Dash Cam

[StickerFab]

How do folks prevent their battery from being depleted during parking modes?

Not very well with the Blackvue and the short trips I make. I actually think I have one of the faulty batteries. Will get it checked out when we get it serviced in a couple of weeks. Too many short trips really doesn't help that out.

Blackvue does have a built in protection system to cut the camera off below a certain voltage threshold. The older models have it built into their hardwire kit versus built into the camera.

The FitcamX uses vibration sensing when in parking mode so it may not capture everything, but likely draws less power.

Thanks for the recommendations! For the Fitcamx, if I want to take the top off on a hardtop, is it difficult, is that even possible?

Brian beat me! There's a short cable on the rear camera that plugs into an extension. It can be disconnected there.

For the Blackvue I got some extensions so that one connection would be right at the bottom of the hard top. No clips needed and everything is pretty hidden.

We could probably find some universal cables to extend the FitcamX cable to the perfect length and remove the need for those clips as well.

I explain a little of the routing here..

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[Bee Bop]

I have an Echomaster Mirror. Amazon.com: EchoMaster Ford Bronco (2021-2023) Clear View HD Rearview Mirror Kit with Built-in DVR to Capture Video at Anytime (MRCHDDVRBR) : Electronics I like it because it replaces the mirror, instead of clipping on the mirror. It provides parking recording as well as a digital rear view mirror.

 

[BlueBronco]

If I am spending my own money: Blackvue
If I have Ford Pass points to burn: Thinkware

 

[Rydfree]

All of my cars have Thinkware F200 Pros.
It's not 4K but still good image quality. Haven't had any issues with any of them. Usually ~$160 on Amazon, comes with a 32GB card.

For the rear camera, double-sided tape doesn't like to stick to the plastics. I 3d printed a bigger bracket so the camera isn't affected by removing the top.

Protip: if you put a little black vinyl decal material where you mount the camera, it looks much better than exposed tape

Rear, no top

Rear, top

Oracal 651 vinyl, cut using a credit card as a template, to hide the double sided tape

I use the Thinkware from the Ford accessory page and it appears to be the same as your pic. I mounted mine in the same area but just rotated the sticky mount and stuck it to the bottom of the factory camera cover right above it. The Ford Thinkware just has a T-harness that plugs into the OBD port under the dash so install was super easy. It has a low voltage cutoff that can be adjusted to prevent battery drain as it can be set to record all the time 24/7 or just from detected incidents. It can detect motion, impacts or both. You can download the video straight to a cellphone app and format the card if you don't want to remove the SD card. Almost a year in use and it has been great. Mine is 1080P front and rear cameras but I think they have a 4k available now. I chose it since it was designed to plug right into the Ford OBD port. I also have it set to voice a "Recording has started" message when you open the door and think that helps keep service techs on their toes when I carry it in for any work ,lol.

 

[markhickok]

I have the Wolfbox and the image is spectacular. HAs front and rear cameras. It attaches to the existing rear view mirror, which is probably my only complaint (Wish it replaced the entire piece). Otherwise, I am very happy with it.

You can get an add on that replaces the mirror. That's what I did and LOVE IT.

 

[Bad_Bronco]

Hi all, I’m brand new to the Bronco community. Just bought a 2024 Big Bend and absolutely love it! I’m very intrigued with the dash cams, but wanted to know your thoughts & recommendations. Which ones are the best? Thanks!

WolfBox, Hands down. The G900 or G840. I have the G900 and love it. Use it for recording Off Road for videos, and Wolfbox comes with it's own editing software that makes it easy to use.
Has a front and rear camera, the front being a replacement for your mirror. The benefit for that is that you can pile stuff in the back for camping, and still see a complete view of the back. I also spliced into a battery pack for power, and now for parking mode it will record up to 200 HRS. no worries about the power being sucked out the main battery. check them out......

 

[duel007]

I have a Garmin Dashcam Mini 2 in both the front and the rear.

