Hi. As a deliveryman of over ten years aggravated labor I was amazed at the apparent rarity here in the USA (or at least where I now live) of a device that had gotten me out of many a tight corner in my jobs back in the UK.

The Reverse parking sensor or backup camera. Taking a walk through the local Wal-Mart car park made me see that here in the country of large cars and larger Recreational vehicles (RV’s) this simple and cheap device was less in evidence than I expected in the car loving USA.

So curiosity piqued, I thought as a hobby I’d go see what was available out there to add a Backup Camera system or even a simple reversing sensor to a vehicle. Not just a RV backup camera, though I’ll get to those as well, but something that can be easily retro fitted to the family vehicle whatever its size.
In this site/blog you can see what I found as I review some of these devices that are currently available and discuss the pro’s and cons of the varios systems. I hope you’ll find the articles fun as well as informative. Where possible I’ll include a button to the best price of a given item that I have yet found. If you spot a better deal out there be sure to let me know!

So if you have a favourite item here please leave a comment or even include your own story, good and bad. If there are dud products out there we all could use the heads up!

The Tview Rv-102c is an unusually large monitor screen for what seemed at first glance a very reasonable price. While we all know that the price of consumer electronics goes down once the market is established this seemed to be a real stand out.

Its features beyond its excellent 10.2 inch screen are all you could wish for.  Twin video inputs, night vision capable camera and the device can go into a passive mode and serve as a standard interior mirror, and the thing comes with a keyring sized remote for when your parked up and fancy watching a Video before carrying on that Road trip!

The Camera unit is of a fairly standard wired design meant to affix to two of your licence plate tag holder screws. It is waterproof and has a cluster of  IR-LED’s around the 120 degree camera lens for the night use. All in all a solid if unspectacular unit that should do the job well.

But the thing that sets this apart is the price. All these features are being listed for under $130! Compared to some of the devices I’ve looked at before thats a great package deal! However technical details have yet to reach me in full so I really would like anyone that has one of these great looking little camera/screen units to leave us a comment here and let us know how well it performs in real world conditions.

But for now this is a great sounding deal and I encourage you all to take a closer look if you need a  Backup camera system for your RV or SUV

This unit has a heavy duty chrome bar for the rear  of your vehicle, that is supplied with a variety of mounting accessories (some pictured above) This makes it ideal for people that want a backup camera system but because of their vehicles configuration the traditional licence plate version is less than ideal. Owners of Jeeps and similar will know what I mean. Many of those have offset tag plates to allow for the external spare wheel.

This parking sensor backup camera  system in addition being more stylish and robust than the previous modle I reviewed has onscreen display of distance to detected obstacles along with an incremental audio tone as they are approached.  The camera itself has a 110 degree angle which is acceptable but doesn’t claim any especial low light capabilities. The items other slight down-points are that the supplied screen is only a 2.5 inch model which is a little disappointing, and that the device in not wireless but is supplied with a long direct link up cable. While this is ok as I have said before if your no beginner to Car maintenance I would have especially liked to see a wireless version of this backup camera system.

Still overall its a decent backup camera system, especially if you want a durable exterior camera. This one is pretty sturdy and while I can’t comment how well it would take a direct knock it should stand up to the wear and tear of the road better than most.

For trailer assistance its first rate position the camera and back up, the screen though smaller than some is of very good quality and many folks are reporting that its all they need to attach horseboxes, trailers (etc) single handed. One chap then had this camera repositioned so he could keep an eye on his beloved horses in transit.

So if you want versitility rather than a simple backup camera system than this is it! The batteries on it will last a long time on a single charge so it might even double as an overnight security camera while you were in your tent or cabin!

Naturelly there is (excuse the pun) one hitch… Its fairly pricey compared to some devices I have listed here, but for you money you get a tough camera and hand held (or mountable) screen. The thing has a listed range of over 300′ but from my research this really depends on conditions and as with all wireless Backup camera systems what the signal has to transmit through. Still by all accounts it does better than half that(200′) before any significant picture quality is lost.

So while not a “Classic” backup camera system like many reviewed here. This certainly is something to look at for its sheer versatility.

The price seemed fair as well at about $130, after all I thought a basic backup camera system such as the VR3 or the Winplus reviewed last time would be around $90 and Reverse parking sensor system should be about than $50, SO I though “why not?”

But it was hard as hell actually finding anything in detail about the device! Here’s what I could glean however. Essentially instead of the familiar licence plate mounted camera the device comes with a tough plastic plate that mounts behind your licence tag and sports a camera on a sliding and swiveling mount center and two ultrasonic sensors fixed at the far corners.

The usual cable hooks the device to the reversing lights and a second much longer cable is run to the forward screen. The camera is low light sensitive but has no added IR Leds to boost night time sensitivity. But then it doesn’t really need them because of the parallel Ultrasonic sensors. These have the standard audio alarm as they pick up things behind them but interestingly they also work in tandem so you get a left right middle hot zone behind the vehicle. What happens is that at intervals of about 18″ are scanned behind the car anything a foot and a half away makes a red box appear on the display camera. If the obstruction is 19 to 36″ away an amber box appears (along with the audio beep) an object is further away out to around 5′ you get a green box. I pulled an illustration of this off the manufacturers website:-

An excellent idea all round especially as the twin ultrasonic sensors are also on a swivel mount for optimum positioning. I wish the manufacturers well and eagerly await some more feed back on this ingenious device. So you know the drill if you have one please let us know here at Backup Camera Systems.net

I managed to find a copy of the devices install flysheet in pdf format as well which I repeat here. It doesn’t add too much to what I have said but at least it offers further visual guidance to the device package.

