Fitting A Bike Rack to the VW Amarok – Part 2…

04 Saturday Mar 2017

Posted by Simon Barlow in Accessories, Amarok, Bike Carrier, Bike Rack, General, Modifications, Projects, VW Amarok

Tags

Bike Rack, Maintenance, Modifications, Touring, Towing, VW Amarok

OK, so now to fit the actual bike carriers onto the rack I had previously installed a couple of days ago.

We had opted for the Thule FreeRide 532 over the ProRide version. What put me off the ProRide were a couple of videos on YouTube showing just how easy it was to remove a bike supposedly locked on to the rack. The FreeRide 532 has two arms supporting the bike and offered an option for additional security…. which I’m not going to go into for obvious reasons!

I had ordered a twin pack of the FreeRide 532, unfortunately I only received one. It seems the other was lost in transit somewhere according to my enquiries with the supplier. The other thing I found out was they (or it) didn’t come with the “T” track fixings. OK so a quick trip down to my nearest Thule dealer Northwest Towbars to pick up the elusive fixings. They would remain elusive… Northwest Towbars didn’t have any in stock. Not to be out manoeuvred I’d make my own.

To the bat cave again…

I just happened to have some 2mm aircraft grade aluminium handy and cut eight 21mm x 45mm pieces. The FreeRide 532 normally has three mounting locations, but as there was an additional hole that lined up with the “T” track it would be rude not to use it! So I made four for each rack.

For the threaded bolt I had some dome head bolts handy. The width of the dome head was wide enough so it would not pull through the slot on its own so I was not relying on a 2mm think aluminium plate entirly. To hold the bolts in place I drilled a slightly undersized hole in the aluminium…

…and used my small press to force the square shoulders of the bolt through the aluminium plate to hold it in place.

The result was eight “T” track bolts. A quick dressing up on the sanding belt and fine grinding wheel to remove any rough edges finished them off.

The excess length of the bolt would be trimmed later.

Fitting the FreeRide 532 Racks

Sliding four of the newly made “T” track bolts in to the WingBars I could place the FreeRide 532 on to the bars.

I used a couple of nuts to hold the rack in place while I test fitted one of the bikes. It was a bit too tight. The swing up frame section that clamps on to the bike only partially engaged on the bike frame. The whole rack needed moving rearwards by about 10 to 15 mm.

Not a problem, as the WingBar mounting is off set laterally compared to the “T” track, reversing the bar so it faced the other way would solve this and effectively move the “T” track slot rearwards by about 20mm.

With the WingBar mounted in the other direction the bike was a perfect fit. Also it made it easier opening the end caps of the WingBar as configured the correct way round they were a bit tight against the roll bar.The next thing to address was the overhang. I still had around 50 to 60 mm of adjustment I could make to the rails of the FreeRide rack. Removing everything again and a bit of ‘adjusticating’ with a small rubber mallet soon saw the rails in the correct position. I had not been able to get the rear of the mount flush with the pickup tailgate as was my original hope, but checking with a plumb bob…

… It was still shorter than the tow ball and only about 40mm longer than the rear bumper. So the overhang wasn’t anything to worry about. Even with a bike on the rack it would be clear of the caravan in the tightest of turns. Next it was just a matter of squaring things up and tightening everything down.

I ended up locating the rack more to the side than I first planned. This was for two reasons. Firstly, once the second rack is in place it leaves me with nearly 800 mm between the two racks which will allow for the option in the the future of having the ability to install a mesh tray, ski rack, surfboard rack (we don’t ski or surf… ho hum) or slimline roof box if we ever run out of storage in the Amarok. The second reason is it will give the rear view dash cam a relatively unobscured view rearward even with two bikes on the back.

Everything torqued to the correct settings, I topped off the nuts with an additional nylon lock nut to make sure they could not vibrate loose…

… and using a Dremmel I cut off the excess thread and ground off any sharp edges. I need to find a suitable plastic or rubber push on cover for these then I can give them a quick coat of preserving grease.

