New to the site need help on commercial vehicle.

Betro81

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Guys I have a couple of big rigs, and of course I want to keep myself out of scams. Seems everyone always want to sue a trucking company. I have had 2 incidents where drivers have had accidents and supposedly the drivers were never at fault. One incident my driver was making a left turn and supposedly a car came in his lane and he gave it a small scratch. Well this gentleman sued the insurance. Officer did not put no one at fault, guy wasn't hurt. Yet he managed to sue insurance for $80,000 because he twitched his neck. To me that is messed up, and I smell scam. Since there was no proof of incident insurance went ahead a payed. So, I at least need a dash cam for sure, and side mount cameras, maybe even a rear camera. But I would need to make a box and lock the DVR. I wouldn't want drivers erasing video. The box I can get it fabricated. Just need a couple of ideas. Not looking to pay big $$$. Just something that video is clear and incase of accident video will be clear. I'll post some pictures of the type of big rigs I have.

Thank you.
 

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I'm thinking I can mount the camera on the mirror bars.
 
Welcome to the forum Betro81.
That red one :eek: you dont get that setup here in Denmark thats for sure, look pretty sweet :cool: i guess you could call that taking a dump in a big way :D
99% of trucks here is flat nosed ones as that count as part of the MAX total length, so better to have that "realestate" out back where you can make money on it.

It is hard to get side coverage of a vehicle like that without installing cameras outside, maybe on the mirrors, and out back is even harder.
For the back it almost have to be a stand alone system so you could just power it off the rear light, but then you would offcourse have to go there to retrive the memory card once in a while.
Allso out back a lot of wind and dirt is flying around, so you will have to clean the lens often, depending on the stuff you have been driving on offcourse.

For the side you could allso have a camera in each side of the cab pointed at the mirrors, that way you at least get some of what is going on down the side of the rig.

Problem is there are only a fjew dshcams with a waterproof camera, the top among those is proberly the SGZC12RC thats a camera on a wire setup with a main unit for housing the bulk of the electronics and the memorycard.
But the SGZC12RC also dont come cheap, then again none of the good worthwile dashcams are cheap.

You can get some 4 channel DVRs but those use analog cameras with resolutions so low its hard to buy a screen that can display that low resolution native.
So that route is not somthing i would recomend you, i have tried it myself in my car, and i quickly moved on to 1080p cameras.
Only real + with the analog systems is some of them house a harddrive as storage, and that way you can have several weeks of footage on it, thats not somthing you can do with the regular dashcams as they all support SD cards for storage, and big SD cards ( 128 - 256 or 512 Gb cards are pretty expensive )

Allso the dashcams are not 100% set and forget, its a good thing to retrive the memory card and inspect it once in a while to make sure what is on it match what is driven in the vehicle, allso its a good thing to format the memory card completely to "reset" the file structure on it.
Personally i think i go over my memory cards every 2 weeks or so, offcourse i dont go thru all the footage on it, just look at the time / date names of the files, and then look if the last files recorded in the sessions can be played with no problems.

Loading the files into a pice of software like registrator viewer will allso out any corrupted files, so thats a quick and easy way to do that as registrator viewer bundle up all your driving sessions into 1 large file on its own and then sound a alarm if any of the individual files have a issue.
Sad thing is the Russian author of "RV" was killed in a MC accident last year, so unless some one pick up his good work it will soon be abandonware.

PS. later this year we should see dual systems with 2 cameras on wires, and a main unit that will be easy to hide / secure, than again those will not be cheap as thats high end stuff.

This is what you will be getting with a analog DVR system with low resolution cameras. ( video at the end of me rambeling on in Danish )

This is what you get with four 1080p dashcams in a little red car.

Please note my camera in the left side was a little out of focus that day, when set the little mobius cameras are nice / "cheap" little cameras.
 
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Finding one the driver can't tamper with is not going to be easy.

I assume these trucks are working at least 10-12 hours a day? There would have to be enough memory card capacity to cover that if you don't trust the driver to push a button or do something to save the incident on the card.

If this is some sort of situation where you as the owner would be able to show up at the accident area or see the truck within a few hours of the accident, maybe I wouldn't worry about more than 4-8 hours of card capacity. You'd just tell the drivers to leave the cam alone. (Mess with it and you are fired) You'd have to format the card maybe once every month or so.

With the KW tractor pulling the dump trailer, two cameras would be OK. One facing forward from the windshield, and one in the rear cab window, facing back. The rear camera won't cover things directly behind the trailer, but will add enough coverage on the sides to the rear it will help.

I'd start with coverage to the front on both trucks.

You'd want a camera with a capacitor, preferably. I'd consider a mobius, or check what Pier28 on this site has to offer. He sells dash cams in the US and has a reputation for good support.


I drive trucks. I use various cams. I usually power them via a 12v USB hub type thing, since I also use chargers for a cell phone, tablet, etc. I use the CB power binding posts on the Peterbilt I'm driving currently to power this.