In the front i used a power adapter than goes inbetween the power connector for the mirror and the mirror itself, and gives you USB power. No running cables and turns on automatically with ignition. Best part is behind the mirror you can't see it at all.

In the back I just zip tied the cable to the washer hose and routed it down to the 12V plug back there. This also makes the camera stay active after ignition, for 30 minutes I think.

 

[bradcd]

I use an old BlackBox B40 A118. For cams like that which are USB powered, check out this adapter. Makes the install with cables very clean and simple. Not sure if there is a difference in cabling to the mirror with different trims though.

https://dongar.tech/products/16pin-ford-f150?_pos=1&_fid=b2951f8c1&_ss=c

 

[Lifeliberty]

Do you all worry about theft of the camera? My concern is leaving it in plain sight ups the chance of break in

 

[StickerFab]

Do you all worry about theft of the camera? My concern is leaving it in plain sight ups the chance of break in

To me that comes down to your location. I often take my radar detector down if I don't have the doors on. I leave the Blackvue up as it would be a PITA to setup all the time.

FitcamX looks more OEM. They may not notice it.

Wolfbox can also look pretty OEM with the straps and more so with the replacement mirror mount they have.

 

[Hemisfear]

All of my cars have Thinkware F200 Pros.
It's not 4K but still good image quality. Haven't had any issues with any of them. Usually ~$160 on Amazon, comes with a 32GB card.

For the rear camera, double-sided tape doesn't like to stick to the plastics. I 3d printed a bigger bracket so the camera isn't affected by removing the top.

Protip: if you put a little black vinyl decal material where you mount the camera, it looks much better than exposed tape

Rear, no top

Rear, top

Oracal 651 vinyl, cut using a credit card as a template, to hide the double sided tape

I have the Thinkware Q800PRO...Silicone worked great for mounting the rear camera for me...

 

[Hemisfear]

WolfBox, Hands down. The G900 or G840. I have the G900 and love it. Use it for recording Off Road for videos, and Wolfbox comes with it's own editing software that makes it easy to use.
Has a front and rear camera, the front being a replacement for your mirror. The benefit for that is that you can pile stuff in the back for camping, and still see a complete view of the back. I also spliced into a battery pack for power, and now for parking mode it will record up to 200 HRS. no worries about the power being sucked out the main battery. check them out......

Wolfbox looks amazingly similar to Autovox...

 

[DriveAllNight]

I spent way too much time researching dashcams and I ended up deciding that nothing is close to just right.

With that disclaimer out of the way, here’s why I think parking monitoring is a bad idea along with any camera that draws power when the ignition is off – or for the most part dash cams.

It will drain your battery, especially if you don’t drive enough every day – and good luck starting your car after coming home from vacation.

If you have a garage or a driveway you are so much better off with a house mounted camera pointing in that direction.

The monitoring tech has a senor that wakes up and turn the camera on based on movement, and from what I have seen, start recording after the incident happened – and what you capture afterwards is often not enough to do anything with.

The camera has to be pointing in the right direction, so a front and a rear camera with this tech and you still don’t have side protection.

Part of security monitoring is theft protection along with someone hitting your car in a lot, or jacking your cat for the platinum, Palladium and Rhodium.
But now, let’s say they see you have a camera and the little red light is on and it’s recording. Smash goes your window, or slice goes your soft top and now you have more damage, no camera, and no evidence. Unless of course you bought a camera that also backs up to the cloud, so you need a data plan and data storage and a monthly bill for something that will probably never happen.

Or you could have not bought all of that, saved all that money and if something happens to your car, the money you saved covers your deductible. And realistically, are the cops really going to find the bad guy based on your night vision dash cam pictures?

Anyway, this is the stuff that goes through my head with dash cams. The only features that matters are the picture quality, record sound, enough memory to do this, and the ability to easily move the data off the camera (which may or may not include Bluetooth or WiFi to accomplish this).