One thing that I did think about was the prospect of the swing arms bouncing up and down when bikes were not on the rack. A quick rummage in my straps box produced a few of these little blue straps and a handy slot on the mounting plate seemed ideal…

… problem solved. A simple solution to something that may or may not be a problem.

So one rack fitted, all that is left is to repeat for the other side, when it arrives!

NEC Show Roundup – it’s all technical…

28 Tuesday Feb 2017

Posted by Simon Barlow in Caravan Electrics, Electrical, General, Maintenance, Modifications, Technical, Tow Vehicle, VW Amarok

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

13 Pin Plug, Caravan Electrics, Caravanning, Caravans, Maintenance, Modifications, Sterling Power, Travel Trailer, Travel Trailers

This is really a follow-up to my previous post – Smart Alternators: how they affect Caravans and Motorhomes….

While at the NEC show one of my big tasks was to get a number of technical questions answered by the industry players. One of my first stops was to Westfalia and to meet up with Rick Sykes and his colleague on the Westfalia stand. Rick is the national training manager for Westfalia and I was able to get answers to a number of questions that you have asked me and I’d not been able to answer fully. Continue reading →

Smart Alternators: how they affect Caravans and Motorhomes….

15 Wednesday Feb 2017

Posted by Simon Barlow in Accessories, Caravan Electrics, Electrical, Maintenance, Motor Home, Technical

≈ 43 Comments

Tags

Battery Charging, Caravanning, Caravans, Leisure Battery, Maintenance, Towing

I have been receiving a lot of emails over the last two or three months from people reporting issues around charging their leisure batteries after changing tow vehicles and a similar number from people who are having problems with performance of the installation of the electrical harness on their new vehicle tow bar.

I’ve spent quite a bit of time answering emails and thought I’d try to sum up what is happening. A lot of this is also going to apply to Motor Homes, especially if they have a new Euro 6 engine. Continue reading →

2017 Manchester Caravan And Motorhome Show…

19 Thursday Jan 2017

Posted by Simon Barlow in Camping & Caravan Show, General

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Caravan, Caravanning, Caravans, Travel Trailer

It doesn’t seem like 12 months since we were last here, how time flies! Each year the show seems to break the previous years attendance record (last year it was over 33,900 visitors over the four days) and I hope this year the trend continues. Held again at Event City next to the Trafford Centre its the North West’s only big caravan and motorhome show and is the opportunity for some of the biggest caravan dealers to kick the new year off with a deal or two to get the market moving. Although by all accounts this year is going to be a ‘staycation’ bonanza with more and more people choosing to holiday in the UK rather than travelling abroad.

The Caravan & Motorhome Show is on at the same time as the Travel Destinations show, but I do wonder if it might be time to split these as the two shows seem to be getting very busy and competing for space. This year the organisers have decided to open at 9:30AM on both Saturday & Sunday in order to help ease the weekend congestion.

All the main North West dealers had stands…. and all were offering show special pricing.

So what caught my eye at this show?

Well back in October last year we dithered about replacing our caravan… and decided to continue for a while with our current one as it did everything we needed it too, so I wasn’t particularly looking at caravans.

I did however want to drop by the Duvalay stand to get a couple of questions answered. We recently saw Dan Trudgian’s video about their experiences with making up beads and they had settled on a Duvalay solution, and although we have a fixed bed wondered if we could use two single’s on a fixed double bed. I managed to speak to a very busy Liz Colleran, sales and marketing director, about our options and wanted to know if two single toppers would ‘creep apart’ or generally move around. Liz told me that once put in place they tend to stay put. I did have a few other questions and Liz answered these with ease. So, the next thing is to choose the colour and get them ordered!

I did like this retro scooter…hmm would it fit in the back of the Amarok?

If you need a tool for a job, this guy will have it!