The screen is also 3.5″ wide and picture quality is good overall. The robust transmitter making sure that there is only a minimum of interference on any vehicle less than 25 feet long. The camera has a swivel mount so you can fine tune its position a little better than most and has some IR Led’s either side of the lens to assist in low light conditions. The screen is slim and light enough to be mounted pretty much any place including on a sun visor or across a little uses Air vent for example, and uses standard connectors so it can do double duty as a mini screen for a game or DVD player in a pinch.  All good solid stuff so far, however this backup camera system package has an amusing quirk that several people have reported thus far.

The screens receiver will occasionally pick up other wireless cameras all by itself as you get close to them! It doesn’t happen all the time and the signal from the supplied camera will easily override them but it struck me as funny that such an otherwise good and versatile device would have such an unexpected “feature”.

Apart from that the Winplus Wireless Back-up Camera System has few faults for the price.  If the VR3 doesn’t appeal then certainly consider this backup camera system package next.

The XO Vision RM800HT is a fine example of such. For less than a hundred bucks you get a nicely made if smallish display screen, in fact I would rate the build quality slightly better than that of the VR3 which some of you might well agree is important in a Backup camera system.  Budget or not you want a thing to last!  The camera claims a decent 110 degrees but my research tells me that you should take that with a pinch of salt.  It may be that on some vehicles you can get the full 110 but I figure that’s if your state allows you to mount a backup camera on the top of the licence tag where it’ll cover the state name partially.  Mount it on the bottom pair of bolts and expect a lessened field of view.

The camera unlike some in its cost bracket is pretty well weatherproofed an as a result I forgive any shortcoming on the field of view.  It also sports some IR LED lights which give it a basic low light/night vision capability which is always a welcome feature in any Backup camera system.

The wireless range on this device is no better than the VR3’s and as such if you install it on a large pick up or bigger vehicle you may get some signal noise, typically the system will go over to a black and white picture if this happens first. A longer aerial wire on the camera would clear this up if it becomes a problem however.

Overall its an interesting alternative to the VR3 Backup camera system. Its weatherproofing and low light rating nicely offsetting the fact its screen is smaller. For those with a large family car this backup camera system would be a real winner, small trucks and above should keep to a larger RV  Backup Camera however.

At £30 (about 45 USD) this basic screen is a steal. Obviously its pretty no frills at that price but consider what do you want to do with it? Hook it to a similarly inexpensive stand alone backup camera. Putting this together with 9 LED Day/Night Wide-Angle Waterproof Car RV Camera I looked at a while ago gives you a complete Backup camera system for less than £50! That’s way cheaper than the RAC Wireless Reverse Parking Camera that is getting the attention of late.

Of course its not Wireless in that combination and the convenience of that can’t be ignored. But still its a viable alternative to those who consider themselves a little bit handy in car DIY.

This is a small lightweight system as you can see.  But its small screen provides a pretty sharp and bright picture.  So it could be generally useful around the home as a easily portable mini screen for any number of devices. The manufacturer tosses in a UK plug style power adaptor so it can be used indoors as well as with the (supplied) auto adaptor without an fuss. A cheapie but potentially a goodie!

As you can see its designed to be affixed to the Dashboard or similar flat surface in your vehicle. The system is nicely self contained and for a 7″ screen very slim and compact. None the less It will be slightly more of a challenge to fine a home for it than the Power Acoustik display reviewed earlier.

But I feel this display unit makes up for that nominal inconvenience with some  features the other unit doesn’t have. The PLMN7SD comes with a 3-In-1 Secure Digital Card™/Multimediacard™/Memorystick® Card Reader and a Mini Usb Input as well as a standard A/V input for your backup camera or other device; as well as pretty much all the features of the Power Acoustik screen.

The price is comparable at about $90 depending where you find it (an example link is at the end of this entry as usual) So your real choice here over the other is really what is most convenient for you. While the previous system folds away nicely out of your way this in the other hand is more flexible and easily carried from one vehicle to another. As I have said before if your looking for a double duty backup camera system to use on your SUV weekdays and as your RV backup camera, weekends that’s a useful option to have.

So here is the first a 7″ display from Power Acoustik designed to fit where your regular sun visor does. I appreciated this as an option as when dealing with a Backup camera system you do not necessarily want a great big display continuously taking up space on your dashboard (unless it has some other function – like the sat nav combos) Nor did I feel that the readily available flip down DVD players were entirely suitable either. The danger their would be that while driving along there would be the temptation to look at something other than the road. And as road safety is what this site is about… probably not my best move…

So we have this device, overall its 9″x5″ in size and less than an inch deep (the screen as I said is 7″ visible) it accepts a single video input. As you can see it comes with a mini remote control rather than have controls on its fascia, this is not personally something I’d like. I hope to be able to track down something that has both a basic on panel control set as well as a remote. I am a terrible loser of remote controls and I have a fear that would happen all to swiftly with this one as well!

But apart from that the design is simple and elegant with decent brightness and quality. The main reason I include it is that as a slightly older design prices are beginning to drop and if you wanted a simple flip down display for your camera that you could later double up as a video display when you were stopped then its ideal. So I shall be checking out more modern versions from Power Acoustik ASAP to see how they have improved the breed. But for now the Power Acoustik PT-727MSV is the best value basic screen at about $90.