Hi Res Camera upgrade for Aux Camera on rear of trailer?

[Snooker_ML]

I've been towing a travel trailer a few months now with the ultra slick trailer camera mounted to the rear of my trailer, thanks to the trailer wiring harness kit "Trailer Sensor Kit" from Ford (please don't hijack this thread, I have it fully described HERE): https://www.f150gen14.com/forum/threads/2022-lariat-smart-trailer-tow-connector.11902/post-315605

It is awesome because it is so well integrated to the huge Sync screen on my 2023 PB Lariat. Yes it is only listed as working on a SuperDuty but it does work on my F-150.

But the resolution could be better, cars on the freeway have to be pretty close to show up.
So I'm wondering if anybody has found a way to swap out the Ford camera with an aftermarket hi (higher at least) resolution camera. I assume the screen res would be adequate for a better hi res camera. I want to use the same Ford cable, but a connector rewire and/or a new mount is fine with me?

I believe the OEM camera alone is part no HC3Z-19G490-X and runs about $62, but no specs:
https://ford.oempartsonline.com/oem-parts/ford-camera-hc3z19g490x

I've asked this company Custom Solutions PNW, because they sell Aux camera kits, but no reply yet: https://www.customsolutionspnwllc.com/shop/ford
Here is their video but I can't tell if its better from this, and no idea yet how it mates to my trailer harness connector.
Also, they refer to "an Aux Camera button", I guess it is the on-screen camera symbol with the + on the camera, which is how I switch to my rear trailer camera (it stays onscreen as long as you want). So I guess the generic Sync term is the Aux Camera that feeds into Sync from the cable harness connector behind the rear bumper:

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[HammaMan]

Bed / trailer aux cameras are NTSC. Think 20 year old 4:3 TVs. They're just poor cameras and there isn't an easy solution. Not sure why they didn't just use all IP cams given the better quality and similar price. No excuse, but ford doesn't always make sense.

 

[Snooker_ML]

Still I'm hoping for a solution, as the company I mentioned sells what they call a hi res camera with cabling to plug into the truck harness connector for the Aux camera that is behind the bumper.

 

[tcp]

Still I'm hoping for a solution, as the company I mentioned sells what they call a hi res camera with cabling to plug into the truck harness connector for the Aux camera that is behind the bumper.

Have you gotten a response from the company?

I ordered a bed cam relocate kit from them using the OEM camera and also a Y cable for the trailer cam. I just got the bumper harness for my truck today and ordered the AUX cam from them today. It looks like you'll need the Y cable from them since you already have the correct harness. The Y cable has their 4 pin camera connector to use with their AUX cam. OR their "Ford Trailer Harness Camera Plug to CSPNW Camera" I got the Y cable so I can still use my YAW sensor and use their AUX camera same time.

Had an issue with my first order and needed to exchange a part. The sales email published on their website did not work at the time but I got the owners cell number and he's been really responsive through text.

If you still have questions for him, I can check with him if he has another email address or if I can share his cell number here.

 

[tcp]

Just heard from the owner that his HI-RES camera is 1500 TVL compared to Ford's camera at 700 TVL but he said there is some issue with the F150's video processing that it will not fully push out 1500 TVL. Said that the same camera on the Super Duty produces a more noticeable clearer image.

 

[Snooker_ML]

Yes I did hear back from them. Geoffrey said he would build a couple of the simple pigtail adapter cables (the one you mentioned) and test them out. However there are some resolution limitations like you mentioned so I'm not sure enough about it to order. I guess you didn't buy the Ford OEM camera so you won't be able to do a direct comparison, but I'm gonna wait and see. Let us know how it looks.

Here are the technical details he sent to me:
"
So the Ford cameras all have a range of different TVL depending on part number. So it is hard to nail down which part number is what since Ford won't publish that information to be able to advertise that. Most seem to be in the 700 TVL range a few of them are pushing about 1200 ours is at 1500 which is about the most you can get out of analog bandwidth. The F150 will show a slight rainbow effect on some straight lines due to that higher TVL resolution. Not sure if its the IPMA or APIM on the F150 that is the bottle neck. But it likely was only designed to handle 1200tvl vs the Superduty.
"

 

[tcp]

OK here's my setup.

1. Got the bed cam relocate kit using the OEM camera mounting it inside the topper.

2. Got the Smart Trailer Y-Cable, Aux Camera, along with 3 ft, 6ft, and 30ft. The 3ft cable extends the port at the Y cable and the 6ft cable is used to mount the AUX camera at the rear top of the topper.