Have you checked the date on your fire extinguisher recently? Might be worth doing so and stopping off here if you need to replace it.

Sue and I would not be without our Ecocamel shower head in the caravan now.

My next stop was P F Jones. As many of you know I’m still in the process of fitting out our new tow vehicle and the last thing is a bike rack for our two bikes. My initial thoughts ware a simple rack over the Amarok’s Roll-N-Lock bed cover. However as the Amarok is so wide, it wasn’t as simple as I thought. Options for Pick-Up trucks in the UK are somewhat limited. The problem was not only the span, but the mounting points. As I wanted to mount the cross bars across the bed, the only point the bars would mount was the flat surface at the side of the Roll-N-Lock track. There were two manufacturers that made racks and bars that would fit… Yakima and Thule. Yakima manufacture a huge range of roof racks and bike carriers, unfortunately the available range is limited in Europe and although they had a solution, it meant importing it from the USA and that would prove very costly given the current exchange rate and import duty. This left Thule, however the correct mounting foot, although available in the USA (made for the Jeep Wrangler) was not available in Europe. Even contacting Thule directly, I could not buy a set in Europe. I have had to import them from the USA.

Back to the story! Looking at photos of all the bits is fine, and checking tables to confirm size is OK… but there is nothing like a hands on, pull it, push it, slide it, will it, won’t it, get up close look at something which is exactly what I could do on the P F Jones stand. I managed to talk to a young chap that works in the racks and accessories section who spent the time going through the options and how everything could be adjusted round the sports bars fitted to the Amarok. He did suggest I could take the Amarok down to their shop in Trafford Park and they could go through and check everything would fit and be in the right place before I ordered. I’ll be taking them up on that offer in the near future!

I wish all Ice Cream vans were this cool! I wonder what jingle it plays?

…and finally

My last stop was to put my head in one of our choices for a replacement caravan… It ticked most of our boxes back in October at the NEC but we were looking for a twin bed version. Unfortunately no one seems to make a twin axle, mid bath, rear twin bed caravan. Except Vanmaster of course!

Now if they only made a twin bed version of this caravan, it would be nearly perfect for us!

So that’s my little show roundup done. Nothing exciting really, it was more an intel gathering mission for me.

The show is on until Sunday 22nd January and remember it opens from 9:30AM on Saturday and Sunday. There is plenty of parking both at Event City and across the road… or you can park in the Trafford Centre.

Fit2Go Tyre Monitoring Review….

26 Monday Dec 2016

Posted by Simon Barlow in Accessories, Product Review, Reviews, Technical, TPMS

≈ 23 Comments

Tags

Caravan, Caravan Tyres, Fit2Go, RoadPro, Tow Vehicle, Towing, TPMS

A couple of weeks ago while we were at the Chapel Lane Caravan Club site Andy Harris from RoadPro came over and brought a new product for us to try. It had been launched to the caravan and motor home market at the NEC show in October and while talking to Andy at the show he introduced me to a couple of people from Fit2Go to chat about the product. I really liked the idea of it as there were no wires involved, little set-up or programming and more importantly it was easy to install the dash display in any vehicle as the unit fitted on the windscreen and was the same size as the old tax disc. No suckers…. no bean bag thingy…. no screwing mounts to the dash or finding a space to install the display. Continue reading →

Feeling Festive and Shooting a Video…

20 Tuesday Dec 2016

Posted by Simon Barlow in Accessories, Christmas Markets, Gadgets, General, Gifts

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Caravanning, Caravans, Maintenance, Touring, Tow Vehicle, Towing, travel, Travel Trailer, Travel Trailers

This time of year is great for getting away in your caravan or motor home and getting into the festive spirit. We have owned a caravan for 5 years now and every year to extend the season we have managed to take in a Christmas Market – Lincoln, Erddig, Cheltenham, Oxford, Birmingham to name a few. This year would be no exception and we had decided to re-visit Birmingham. Around the same time as we were planning this, Andy Harris, the TV presenter, owner of RoadPro and avid motorhome enthusiast had been in touch and had a product he wanted us to try out… and make a video!

