A relative of mine just acquired a customized 99' Econoline for road trips/camping, and he is a yard sale buff as well. I suggested he should get a BT(handsfree)stereo/backup cam. Of course he asked me to pick it out with my background in electronics. I picked a few head units on Crutchfield with camera inputs, many of the new stereos do not even play discs anymore, just thumb drives, I have no knowledge in B/U cams other than the one in my 2016 F150,any insight will be appreciated.
I installed a Pioneer AVG215 a couple of years ago in my Toyota Tacoma.
The backup camera I installed directly above my rear license plate frame.
It is hard wired to the head unit in the dash (plug-in) — so there is no interference when conditions are less then ideal or other electronics in the area may interfere.
It works with everything I own, and more than I have. CD, DVD, Bluetooth, iPods, iPhone, remote controlled, touch screen, iPad, MP3 players. Large screen.
An average quality B/U camera is as good as one costing 4 times as much, nowadays.
This whole unit cost me about $350 — and another $130 for (6) upgraded speakers.
B/U camera sure saves a lot of time when attaching a trailer.
There are thousands of head & camera units out there today — and I generally go with what Crutchfield or CNet offers and recommends.
This Pioneer unit and camera has been a solid and easy to navigate unit for me. You don't need to buy a unit for a ton of $$$ — just a good quality unit from a company that has a good track record for decades.
Best, Fred
That's a great idea for onea these.
Mine has the 3 rear-view mirrors only. Of course the right-side one is convex and makes the view look like everything's way back there(has the printing on it for this). But between the windshield mirror and drivers-side one, I could swear they give different distance estimations. Very confusing, because the size of objects look the same, but... I don't know, maybe it's the view—one from out the rear window, the other from the side including the ground on the left side of the vehicle, seem to produce some kinda optical illusion.