Off-road Camera System

[wikid]

Ok After testing my system in a local rough wash area, I cannot get the video system to mess up so I think it's ready to finalize. The picture reflects wires secured with the sound deadening. I used strips of it to stop possible wires coming loose and rattling in the headliner. The sound deadening is extremely sticky, so I doubt it will come loose. Everything else was wire tied into position

Everything in the rear is secure and the next step will be to secure the OH console and tie wires out of the way.

The DVR is now mounted in a different location so it will be easier to control it with the remote. Top of my rear Battery box is where I chose. If you look at my gear box, on my build, it fits against the battery box so you only see the carpeted boxes instead of wiring

View from the passenger front. If you look closely you will see that the DVR is actually recording

It felt good to install trim panels. It makes me feel like progress is made

Next stop, drop my truck off to I-10 upholstery, to make the headliner transition to the new monitors.
This will be more of a temporary solution, I plan on having the headliner remade after Overland Expo.2009 . Wikid's Camera system will be displayed at Total Vision Products: The new standard in mobile vision products booth

 

[wikid]

Taking matters into my own hands I will post up the headliner install
First picture is what needed to happen to get this project underway. My wife and I peeled the old skin off the headliner. It took some time and patience, but came off nicely

Presto its magic. Off with the old

The headliner color I chose was a graphite. I wanted to rich it up some, since I was changing it anyway.

The method we chose was to lay it out then fold it half over and begin spraying the headliner glue in a section at a time

The last part was where the modification was needed for my monitor pods

Since I changed my mind on colors I had to redo the monitor pods in the correct color. That took the most time since I had to pull everything down and pull all the monitor cases out to make a clean install over my custom console. It was worth the extra effort for sure.

Installed and making small adjustments on it

After taking a ride it is more quiet than it was before all the insulation.

I bought too much headliner material because I wanted to be ready for problems. 8 yards of headliner, 3 cans of headliner adhesive and 6 hours is what it took to do it from start to finish. $99.89 is what the project cost me.
My wife was a really big help on this end of the project. I am fortunate she allows me to play with my toys and humors me when I ask her opinion of my latest brainfarts

I am so glad I didn't leave it up to an incompetent shop to do this. It came out the way I wanted it to.
The jury is out on the gray accents, visors etc they actually look pretty good when you see it in person. I may or may not recover them to match the headliner
This project is pretty close to being complete. I have to put my Don box back in, the frig, the dvr and I am ready for some awesome trail video.

 

[02TahoeMD]

Many, many moons ago a friend of mine mounted up a small TV inside of his Datsun B210, and of course being young then, I was in complete awe of his creativity....I feel that same sense of awe reading your thread. You have done a great job, clever use of the cameras. Kudos on an "thinking out of the box" project! :beer:

 

[greg mgm]

Very nice work!

Out of curiosity, what monitors are you using? Size?

 

[wikid]

They are 5.6 inch Not a store brand. They are specific to Total Visions specs. Like any monitor, there are some limitations on lighting and sun, but so far I can see them all the time .
Here is one more view I forgot to include last night.

Thanks
Don

 

[HB 4X4]

Wow, amazing mod! :drool:

Will you post some pictures of how it looks while offroading?

 

[cybercat]

I saw this at the Expo. This system is fantastic.

 

[bengupta1]

Wow Don, this is great stuff!! I have been dreaming about a camera system like this, just too lazy to start on it. Wondering if its possible to take your system one step further.

I fantasize about a system that scans the rocky terrain in front of each tire, and calculates any possible "oops" events or rocks hitting the bottom of my jeep. Sort of like a sci-fi blue laser light scanning the ground continuously.

 

[Rezarf <><]

Up from the depths, I found this researching how to add a camera in the front bumper for off road and another aimed at the rear diff. I find myself exploring solo more than ever before and the added set of eyes in lieu of a spotter should free up a few more lines when solo.

The amount of work and level of detail in this setup is amazing. Bravo boss, looks amazing. Did it peform as expected? You must have 100 hours in this mod man, just awesome.

 

[dms1]

What is the lightbulb on the dash for?

 

[wikid]

Up from the depths, I found this researching how to add a camera in the front bumper for off road and another aimed at the rear diff. I find myself exploring solo more than ever before and the added set of eyes in lieu of a spotter should free up a few more lines when solo.

The amount of work and level of detail in this setup is amazing. Bravo boss, looks amazing. Did it peform as expected? You must have 100 hours in this mod man, just awesome.

Thank you. Yes I had a few hours into it. with trying to run a business and working on this system, I had about 8 1/2 weeks running around with wires pinned up and no interior, except a few seats . I loved the entire process though . I was just a snowball building, as I figured out another piece to the puzzle. It worked well, but so much can be accomplished now, with much less wiring. I really enjoyed it though and self spotted lots. The most used cameras were the rear camera and the front approach camera. Nothing like cresting a hill and being able to see over it instead of being blind . Thanks for dredging this thread up.

What is the lightbulb on the dash for?

Funny
The was one of the most asked question about my truck, back then. When this thread was brought back up, I looked at the lightbulb and laughed
The reason I had the light bulb was for the fun of it. Walking through Walmart, I happened to see this in one of the isles and thought it would be cool to just plant it on the dash. I thought I would just say I had it there if I came up with a bright idea . Sometimes I would pull the chain when I did obstacles. It always made for good radio banter

Thank

 

[wikid]

A few more finished pictures


These were pictures of the challenge I received from the very first Overland Expo is Prescott. While it was on display, someone challenged me to drive the obstacle course with my windows covered. So I did

 

[loudboy]

Nearly a decade later, and I'm trying to do something similar. Surely by now there is an off-the-shelf product that's not cheap-o ebay crap. I'd love to have a multi-camera DVR setup for safety, maneuverability, and insurance purposes.

Anybody know of a good system? I'll keep searching.