Monday 12th December

We had booked in again to Chapel Lane Caravan Club site in Wythall on the outskirts of Birmingham. Its ideally located for getting into the centre of Birmingham via the car or train.

We picked up the caravan from the storage facility and set off at 10:50 for the 104 mile trip down to the site. The motorways were showing clear on the GPS. Slight delay through the roadworks on the M6, but no major holdup. Pulled into Chapel Lane Camping and Caravan site at 13.15.

Pitching the caravan is by now, a well rehearsed act… pink and blue jobs and we both get on with it. However my awning setup routine was interrupted by Sue announcing “the loo won’t flush” You can read all about that in the previous post: Flushed With Success…. Eventually.

Twinkly lights under the full moon

Tuesday 13th December

A little trip out to CAK Tanks for a spare part was the order of the day after ringing to confirm they had the part in stock. Before we set off Sue prepared the evening meal in the slow cooker (crock-pot). Sue recently ‘re-discovered’ our slow cooker and has been trying different recipes. It really is ideal for the caravan…. prepare everything in the morning, turn it on and set off for the day knowing there’s going to be a hot meal ready when we come back. Absolutely ideal for caravanning in the colder months.

We punched the address for CAK Tanks into the sat-nav and set off. It took us about 25 minutes to get there. This was our first visit to CAK and let me just say YOU GUY’S NEED A BIGGER SHOP! The existing shop was packed to the roof with products and I guess they only had a tiny percentage of what they actually stock on display and I would have loved to have spent hours browsing (and a small fortune probably) and chatting to the staff.

We arrived back at the caravan and I set to sorting out the ‘repair’…. which wasn’t really a repair, more putting right someone else’s mistake.

Wednesday 14th…. the video man cometh!

We were up fairly early to make sure everything was tidy… not that it usually isn’t, ready for Andy arriving. He was due to arrive about ten and had already got permission from the Caravan Club to shoot video on site.

Thankfully we were lucky with the weather. The previous days gloom and drizzle had given way to clear sky and in the morning bright sun. As for the video and what it was all about…. well you will just have to wait a few days but needless to say I ain’t going to win anything in the talent stakes!

Thursday 15th December

Wednesday night the temperature dropped and the fog started to appear. We were up early again and peering out of the caravan window. After our showers it still didn’t seem like daylight had arrived properly. At least it wasn’t raining. We set off a little after nine to walk the mile or so down to Wythall station to catch the 09:57 train to Moor Street station which is perfect for visiting the centre of Birmingham.

Waiting for the train at Wythall Station in the morning mist

Waiting for the train at Wythall Station in the morning gloom

Walking down New Street

Leaving the main entrance of Moor Street, if you cross over the road and climb the steps opposite it brings you out at one end of the Christmas Market on New Street and you just follow the stalls. We dropped in to a Costa Coffee to stock up on caffeine and followed the trail of stalls. The stalls run along New Street and into Victoria Square where a number of the food and drink stalls are located.

Some of the stalls in Victoria Square

From Victoria Square follow Fletchers Walk toward Centenary Square where all the Christmas Craft market stalls are located, opposite the building that houses the Library and Birmingham Repertory Theatre. (You can use the loo’s in here if required). There was an excellent stall dispensing hot cider with sloe gin… well it would seem rude not to!

The big wheel in Centenary Square next to the ice rink and library

Back at Victoria Square we partook of the first festive continental sausage… washed down with mulled wine (Sue)… and a hot chocolate with whipped creme (Me) and it wasn’t even noon yet!

We walked part way back down New Street past the stall on the other side and eventually cut across to New Street Station and the shopping malls for a spot of window shopping and in search of a late lunch.