You may want to remind your drivers, if you don't have cameras in the trucks, other vehicles may have them. :)



Yes, trucks get sued after accidents no matter what happened. A cam may help with that.
 
Thanks guys for the quick reply. There are some companies that offer cameras on a month basis, but would hate to go that route. I have gps tracking system that i pay $32 a month for. I would hate to pay another $30-50 a month for camera service. I saw a couple online like this one Pyle PLCMTR104.
 
what about something like this Crimestopper SV-6827 Lip Mount CMOS Color Camera. So real quick, there are not dash cam where you can add multiple cameras too?
 
If you don't like paying $32 a month for commercial GPS tracking, I doubt you're going to like the price of a commercial dash cam system. :)


The other cameras you mention are not self contained DVR units. Some truckers even use home security cam setups in trucks, but I wouldn't personally go that route. I can't see them lasting long in a truck.

The dash cams we talk about here are self-contained units that record onto a memory card. The camera can be as small as a matchbox.


mobius.jpg

They're probably not going to do all you want they to do, or all you think they can do.




It's possible to get some coverage for your trucks for a one time purchase of $100 for each truck.
One reliable dash cam in each truck will give you 4 hours or more of coverage, and most have some button you can push to save a file segment, like after an accident.
I usually don't use the buttons, just manually save the files I need to the laptop I have in the truck.
You'll have to figure out a way to deal with making sure the driver saves the video, or making sure you can get to the truck to copy the card before it loops over.
It's probably not going to be foolproof.

These dash cams can somewhat replace the commercial stuff, but you have to be a lot more 'hands on'. I suggest you get a proven, reliable cam, and maybe try it out in your personal vehicle (if you don't drive one of the trucks) to see what is possible, and what you'll have to do to make them work in your trucks.
 
We've done a four camera setup with a mobile dvr box in one of the trucks. It's sd quality but you can get HD.ones. Uses a 2.5" ssd hard drive and we get about a month of footage.

You will want external wedge cameras for the sides and a reversing style camera for the rear. Handy to pop a 7" screen in the cab so the driver can use these cameras live as assistance when driving . Cost about £1000 all in which includes the auto electrician costs.

Do a search for MOBILE DVR. Best to find one that uses din connections as they can lock and can be weather proof. Also as they can send power and video down the same cable to the camera it makes it easier and neater.
 
Ok check this out. I don't mind buying let's say a Mobile DVR and the buying 3-4 cameras. But from what I read here is that the quality is not as great.
 
Also there was a company at a truck show I went too that supposedly offered dash cam hardware for a monthly fee. They would praise that walmarts fleet would use their equipment. If I have to pay $35 a month well it is what it is.
 
Don't think the quality will ever be as good as the dash cams, more like cctv quality, both sd and HD. But if that leasing cost includes maintenence and constant warranty cover plus fitting then it may be a better option for hassle free.

There are some now which allow you to actually view the footage remotely although at a much reduced frame rate I think.
 
The commercial ones you saw at the truck shows won't be popular with your drivers.
They usually include monitoring by the company that provides the equipment, and they look for many things, including cell phone use while driving.
Tailgating.
Speed, as determined by the inaccurate GPS location of the unit, and which road it thinks you are on, and whether or not the speed limit they have on the program for that area is accurate.
hard braking
any sudden movement, even if it's hitting a pothole.
From what I've seen of the average 'rock truck' driver in the US, I'm not sure I want a third party to have extensive insight into how my drivers, drive.
I'll assume Law Enforcement can obtain the records of the cam infractions, as well as any person suing you. (via legal action)

The companies who provide these services 'evaluate' the camera footage every time it triggers an event, and are supposed to filter out stuff that isn't important, but the drivers I have talked to who have suffered through them, say many of the 'events' are total BS. They then pass on what they think is important to the trucking company.
The camera company is in the clear if you do nothing about the 'bad' driver. They'll inform you, and keep collecting the fees. It's up to you to correct or reject the driver.


Here's a pretty infamous accident.


This guy was pulling a gas tanker, in Arizona, and watching porn on his phone as he drove. He ran over a state trooper. He had his wallet positioned in front of the interior camera to block what he was doing.

I'm not encouraging you to avoid dealing with bad drivers, or covering it up.

I hope you also use whatever cameras you end up with to make sure your drivers operate safely, not just as method to avoid lawsuits.
The lawsuits usually happen anyway. Do you really want a hard drive with up to a month of the truck activity they can subpoena?

I wouldn't keep anything for more than a day or so, (as for as bulk, unviewed files) unless you know there was a known incident (accident or otherwise) you knew was going to be a problem.
 
I don't mind wasting let's say $400 for each unit I own. So give me suggestions. I saw bullet style cameras that screw in to mirrors, the dash cam I can make like a locking housing. All I would need to do is that when truck turns on that camera automatically turns on. I know a lot of people that can fabricate stuff, I've met a lot of people throughout the years. Even if I have to buy 2 different cameras
 

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I'm back. I called a company and they said it would cost me about $1000 to have some equipment installed!!!!
 
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