
Unlike 'normal' cars, it is very hard to hide the wires as it is so bare everywhere, however I decided on running the wires across the dash (ie inside the dash) to the right hand side, then tightly run it up the A pillar on the windscreen and across the top, back to the camera location in the centre.
Final Results
Once again, the end results are pretty good. I am very happy with the fact that its there, but not. I hardly notice that its there and unless you are looking for it, you will not see it.
I am pretty happy with that!!
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