Friday 16th December – British Motor Museum, Gaydon

Last year, our efforts to visit the British Motor Museum were shorted lived. When we arrived it was shut. Not doing any checking about opening times was down to me. If I had, I’d have discovered that there was a £1.1 Million refurbishment being undertaken. This year however, I did check and it was open (well the first floor of the ‘Collections’ centre was closed while the floor was being repaired) and after a thirty minute drive from the site we arrived spot on 10:30. It’s well worth a visit if you have any interest in British car manufacturing, however I was a little disappointed that there were not as many Land Rovers on display as I had expected… plenty of Jaguars (well it is owned by Jaguar Land Rover) but a bit thin on Landy’s. Here are a few photos rather than me waffle on….

Sue’s second favourite car

Above & Below: Laura Croft’s Tomb Raider Landy

Sue’s favourite car…. I’d better start saving!

A highlight was this 1935 Royal Winchester caravan. I managed to get a couple of photos through the windows without too much reflection. With a lot of the cars the door windows were open, and although you are asked politely not to touch the exhibits… you can almost put your head through the window for a closer look and to sniff the interiors… its surprising the memories this triggered. Unfortunately the caravan had all it’s windows firmly shut and I would have loved to have been able to at least have a closer look (and sniff) at the interior.

This did get me wondering, as we have been building caravans almost as long as we have been building cars, do we have a national collection of caravans anywhere?

On the way back we called in to Hatton Shopping Village, the place we found last year. The shops were fairly quiet as it was Friday and obviously the schools hadn’t finished for Christmas yet. There were over a dozen Christmas stalls set up outside in addition to the many specialist small shops. As it was about lunch o’clock we dropped into Spinning Jenny, the restaurant, bar and tea room. Sue opted for fish cakes and I plumped for the gammon.

However it arrived on a routed and planed scaffolding plank. My pet peeve is food served on planks, shovels, roofing slates or for that matter anything that is not a plate or something that can be suitably washed. OK I can accept a cheese board on wood, but grilled meat… unless they have a butcher’s apprentice trained to scrub a butchers block for twenty minutes with water and bleach washing up… I have a problem with it. That said… it was very nice.

As are most of our caravanning trips it had come to an end and the following day it was time to go home.

If you havent thought of using your caravan or motor home out of season, or thought about visiting a Christmas Market, start thinking about it now. Using your caravan or motor home in the winter isn’t an issue, they are all designed for all year use and have good insulation. Our tip is when you arrive put the heating on full blast and get the living space up to a comfortable temperature as quick as possible. Don’t fall into the “Keep the heating low to save gas/electric and let it warm up slowly….. use the “blast furnace” setting and get the heat into the van quickly, once it’s comfortable reduce the setting to maintain the level of warmth you are happy with.

Sites are usually quiet this time of year and you won’t have too many problems booking somewhere…. the hardest thing is deciding on which Christmas Market you want to visit… or visit two! Spend a few days at one then move on to another, that’s what caravans and motor homes were designed for, moving about. Remember you can go everywhere like a local!

OK that’s it for our travels this year, we are already looking forward to 2017 and the caravan and motor home show at Event City in Manchester in January…. then the NEC in Feb…

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Simon & Sue

Flushed With Success….. Eventually!

13 Tuesday Dec 2016

Posted by Simon Barlow in Blog updates, Caravan Electrics, Caravan Fault Finding, Caravan Servicing, General

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

Caravan, Thetford Toilet, Touring

You know there are times when I think the service industry is going down the pan.

Right… the prologue

We had driven down to Chapel Lane caravan site to do a bit of partaking of the Christmas Markets in Birmingham and to do a bit of filming with the Venerable Andy Harris of motorhome fame (more about that in the next post though!). We had set up and I was pottering round outside sorting the guy ropes for the awning or the Christmas lights, I can’t remember which, when Sue popped her head out of the door and announced with some consternation… “The toilet won’t flush”

I went in and pushed the button… yep it wouldn’t flush, no pump noise, nothing. I emerged from the bathroom and announced “The toilet won’t flush” at which point Sue gave me the “did you think I was pushing the button wrong or something” look.