Review: The bed cam relocate kit is a no brainer for anyone that has a setup blocking the bed cam. The Aux cam solution from them is awesome. It makes it easy if you have multiple trailers or if you want to put the camera away when not in use. Uses Go Pro type mounts so I can slap a mount on multiple locations or trailer. The 30 ft cable I plan on installing on my travel trailer for an easy plug and play. For the moment I have it mounted at the rear 3rd brake light on the topper to "remove" that annoying black banner that Ford decided to put on the OEM rear cam. The quality of the camera video is not good or HI RES but then they did say that the F150 will have this behavior. When moving the horizontal lines is kind of blurry but not a deal breaker. You can really see the issue that they reference when stopped and a car is behind you, the license plate of the car looks scrambled.

Let me know if anyone has any questions. Thanks OP for finding this! I've been waiting over 2 years do something about my bed cam and getting a trailer cam.

 

[astrand1]

I've been towing a travel trailer a few months now with the ultra slick trailer camera mounted to the rear of my trailer, thanks to the trailer wiring harness kit "Trailer Sensor Kit" from Ford (please don't hijack this thread, I have it fully described HERE): https://www.f150gen14.com/forum/threads/2022-lariat-smart-trailer-tow-connector.11902/post-315605

It is awesome because it is so well integrated to the huge Sync screen on my 2023 PB Lariat. Yes it is only listed as working on a SuperDuty but it does work on my F-150.

But the resolution could be better, cars on the freeway have to be pretty close to show up.
So I'm wondering if anybody has found a way to swap out the Ford camera with an aftermarket hi (higher at least) resolution camera. I assume the screen res would be adequate for a better hi res camera. I want to use the same Ford cable, but a connector rewire and/or a new mount is fine with me?

I believe the OEM camera alone is part no HC3Z-19G490-X and runs about $62, but no specs:
https://ford.oempartsonline.com/oem-parts/ford-camera-hc3z19g490x

I've asked this company Custom Solutions PNW, because they sell Aux camera kits, but no reply yet: https://www.customsolutionspnwllc.com/shop/ford
Here is their video but I can't tell if its better from this, and no idea yet how it mates to my trailer harness connector.
Also, they refer to "an Aux Camera button", I guess it is the on-screen camera symbol with the + on the camera, which is how I switch to my rear trailer camera (it stays onscreen as long as you want). So I guess the generic Sync term is the Aux Camera that feeds into Sync from the cable harness connector behind the rear bumper:

So the issue isn’t weather you can get a better resolution camera. You can but the limitation is that it’s analog. The 360 cams are all coax fed so they can be hi-res. But the bed cam and trailer are analog. I’ve had the bed camera from PNW and to be honest it was worse than the oem one. And it was failing with temperature changes. So I gave up and put the oem back in.

 

[HammaMan]

Let me know if anyone has any questions. Thanks OP for finding this! I've been waiting over 2 years do something about my bed cam and getting a trailer cam.

Is the cam atop the cover for demo purposes or do you need the cam for something specific. Did you look into the signaling protocol of the camera, and did you try substituting an alternate NTSC connection to it (VCR, DVD, legacy game system). I'm guessing it's just a run of the mill NTSC signal. Thanks

 

[tcp]

Is the cam atop the cover for demo purposes or do you need the cam for something specific. Did you look into the signaling protocol of the camera, and did you try substituting an alternate NTSC connection to it (VCR, DVD, legacy game system). I'm guessing it's just a run of the mill NTSC signal. Thanks

Yeah, top cam is more for demo and since its easily removable. It does stick out. I do like that the image does not have the black block like the rear view one does when moving.

haven't really mess around with the signaling.... that's a whole another rabbit whole I'd like to avoid. With 2 young kids a wife I only get a few hours on the weekend to do whatever I want.

 

[Aron]

OK here's my setup.

1. Got the bed cam relocate kit using the OEM camera mounting it inside the topper.

2. Got the Smart Trailer Y-Cable, Aux Camera, along with 3 ft, 6ft, and 30ft. The 3ft cable extends the port at the Y cable and the 6ft cable is used to mount the AUX camera at the rear top of the topper.

Review: The bed cam relocate kit is a no brainer for anyone that has a setup blocking the bed cam. The Aux cam solution from them is awesome. It makes it easy if you have multiple trailers or if you want to put the camera away when not in use. Uses Go Pro type mounts so I can slap a mount on multiple locations or trailer. The 30 ft cable I plan on installing on my travel trailer for an easy plug and play. For the moment I have it mounted at the rear 3rd brake light on the topper to "remove" that annoying black banner that Ford decided to put on the OEM rear cam. The quality of the camera video is not good or HI RES but then they did say that the F150 will have this behavior. When moving the horizontal lines is kind of blurry but not a deal breaker. You can really see the issue that they reference when stopped and a car is behind you, the license plate of the car looks scrambled.

