Dash Cams

Ok.. what model(s)? Do they have parking mode?

 

Is anybody familiar with Garmin 57? Does it have park mode?
My old Garmin 30 used to work in park mode in the big truck but not in my personal vehicle when I turned the ignition off...
I wonder if Garmin 57 will work when ignition is off on a Kenworth truck.

 

It does.

 

It has to be connected to key off power. They sell a hardwire kit that taps both an ign and bat power lead to make the park mode work. It was about $30 if I recall.

That said, the 67W in my truck is plugged into an outlet that's got battery power (always on), and park mode has worked fine with that. I'm not sure if the Garmin hardwire kit controls it better, since it does have an ign power circuit to sense key on. I bought one of the cord kits for that reason, just haven't dug in and installed it yet.

 

I seen a video on YouTube I think of a guy with a home security system like you see at COSTCO. I think he had 4 or 5 Cameras pointing in every direction and going into a hard drive. Might not be a bad idea and you could do it for under $500.

 

great idea but bad plan....

The reason is home security cameras will not last long term because the mounts and internal circuit hardware was never made to withstand vibration, bumps and bouncing of a moving truck.

Standard hard drives will fail fir the same reason unless you spend 2-3 times as much for a ssd hard drive....

 

I would suggest a system that is independent of any other electronics in your vehicle, so you can control the data. Also recommend 3 sided ( 4 if available) motion activated ( for truck stop crashes)system. In accidents involving commercial vehicles, fault, only determines how many zero's you're going to put on the check. It is preventability that is going to exonerate you.

 

Do you drive a Kenworth?
When I drove Freightliners, didn't have to hardwire anything... just plugged the dashcam into the 12v outlet and it worked 24/7.
If I start driving a Kenworth, I want to buy another dashcam that will work the same way... don't want to mess with wires and connections...

 

Diesel Boss makes a DVR kit with multiple cameras for trucks.