Installing a camera on my trailer...help please!

[kcgaz]

I am attempting to install a wireless backup camera on my trailer by using one of the running lights for power. When I removed the light, there was a green/white dashed wire and a white wire. As I remembered, the green/white dashed wire should be the positive wire while the white should be the negative wire. I hooked up accordingly and the lights on the rig dimmed and the wires to the camera became hot, so obviously this wasn't correct. Any guidance on this would be greatly appreciated.

[2edgesword]

My trailer was prewired for a back-up camera. I'm pretty sure the prewiring just involved splicing the wires for powering the camera into the supply lines for the running lights (no special circuitry added). I installed the back-up camera using the preinstalled wiring (cutting off adapter that was specific to the Furrion camera and splicing in the wires attached to the camera) and the camera has worked without issue and with no noticeable dimming of the trailer lights.


I'll check to see what the current draw of my camera is but I did not notice any heating of the wires as you've described. The current draw for your camera should be either shown on the camera or in the documentation that came with it. As a point of reference the current draw on a popular model Furrion camera is listed as less than/equal to 300mA so if the current draw for the camera you have is similar I would think it should not cause a problem with the running lights.

[camperdave]

First off, ALWAYS check with a multi-meter before connecting. You never know about wire colors. Always verify.

I ran a dedicated line from my +12v bus bar to the back of the trailer that goes through a relay triggered by the running lights. I used one of those cheapo clip on wire splice things on a front running light wire that was easy to get to. Only for the relay trigger though, no power draw.

[boogie_4wheel]

Use a voltmeter to determine the wire polarity, regardless of wire color used.

I cannot imagine the camera being too large of a power load compared to adding another incandescent bulb.

[sgfrye]

ndrorder wrote:
Trouble is that even wired correctly, the camera could be drawing more power from the lights than the lights can handle. Only way to find out is to get a multimeter and verify the assumed voltages with all lights (running, brake, and signals) turned on.

x2
few months back i installed furion wireless camera on factory installed bracket on our 33ft TT

there was a preinstalled white/green wire to our the running lights on TT.

i splice camera power wiring into that wire and had no problems

[ndrorder]

Trouble is that even wired correctly, the camera could be drawing more power from the lights than the lights can handle. Only way to find out is to get a multimeter and verify the assumed voltages with all lights (running, brake, and signals) turned on.

[Bumpyroad]

when I did this on my VUE the wire was so tiny that I pulled the bulb on that side to lessen the load.
bumpy