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Where's the best place to fit a reversing camera on a van, above the doors or number plate? Any advantages / disadvantages of each? It's just for reversing and will be wired into reversing lights.
IME the rears of vans get really filthy so higher is better for a clear view.
Our old van had the camera mounted in the door handle and you couldn’t see the bumper. Current van has it mounted in the third (high) brake light and is much more useful in IMO as we need to get close to the wall when exiting the garage, closer than the parking sensors think! Bright led reversing bulbs also help
My motorhome has two, mounted high up and I can choose which camera is best via the monitor. The one for a close up view has a green line and a red line so I can choose how close I get to an obstacle. It’s a very old system but great for peace of mind and also useful to keep an eye on the bikes on the rack. Hope this helps.
Higher the better imo.
Too low and you loose perspective of the target.
I've only got parking sensors, which are in my bumper (I used to mock people who needed them to park, and then I bought an 18ft vehicle with no rear windows...)
Last week I reversed into the roof of a covered walkway in Tesco carpark as it was way too high for the sensors to notice and hit the roof of my van. Yes, I should have been paying more attention.
Anyway, point is it's not infalable. Could you have two?
I did Tesco deliveries during covid so had a significant amount of large van reversing in bad weather / tight roads etc blah blah
We had two types of camera. One up high looking down, one low and wide angle
The high looking down was significantly better for judging distance between back of van/bumper and whatever you want to avoid. You can see it perfectly birds-eye
The one lower down just looking back you had really no sense of how close to an object you were. So the looking-down definitely wins
BUT. The low down ones were super wide angle (180deg). Which came with its own unique benefit - reversing back onto a busy road off for example a drive - where you can't see out your windows because you're blocked by hedges or whatever, were a god send. So much better than opening windows and trying to hear if there is a gap and chancing it. You could literally see left/right
So if you could get both - do so! But purely for wanting a reversing camera where you can see how close your are to something - you deffo want a high on camera pointing down.
Thanks everyone, fitted it above the doors as suggested, works great!
To which van?
a high roof LWB sprinter. Although i have discovered one disadvantage of having it high, at night as its further away it doesnt pick up the light from the reversing lights as well. I'll have to have a proper test drive and see how it is. WIll mostly be used in the day anyway though.
If a high roof sprinter, this answer is a high level brake light/camera combo with bright LED reverse bulbs.
Mines high and wide angle, sees from the bumper to the horizon. I hole-sawed my high level brake housing and added a rear flood lamp that turns on in reverse, and I can also turn on via a switch when parked up/manoeuvring.
It also seems to be really effective with tailgaters...it doesn't blind as it points down but I suppose it gives the suggestion you are being watched or reminds them just how close they are!