Let me know if anyone has any questions. Thanks OP for finding this! I've been waiting over 2 years do something about my bed cam and getting a trailer cam.

The go-pro mount is a pretty clever idea to allow you to move the AUX camera between trailers. I've permanently attached it to my travel trailer, but if I had multiple trailers, that would be a great improvement.

 

[Asvlaw]

OK here's my setup.

1. Got the bed cam relocate kit using the OEM camera mounting it inside the topper.

2. Got the Smart Trailer Y-Cable, Aux Camera, along with 3 ft, 6ft, and 30ft. The 3ft cable extends the port at the Y cable and the 6ft cable is used to mount the AUX camera at the rear top of the topper.

Review: The bed cam relocate kit is a no brainer for anyone that has a setup blocking the bed cam. The Aux cam solution from them is awesome. It makes it easy if you have multiple trailers or if you want to put the camera away when not in use. Uses Go Pro type mounts so I can slap a mount on multiple locations or trailer. The 30 ft cable I plan on installing on my travel trailer for an easy plug and play. For the moment I have it mounted at the rear 3rd brake light on the topper to "remove" that annoying black banner that Ford decided to put on the OEM rear cam. The quality of the camera video is not good or HI RES but then they did say that the F150 will have this behavior. When moving the horizontal lines is kind of blurry but not a deal breaker. You can really see the issue that they reference when stopped and a car is behind you, the license plate of the car looks scrambled.

Let me know if anyone has any questions. Thanks OP for finding this! I've been waiting over 2 years do something about my bed cam and getting a trailer cam.

I want to move my bed camera to inside my topper as well. Any tips or tricks. What parts did you use?

 

[tcp]

I want to move my bed camera to inside my topper as well. Any tips or tricks. What parts did you use?

I got the bed cam relocation kit using the OEM camera. My topper has a fold down window and sliding window so I was able fold down the window for the cable and camera to mount inside without an cable extension. If yours doesn't you'll need a longer extension cable to go under the topper to your mounting point.

Looks like its out of stock at the moment, but below is the kit mentioned.

2017-2023 Ford CHSML / Bed Camera Relocation Kit — Custom Solutions PNW LLC

 

[Christo]

I've been towing a travel trailer a few months now with the ultra slick trailer camera mounted to the rear of my trailer, thanks to the trailer wiring harness kit "Trailer Sensor Kit" from Ford (please don't hijack this thread, I have it fully described HERE): https://www.f150gen14.com/forum/threads/2022-lariat-smart-trailer-tow-connector.11902/post-315605

It is awesome because it is so well integrated to the huge Sync screen on my 2023 PB Lariat. Yes it is only listed as working on a SuperDuty but it does work on my F-150.

But the resolution could be better, cars on the freeway have to be pretty close to show up.
So I'm wondering if anybody has found a way to swap out the Ford camera with an aftermarket hi (higher at least) resolution camera. I assume the screen res would be adequate for a better hi res camera. I want to use the same Ford cable, but a connector rewire and/or a new mount is fine with me?

I believe the OEM camera alone is part no HC3Z-19G490-X and runs about $62, but no specs:
https://ford.oempartsonline.com/oem-parts/ford-camera-hc3z19g490x

I've asked this company Custom Solutions PNW, because they sell Aux camera kits, but no reply yet: https://www.customsolutionspnwllc.com/shop/ford
Here is their video but I can't tell if its better from this, and no idea yet how it mates to my trailer harness connector.
Also, they refer to "an Aux Camera button", I guess it is the on-screen camera symbol with the + on the camera, which is how I switch to my rear trailer camera (it stays onscreen as long as you want). So I guess the generic Sync term is the Aux Camera that feeds into Sync from the cable harness connector behind the rear bumper:

This is an awesome post. I do wonder if the camera is a good rear view mirror for an RV? I understand as a backup camera it is good, but I want to use it for backup and changing lanes while driving. I just bought a 2022 Lariat that has the 360 camera and the tow plus package and will buy an RV before the end of the month. I could buy a Furrion camera but I already have a screen so I prefer to use what I already have.

 

[HammaMan]

This is an awesome post. I do wonder if the camera is a good rear view mirror for an RV? I understand as a backup camera it is good, but I want to use it for backup and changing lanes while driving. I just bought a 2022 Lariat that has the 360 camera and the tow plus package and will buy an RV before the end of the month. I could buy a Furrion camera but I already have a screen so I prefer to use what I already have.

I think you'll find the trailer blinker camera view much better. The trailer camera is the same that watches the bed and has a limited field of view.

https://www.f150gen14.com/forum/threads/turn-signal-cameras.7375/#post-332368

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