Battery or hard wired dash cam?

[Louis Balfour]

Apologies if this has been done before, I am on my phone and searching isn’t that easy.

We need an inexpensive dash cam solution for a young driver. Nothing flash is required, just continuous recording to a card.

Is there a battery camera worth having or should I just call our local ICE installers?

[Cakey_]

It's incredibly easy to hardwire a dash cam.
I've done about 3 different nextbase ones, just buy the cam and a hardwire kit and follow the instructions.

[Louis Balfour]

Cakey_ said:

It's incredibly easy to hardwire a dash cam.
I've done about 3 different nextbase ones, just buy the cam and a hardwire kit and follow the instructions.

You think Nextbase is the one to get?

The only problem is that I am extremely lazy.

[Matt_E_Mulsion]

If you don't want to hardwire one, just plug in into the fag lighter socket and let the cable dangle from the dash camera down to the socket.

Personally I'd hard wire one because I like neatness, but if you want the lazy quick simple solution just plug it in.

[Louis Balfour]

Matt_E_Mulsion said:

If you don't want to hardwire one, just plug in into the fag lighter socket and let the cable dangle from the dash camera down to the socket.

Personally I'd hard wire one because I like neatness, but if you want the lazy quick simple solution just plug it in.

I'll probably buy a hard wired one from our local ICE dealer and say "please fit it before I leave".

[Cakey_]

Louis Balfour said:

Cakey_ said:

It's incredibly easy to hardwire a dash cam.
I've done about 3 different nextbase ones, just buy the cam and a hardwire kit and follow the instructions.

You think Nextbase is the one to get?

The only problem is that I am extremely lazy.

I've only done nextbase because they're the cams I've had. Instal shouldn't take any longer than an hour and that's including pulling off an A pillar to hide the wires properly.
If you don't like getting your hands dirty I can't imagine it costing much extra for someone to fit it for you.

[RazerSauber]

Go to Halfords, they'll do the lot. I've used a bunch of Nextbase units and they've always been fine. I think I had one go wrong in several thousand hours of motoring on 5 different cameras. I took the opportunity to upgrade because it was still just about in warranty. Halfords will fit them for you, quite how much they charge I'm not sure. I'd budget about an hour's labour.

[Louis Balfour]

Our most local car audio place is pushing me towards Road Angel products. This one is about £290 installed, which is about what I was expecting.

Any reason why not?

https://www.caraudiocentre.co.uk/product_m-road-an...

[nickfrog]

I bought a £40 nextbase and threaded the supplied (very long) wire through the rubber seals and to the rear cig lighter thing. Took 10mn DIY. No need to hard wire to get a neat solution.

[Louis Balfour]

nickfrog said:

I bought a £40 nextbase and threaded the supplied (very long) wire through the rubber seals and to the rear cig lighter thing. Took 10mn DIY. No need to hard wire to get a neat solution.

The rear of the cig charger, or did you plug it into the socket?

In light of why we want the camera, or one of the reasons, I think it needs to be a GPS model.

[nickfrog]

Just plugged it need. Can't you do that with a GPS version?

[Louis Balfour]

nickfrog said:

Just plugged it need. Can't you do that with a GPS version?

Probably, the two comments weren't connected.

Do your cig sockets stay live when the ignition is off?

[nickfrog]

Ok understood. No the car shuts off after 5mn so never had a battery draw.

[Dog Star]

I use these - I’ve had them in every car for at least a decade now

Suuonee USB Charger Adapter, 3A DC 12V to DC 5V Dual USB Charger Adapter Converter Module for Car Motorcycle Phone Charge https://amzn.eu/d/jayIfdm

I just wire them to an ignition switched feed (usually behind an accessory socket). I run the dashcam lead down behind the pillar trim and plug it in under the dash, all nice and neat, no cables. Since there are two outputs I either run the extra usb to the centre console/glovebox so you have a spare charging supply. In my SL I did this with a surface mount USB socket inside the glovebox, which is even neater.

[Gluggy]

Cakey_ said:

Louis Balfour said:

Cakey_ said:

It's incredibly easy to hardwire a dash cam.
I've done about 3 different nextbase ones, just buy the cam and a hardwire kit and follow the instructions.

You think Nextbase is the one to get?

The only problem is that I am extremely lazy.

I've only done nextbase because they're the cams I've had. Instal shouldn't take any longer than an hour and that's including pulling off an A pillar to hide the wires properly.
If you don't like getting your hands dirty I can't imagine it costing much extra for someone to fit it for you.

Just fitted a Nextbase 422GW and the front camera didn't take long at all, just need to think about the cable route before pulling trim off. The wiring is pretty simple too, having a multimeter will help when it comes to working out which fuses are permanent or ignition live, connected ours to a permanent one so we could use the parking mode but which is best depends on the camera and the features you want to use.

Fitting the rear camera was a bit of a mare, running it towards the back of the car involved pulling the headlining down slightly and partly unclipping back the pillar trims. The worst part was removing all the boot panels and trying to get the cable through the flexihose between the body and boot - took two of us 45mins to pull 6 inch of cable.

If you do get someone to fit it then make sure you know where and how its been connected. The in-laws had a 322GW fitted specifically for the parking mode and the installer has wired it to an ignition live buried somewhere behind the dash rather than piggybacking off a permanent live in the easy to access fusebox...

[M11rph]

If you're not confident fitting it yourself ( it really is quite straightforward) then the simple way is to go to Halfords, get a Nextbase 422GW, fitting kit and they'll fit it for another £50.

https://www.halfords.com/technology/dash-cams/next...

£14 for a memory card from the Amazon and you're done.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/SanDisk-128GB-microSDXC-a...

I've fitted a couple of dash cams with no experience and the trickiest bit by far is removing any lower trim panels, and that is still easy once you realise they are quite robust. But if you are happy to use the cig/12v socket then you are literally just pushing the cable behind the A pillar and headlining to keep it reasonably tidy.

[i4got]

M11rph said:

If you're not confident fitting it yourself ( it really is quite straightforward) then the simple way is to go to Halfords, get a Nextbase 422GW, fitting kit and they'll fit it for another £50.

https://www.halfords.com/technology/dash-cams/next...

£14 for a memory card from the Amazon and you're done.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/SanDisk-128GB-microSDXC-a...

I've fitted a couple of dash cams with no experience and the trickiest bit by far is removing any lower trim panels, and that is still easy once you realise they are quite robust. But if you are happy to use the cig/12v socket then you are literally just pushing the cable behind the A pillar and headlining to keep it reasonably tidy.

If you do go for the 422GW it's £20 cheaper at Amazon. I'm assuming Halfords won't fit one you buy elsewhere but they should price match Amazon.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07PV1Q979?tag=amz-mkt...