Right… check the fuses first, all OK. Out came the tool bag and the multimeter. Voltage going to the loo OK… check the fuse in the bottom of the loo behind the cassette. That was OK too.

Now I don’t believe in coincidences and it just so happened a couple of weeks before the caravan had been in to Glossop Caravans to have a spot of damp sorted and they had replaced the wall board that the loo backs onto. It’s got to be that I thought and said to Sue “I’ll bet it’s when they did the damp and took the loo out”

“Give them a ring now while they are still open”

I spoke to one of the service centre receptionists and they said they would get the workshop manager to ring me back and in due course he did. After a brief conversation he assured me it was nothing they had done and if the loo was getting voltage and the fuse in the loo was OK it must be the circuit board. While he was on the phone I managed one handed to peel back the Thetford sticker on the top of the loo and extract the circuit board. A quick voltage check of the pins that connect to the motor revealed that it was zero volts when the button was pushed.

“It defiantly the circuit board then” he said.

The old circuit board top, with the new one below.

I thanked him and started thinking about our next move while answering an email from the afore mentioned Andy Harris. I just happened to say “loos not working need a new circuit board” and Andy emailed back “Try Jonathan at CAK Tanks” A quick phone call and they did have one in stock… just one. I asked them to reserve it and would pop over mid morning. CAK Tanks was only about 18 miles away and took us 30 minutes to get there. After some double checking to make sure it was the right board… Thetford had very usefully changed the part number and not told many people about it. Handily the new part number was a lot cheaper and it cost £19.36 including the non voluntary contribution to the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Now, you remember when I said I don’t believe in coincidences. For some reason I thought I’d just check the connections that Glossop Caravans service people would have disconnected.

Its easy to extract the connector through the hole in the floor of the cassette compartment and check the connections….

On checking the connections it was apparent that they had been connected the wrong way…. i.e reverse polarity!

The plug that was fitted by Thetford is designed to be connected one way, but the wiring harness in the caravan used two spade connectors that could be connected in any orientation and this time the person re-fitting the loo had a 50/50 chance of being right or wrong and in this case got it wrong. I re-connected the two space connectors the right way and went and fitted our old circuit board. It worked!

So the morel of this story is there are no such thing as coincidences and before setting out on a round trip of 36 miles and spending £19.36 on a new circuit board… check the polarity!

I think I’ll go a flush the loo again…. just because I can.

Little Things….

04 Sunday Dec 2016

Posted by Simon Barlow in Accessories, Caravan Electrics, Electrical, Maintenance, Modifications, Technical

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Tags

Caravan, Caravan Electrics, Maintenance, Modifications

One of the little things that has been on my “must do something about that” list for a while is to address the problem we have with not enough places to plug things in and charge them. When we are in the caravan in the evening the front looks like a tech gadget table top sale… Macbook Pro, WiFi router/MiFi device, two iPhones, camera battery chargers, Fitbit charger and all these needed plugging in. The 4 way surge protected power strip I put there just wasn’t cutting it any more.

It was time to do something about it. A couple of years ago Swift supplied a kit to modify the drop down TV system that was installed in a range of their caravans. Our caravan already had the upgrade, however they did supply a new piece of wood to replace the installed piece as some of the holes had moved when they upgraded the latches. Always wanting to repurpose things I thought that this could be the basis of an upgrade… not to the TV drop down but to the rear of the draw unit. I wanted to install USB charging ports but still required a couple of 240 volt sockets and a brief search on Amazon I came across what I needed. The other thing I wanted was a couple of 12 volt sockets so that I could use our 12 volt plug-in USB chargers if we were pitched off grid.

