https://fitcamx.com/collections/toyota/products/fitcamx-dash-cam-for-all-toyota
Thought I would make a thread about my recent experience purchasing and using the FitCamX system with my 2021 Tacoma
I did loads of reading online for dash cameras (product reviews, specifications for different dash cameras, ext.) and decided I would give this one a try seeing as it would fit my needs and price point (some camera systems are crazy expensive). Hopefully this write up will help those who are also curious about this product for their truck and want to know more as I couldn’t find another thread here on TW
Heres the box everything showed up in. Item shipped to me (Canada) from China in about 10-14 days. Total cost for my set was $268 American (just over $300 Canadian at the time). This kit included the front and rear camera system with the highest level of camera recording quality that FitCamX offers
This is the front camera and housing. The camera itself is built into a replacement for the front plastic molding that sits on top of where your trucks radar sensor/TSS system is housed. This point was one of the selling features for me as the finished install of the camera system looks factory and almost forgettable, which is something I like
Heres another view of the front camera and housing. One wire is for the front camera plug in, while the other wire is for the rear camera. The wire with the white tape was for the rear camera on my setup
Heres everything else that came with my order including all the necessary plug and play wiring, rear camera, USB reader for the micro USB used in the camera system, and instructions which were ‘7/10’ easy to follow. There was also a small hand held plastic pry tool that helped a lot when it came time to hide the wires
To get started, you simply need to remove the front radar housing by pulling the whole piece down and toward the crease where your window and front dash area meet. Follow the instructions which will point out the wiring harness you need to disconnect to plug in between your stock TSS radar system and the rest of your trucks electronics. This camera system pulls power from the built in wiring for this portion of your trucks TSS system. I was concerned at first about this being a reliable and safe power source for the cameras. After doing loads of reading online and seeing other peoples experiences, I couldn’t find anyone complaining of blown fuses, check engine lights coming on, or other scary problems arising from using this system. My TSS hasn’t had any issues and is operating as normal. All the other functions that are utilized by this portion of my truck also have had no change or caused any issues
You will need to remove your stock orange clips and place them on the new camera housing so it can mount to your truck
Heres a look at everything after I had put all the necessary wires together. I added electrical tape to the connections just as an extra measure. If you are saying to yourself ‘wow that looks like a lot of wires to fit in that area’, its because it is. The organization of wires was the part of the install where the instructions fell short. The manufacturer didn’t do a great job providing direction in how to organize the excess wire for this system. My recommendation is that after you connect everything up at the front, put as little of the wiring as you can inside of the plastic molding area. I say this because it is super challenging to get the hole thing closed up if theres way to many wires inside the housing. I managed to get just the two connections inside of the housing with little to no extra wires. This is also helpful for air circulation for the unit after everything is all closed up
Here is front camera after everything is all closed up. As you can see, the SD card is accessible on the side. Its not in this photo but there are two buttons on the front face of the housing for capturing still images, as well as a power button. The camera starts up automatically every time you start the truck, but the options there if you want. There is 3 small LEDs as well on the front face the housing that will flash blue and red when recording. Your instructions will detail all this
Mounting the rear camera was a bit more tricky and was something where I think again the product overall falls short
The manufacture provides you with a sticker as well as a couple screws as pictured above. Now, I don’t no about you but I would prefer to not screw into my 60 thousand dollar trucks ceiling lining in hopes that the rear camera will hold, be straight, and function as advertised
After some head scratching and pondering the idea, I came up with something I decided would be better for my set up. I took an old measuring tape and removed the belt clip that came with it on the back
I used some mild grit sandpaper on the two ends that would be connected and used some gorilla glue epoxy to join the two pieces as shown. My idea was that the clip would slide over the end of the trucks rear head lining with the camera attached in a more non permanent/damaging way
Heres what the rear camera looks like mounted. I personally think it came out great, and the built in ability to pivot the camera up and down gave me the most advantageous angle for the set up
A bit more on organization of the wires. The kit I got came with more than enough wiring for the camera system. I ran my rear cameras wire along the top seem in between the weather stripping. I split up the excess wiring between the front and the back cabin area of the truck and tucked the remaining wires up and underneath the front and rear head lining. Theres actually quite a bit of room to store the wiring up there, and after doing so I didn’t notice any bulges or anything that shows excess wires being hid.
Is the cameras video quality so good that you can see the wings of a fly as it crosses in front of you while you’re sitting in traffic
No
Is the quality good enough to capture vehicle/pedestrian details? Absolutely. This camera system has no issues capturing the different people and vehicles you are driving around and can easily show who is who at the time of a potential accident or other unfortunate event. As for licence plates and street signs, it will capture and record these details depending on what is happening in the video. Through my research I learned that a dash cameras image quality is based between recorded frame rate and the mega pixels of the camera. The manufacture states the front camera records in 4K quality with the back being 2K if I am not mistaken. Those are some impressive numbers, but I had trouble determining the frame rate at what the images were being captured and don’t believe the end result is truly a ‘4k recording’. It is definitely a high quality recorded video, but its not like you’re watching the Christian Bales Batman series in IMax if that makes sense. Please chim in down below if you have any questions about this
The cameras phone app is super easy and user friendly. The camera system outputs it own wifi which allows you to connect your phone and review clips in the moment while the truck is on. Nice feature I think. The instructions are simple to understand for when you want to review footage on your computer. They recommend you download a specific media player (the name of it escapes me at the moment) and I have no complaints with this process
Chim in down below guys with any questions, I am happy to help. Been running the camera now for a few months
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