Safe To Hard-Wire A Dash Cam To The Fuse Box?

[DashCamOnBoard]

My last truck 2 years ago had the AC go out and the dealer (Elder Ford in Tampa) partly denied the claim. They said because I had a dash cam hard-wired to the fuse, they suspected it might have been causing the issue. They replaced a faulty part but it still wouldn’t work until they disconnected the dash cam. They covered the part under warranty, but charged for the labor.

So now on a 2023 F-150, I’ve been using the cigarette plug. So no parking mode. And the cigarette plug seems to remain hot for a good hour or so after parking, which I don’t want because it over-writes prior footage.

So now I’m upgrading a to newer, better dash cam soon with a new hard-wire kit to have parking mode, but I’m more paranoid and worried after that last experience. What’s the risk with these newer trucks? The technician at the dealer actually told me he won’t even touch the fuse box on his vehicle because they’re so much more sensitive now.

 

[Phatboy64]

You need to be careful what circuit you tap into at the fuse box. I took a different much easer route, In the overhead console there are wires for BATT and ACC, for my case they were for the tailgate release and map lights so they were harmless circuits to tap into. The hardware kit that came with my cam had inline fuses so no worries there. It made the job so much easer, i used Posi Taps (see below). In my case, 2023 RAM 3500 the fuse box is under the hood and I had no real interest in poking holes to get through the firewall. There are folks who install these all the time that will caution you on tapping into circuits and depending on how and which ones you tap into they have valid reason for concern. If your hard wire kit has inline fuses for BATT and ACC there should be no worries…


Just my 2 cents…

 

[KANNINA 2.0]

Consider a cam with an OBD-II power cable.