Once the preserve of Russian motorists capturing acts of onroad lunacy in hideous ice-road accidents, the dash cam has finally gone mainstream.
As the tech has improved, resolution has gone way up, handy features like GPS speed tracking have been added and prices have plummeted. A decent dash cam is now an essential bit of kit.
They can help tremendously when establishing fault for onroad incidents and can help fast-track insurance claims.
On p66 we profiled nine of the best cams on the market and took a close look at the primary features for 4WDers. Now that you’ve picked a unit that suits your needs, here’s how to hardwire it to your rig in eight easy steps so you can set and forget.
{*NOTE: Some dash cams will come with a wiring kit, these also available to purchase separately online.}
HOW TO WIRE YOUR DASH CAM
POSITION YOUR CAM: Sounds straightforward, but take a moment to try a few different positions for your cam. The most common are directly mounted to your dash, or below your rear view mirror.
It’s a good idea to mount your cam within arm’s reach of the driver’s seat and you want to ensure it’s not obstructing your view of the road.
Make sure to mount on a part of the windscreen reached by the wipers. Otherwise rain and mud splatters can obstruct recording.
FIND YOUR FUSE BOX: On the underside of your dash, on either driver’s or passenger side. You’ll be running a power cable from wherever you end up mounting your cam down to this fuse box.
ROUTE YOUR POWER CABLE: If you choose to mount your cam straight to the dash, you could go the easy route and simply run your power cable under the dash mat. For a neater installation, you can tuck the cable into the headliner around your windshield.
In some vehicles it may be necessary to remove the A-pillar cover to route the cable. This is straightforward and the cover should simply pop off and the cable can be neatly run alongside existing wires within the A-pillar.
You’ll then want to route the cable around the side and behind the rest of the interior panels down to the fuse box.
LOCATE A ‘SWITCHED’ FUSE: The fuses in your fuse box either always have power ‘constant’ or only receive power when the vehicle is switched on ‘switched’. You can check which is which by using a circuit test light or a multimeter.
You want to select a ‘switched’ fuse to connect your dash cam to, so that it automatically switches on when the vehicle is started, and switches off when you turn the vehicle off.
INSTALL ADD-A-FUSE CIRCUIT: Making sure that your vehicle is turned off and keys are removed from ignition, use a pair of pliers to remove the ‘switched’ fuse you identified earlier.
Install the fuse that you just removed into the add-a-fuse circuit in your dash cam installation kit. You then want to plug your add-a-fuse circuit into the empty spot in your fuse box that you just removed the fuse from.
WIRE TO GROUND: You now need to ground the other end of your installation wiring kit to your vehicle. There’s usually at least one obvious grounding point located nearby to the fuse box. You’ll want to remove the bolt and add the ground lug from your installation kit.
TIDY UP: With everything connected, it’s time to tidy up the job. Use a cable tie to bundle excess power cable together. Then secure wiring to a solid mounting point either up beneath the dash or behind the kick panel using more cable ties.
TEST TIME: Time to stick the key in the ignition and kick her over. If you’ve managed not to screw anything up, your new dash cam should blink to life and begin recording.
Time to refit interior panels, crack a beer, pat yourself on the back and call the missus over to admire your handy work.