But then you get into number of cameras which brings me back to coverage.
Front, Front with interior, rear, all 3, what about side cameras? More cost, more power, more memory needed, to what end?

You could spend a lot of money with the idea that if anything ever happens you’ve got it recorded, unless of course the incident happens out of the scope of the lens. In which case you spent all this money for nothing.


What I really think the best solution is, if you want to record your travels, get a GoPro, mount it on the cool mounting point Ford provided (or get one, if your trim didn’t come with one) and you can also use it for other fun stuff outside of the car so it’s not a single purpose cost.

 

[PEGB]

I spent way too much time researching dashcams and I ended up deciding that nothing is close to just right.

With that disclaimer out of the way, here’s why I think parking monitoring is a bad idea along with any camera that draws power when the ignition is off – or for the most part dash cams.

It will drain your battery, especially if you don’t drive enough every day – and good luck stating your car after coming home from vacation.

If you have a garage or a driveway you are so much better off with a house mounted camera pointing in that direction.

The monitoring tech has a senor that wakes up and turn the camera on based on movement, and from what I have seen, start recording after the incident happened – and what you capture afterwards is often not enough to do anything with.

The camera has to be pointing in the right direction, so a front and a rear camera with this tech and you still don’t have side protection.

Part of security monitoring is theft protection along with someone hitting your car in a lot, or jacking your cat for the platinum, Palladium and Rhodium.
But now, let’s say they see you have a camera and the little red light is on and it’s recording. Smash goes your window, or slice goes your soft top and now you have more damage, no camera, and no evidence. Unless of course you bought a camera that also backs up to the cloud, so you need a data plan and data storage and a monthly bill for something that will probably never happen.

Or you could have not bought all of that, saved all that money and if something happens to your car, the money you saved covers your deductible. And realistically, are the cops really going to find the bad guy based on your night vision dash cam pictures?

Anyway, this is the stuff that goes through my head with dash cams. The only features that matters are the picture quality, record sound, enough memory to do this, and the ability to easily move the data off the camera (which may or may not include Bluetooth or WiFi to accomplish this).

But then you get into number of cameras which brings me back to coverage.
Front, Front with interior, rear, all 3, what about side cameras? More cost, more power, more memory needed, to what end?

You could spend a lot of money with the idea that if anything ever happens you’ve got it recorded, unless of course the incident happens out of the scope of the lens. In which case you spent all this money for nothing.


What I really think the best solution is, if you want to record your travels, get a GoPro, mount it on the cool mounting point Ford provided (or get one, if your trim didn’t come with one) and you can also use it for other fun stuff outside of the car so it’s not a single purpose cost.

You’ve got a lot of thought into this, and I can’t fault the conclusion you’ve come to for your use cases. I will say I read these threads because I’d like to find a camera for a use case I didn’t see you mention: In traffic. I’ve had a situation where someone ran a red light and clipped my truck. Now, fortunately for me, the person was honest and freely admitted to the authorities she was at fault. But it certainly made me think; what if she hadn’t? What if she said I ran the light? We didn’t have any witnesses. There weren’t any traffic camera’s. How do you prove who’s at fault? It’s for those situations I’d like one. An onboard witness. As to a back camera or even side camera’s, I’ve got to revert to my understanding that if you hit something, you’re at fault. So if I take a hit to the side or back, someone hit me, I didn’t hit them. Seems a bit easier to prove. Of course, I’m no lawyer, and my thoughts on that may be ignorant or ill informed. Although I do like the rear view camera options for the blocked back window scenario.

 

[Brian_B]

I thought the on-board battery management system was supposed to cut out everything (at least via the fuse panel) if the voltage got too low. You get the Deep Sleep message and what not.

I mean, if you go straight to the battery with the thing, it obviously can't save you, but if you are going through an add-a-tap on a prudent fuse connection it should.

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