Backup camera and radio rack stuff

[papakb]

One of the first things I did when I got my truck was to install a backup camera because of the poor rearward visibility. I originally mounted the camera in the ambulance body but everyone wants to touch it so I relocated it down on the "D" Beam where it's out of sight. The image I get is perfect, the lump in the center is my pintle hoop which makes it reallu east when backing up to hookup the trailer. There's also a perfect hole right in the center of the beam to moount the camera in.

I wanted to combine things to keep the dash clear so I bought an old Garmin Streetpilot 7200 because it has a 7" display and an external video input so I can use it as a GPS, a backup camera, or a trip computer. I find that on sunny days glancing down at the speedometer only gives me a black hole while the Streetpilot gives me everything I want to know on the road. Mounted where it is on the "A" beam it doesn't block the road and I barely have to take my eyes off the road to read it.

I had a single mount SINCGARS set in the truck that I'd used for a couple of years and when I got my PRC-138 I modified the battery box so that it now clamps right into the same mount as the PRC-119. Now I can run either set and the only thing that I need to change is the antenna.



Original backup camera



"D" Beam camera



Streetpilot camera

 

[G3isMe]

It looks great. I had to mount my camera under the beam for clearance. I was worried about road crudd on the lense but so far that has not been an issue.