To The Bat Cave…

The build was fairly simple. I had already converted the draw top from a slide and swing open operation to a pull out so the addition was straight forward.

The top being assembled in the workshop

It was a simple matter of cutting out the two rectangular holes for the 240 volt face plates and opening up the two existing holes intended for the new latches to the right size for the 12 volt sockets. I did intend to use the same electrical fittings as are already installed in the caravan but pricing everything up it came out at nearly four times the cost of what I eventually used here.

The two 240 volt sockets are wired with 2.5mm multi-strand cable and have slim line back boxes to protect them and the 12 volt cabling is all done with crimp connections and protected with heat shrink tubing.

The whole project including installation only took me a couple of hours and made me wonder why I’d been putting it off for so long!

I didn’t want to fasten anything to the structure of the caravan so the piece seems to ‘float’ above the front sill. The wiring was all pre done in the workshop and was easy to connect up to the caravan services as we had a 240 volt and 12 volt outlets nearby in the base of the draw unit.

Plenty of room even with the blind down.

The upgrade now gives me 3 x 240 volt sockets and 6 x USB charging points plus 2 x 12 volt sockets. The space under the sockets can be used to tidy any excess charging cable away while in use.

Shopping...

Use the following bits from Amazon…

Knightsbridge SFAV7USB4MB 13 A 1G Screwless Switched Socket with 5 V DC 5.1 A Quad USB Charger with Chrome Rocker – Matt Black

Knightsbridge SF9902MB 13 A 2-Gang Screwless Switch Socket with Dual USB Charger – Matt Black with Chrome Rocker

The back boxes came from B & Q and the 12 volt sockets came from Go Outdoors caravanning section.

BlackVue Dash-Cam Fitted…

17 Thursday Nov 2016

Posted by Simon Barlow in Accessories, Dash Cam, Gadgets, General, Modifications, VW Amarok

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Dash Cam, Modifications, Tow Vehicle

A few days ago I fitted the Black Vue DR650S-2CH 16GB twin camera dash cam to the Amarok. All in all it was a vey easy install taking me less than two hours to accomplish. The longest part was actually tucking the wires in along the edge of the head liner so they can’t be seen. Helpfully Black View supply a little blue tool that helps you do this without damaging any of the interior trim. I also installed the Black Vue Power Magic PRO that allows permanent connection to the vehicles electrical system and gives you the ability to use “Parking Mode” which records continuously when you are parked with the engine off.

If you have considered a dash-cam but don’t know where to start, one of the best introductory guides to Dash Cams that I have seen is by Techmoan.com. Just click on the link to watch it. There are also dozens of dash-cam reviews on His channel.

The electrical side of add the camera was made easy by using “Add A Circuit” fuse holders. (I’ve put links to everything on Amazon at the bottom of the post) Crimp the Add A Circuit on to the correct cable on the Power Magic unit then simply identify which circuit is permanently live in the fuse box, select a fuse, pull it out and insert it into the Add A Circuit fuse holder along with a fuse of the correct rating for the Power Magic and push the Add A Circuit into the space where you removed the fuse from. You will need two as the Power Magic requires a permanent 12 volt supply and an ignition switched 12 volt supply…. and a ground of course.

From the driving position very little of the front camera can be seen.

There are several switches on the Power Magic to set before you install. The first set the minimum voltage the unit will turn the cameras off at, this stops you flattening the vehicle starter battery, the second set sets a time for the cameras to stop recording after 24 hours, 48 hours or you can set it to infinity. There are several combinations and it’s all explained in the instructions.

The rear camera is installed at the top of the window avoiding getting one of the heating elements in view.

A few installation tips….

Try to install the camera so that the lens is as central as possible so you capture as much of the road as possible.
Try to install the front camera so that the area in front of the camera is swept by the windscreen wipers so you can clear the rain.
If you install a rear view camera, try to make sure it is not positioned directly in view of one of the heating elements, but close enough so that the window is cleared when the screen heater is on.