Anyone have any comments about thier experiences ?
I have had three commercial systems and two "home grown" systems. All the commercial ones seem to be the same. The Voyager wasn't bad, I had the heavy duty one with the split screen.
One of the packages I bought to try out came with cameras that were listed at $200 each (which I had to buy separately) but manufactured by a Chinese company which I went to for my first set at $40 each. I later found out that many of them are less than $60 each.
I would recommend not getting those cameras with the IR (those cameras with 6 or 8 leds on the side) but get an IR floodlight that you can turn on or off - gives you better viewing. A good camera will see in low light but many of them can see when IR lighting is provided.
The homegrown systems used 12 volt computers with cheap hard drives and a cheap CCTV cards - all from eBay. They used Linux and Zoneminder software. I used an inexpensive video card to send it to the monitors, one 7 inch on the dash and another two in the sleeper. I pulled the last system out because the crappy sleeper I have sprung another leak - this time on the seem where they riveted the panel to the frame which is going to be a big thing to fix.
Will I have issues with cameras inside a reefer ?
The worst issue I had was with an enclosed commercial vehicle camera without a heater, then the door was opened, the lens cover would fog up. Because you are not running at temps below zero often, I would not worry about it.
HOWEVER I would recommend a number of LED lights in the box, maybe six to eight 3 watt lights will light up the box to illuminate the area. The heat produced from those lights will not affect the temps and are allowed under the GxP.
Lastly, does anyone have installation experiences,good or bad, to share ?
I had one company install my cameras, it was the second commercial system I bought and they ****** some of my sleeper electrical up and didn't fuse much.
I since won't let anyone touch the truck.
If you have someone do the work, make sure they do it to a standard better than installing a stereo.
Oh and the IR thing, don't be fooled by all of it - it is a good idea to have it for those cameras that are pointing down from the top of the cab to see who is at your door. BUT remember that the lighting on the IR cameras are not the greatest and from 5 feet and further, it gets weak enough not to really illuminate anything. The reason I recommend a IR floodlight is that it fills the area up well enough to see twenty feet out. They make IR LED lights, I think the last time I priced them they were $60.
