Fitting a rear view camera to an Expanda 12 - A cunning plan

[Curryhouse]

I'm keen to fit a rear view camera to our Expanda 12. I've had a look at a few forums and came across numerous posts with some very clever mods but not specifically for my van model. My preference is for a hard wired system, not a wireless one as I haven't read too many good reviews about the quality of signal. I bought a cheap system (camera and monitor) off ebay and have been considering fitting options ever since. I wanted to locate the camera at the rear top centre, drill a hole to feed video and power cables through and wire up internally. I could not find an easy access to 12VDC and routing of the video cable, either internal or external, to under the van was also problematic. One mod I saw online was a camera mounted on a post and secured to the rear bumper. Thought that was a clever idea but the bed lid on my van drops down at the rear. Thinking about a design a bit more, I thought I could still mount the post on a plate welded onto the bumper but hinge it so I can raise or lower it. So I put together a simple (read ugly) concept demonstrator shown in the following photos.

When raised, the base will butt up against a 90 deg bracket and I'll put a bolt through to secure. Cables will run down centre of pipe; I'll tap into the 12VDC wires for the number plate light. Power from this light will let me switch the camera on or off by turning on the car lights. The video cable will be zip-tied along the chassis/wiring loom. Hopefully readers haven't dozed off by now (a bit long winded I know).

I'd appreciate any comments on possible problems the 'design' may have that I have overlooked or any other possible install solutions. Thanks in advance.

 

[Brad]

Hi @Curryhouse . I have mounted my camera at the top center of the rear of the van. I also did the same mod on my last expanda also which was a 16.49.1b.
Here is how. Looking at the back of the van, pull out the small driving light on the top right hand side. There will be a lot of silicone to pry off. Then elongate with a file that hole you exposed. Be careful not to chip the top coat of fiberglass. This hole will be used to feed yellow tongue to the center of your van where you drill the hole for the camera. You need to file both holes into more of a rectangular shape to allow the yellow tongue to feed through.
Attach the camera cable to the end of the yellow tongue you fed through and gently pull the camera cable all the way through and out of the small driving light hole. Pull all the cable through.
Now unscrew and remove the right hand side brake light at the bottom right hand corner.
Feed the yellow tongue down the side from top to bottom. From memory this was tight so you may need to jiggle the yellow tongue a bit.
Pull all the cable down from top to bottom. Do not leave any remaining cable. You should now be able to re-install that top driving light.
Finally, if you get under your van you hopefully will have a small cut out section on the right hand side where all the Jayco installed cable comes through. It shouldn't be too hard to feed the cable that last bit to under the van using the same hole.
From there on, I simply followed the existing Jayco cables from the back of the van all the way to the front.

 

[Curryhouse]

@Brad, thanks for the detailed explanation. It's certainly the method I would prefer to use. Will work on removing the top RHS marker light this weekend and check for wiring access.

 

[Capt. Gadget]

Hi @Curryhouse get the power from somewhere other than the Numberplate light I too had this Cunning plan but found it caused a huge headache with some earthing problems causing my left hand side brake to drag when I had the headlights on so much so that I wore out a pair of shoes and cooked the bearings in less than 5000kms I know it sounds a bit odd but I disconnected the camera and brakes are all good now

 

[Curryhouse]

I love electrics......Not!! :doh: Had an earthing problem in my tug a few months after having the tow bar fitted. Caused the van lights to do really weird things. Checked all the globes, wiring, earthing points but could not locate the problem. Unhooked the van and when I put my foot on the brake, I received a major brake system failure warning ie pull over and stop now! Took the tug to an auto electrician and they found a bad solder connection on an earth wire in the added tow bar wiring loom. I'm a bit electrical savvy but would never have found the cause. Thanks @Capt. Gadget for the heads-up on your experience.

 

[Moto Mech]

I reacon the higher you can mount the camera the better as you get a more complete picture of whats behind you.