Where to fit a dashcam in my car?

[2000rpm]

If our laws were really so picky, half the vehicles out there would be off the road.
I could easily make a daily compilation of at least a couple of dozen vehicles falling foul of the 'don't mount on the windscreen' regs.
The worst case I've ever seen was in a small sports car (MG, mazda or similar) where the windscreen was miniscule & the driver had a satnav mounted directly in front of their face and a mobile phone mounted alongside.

Things seem to have toughened up in the last year.

My next door neighbour's car failed its MoT due to a National Trust sticker above the tax disc holder (both about 2.5"/8cm in size) but it had passed in previous years. And that's low down all the way over the opposite side of the windscreen, adjacent to the windscreen pillar.

Another neighbour failed due to a satnav stuck to the lower central portion of the windscreen.

Quite a few cars are given advisories 'had to remove (suction-mounted) objects from windscreen'. If the object is stuck I expect it would be a fail.

My wife keeps getting advisories for two 'stars' (stone ships) (<10mm) in the driver's field of view. She didn't have any trouble with a dashcam in her MoT just last week but it was high up on the passenger side of the rear view mirror; only blocking view of the sky and arguably, due to the viewing angle from the driver's seat, the line of sight goes through the unswept area of the windscreen anyway. I'll see about a picture if I get a chance later (she's out at the moment).

 

[2000rpm]

@cyrix2000

I would mount in one of the following places:

1. Close to the left of the sensors.
2. Top of dashboard (using a modified mount if necessary) but the cam will be more visible from outside the car and it may be better to have a cam which can turn its recordings upside-down.
3. 'Lens on a wire' behind the sun visor.

 

[jokiin]

I guess people generally just unclip or remove stuff off the window at MOT time, I'm sure they drive around all year using satnav and the like without issue

 

[2000rpm]

I guess people generally just unclip or remove stuff off the window at MOT time, I'm sure they drive around all year using satnav and the like without issue

Yes, that's what a lot of people do. I sometimes see self-employed van drivers with multiple gadgets (satnav, phone or two, business gadget) stuck to their windscreen in the 1cm limited area.

But I try to comply with the law because then nobody can come back at me and question whether my dashcam or other devices were potentially impairing my view of the road.
And that's why I have one of your SGZC12RC-V2 cams behind my sun visor and also why I have been trialling a JooVuu X mounted to the top of my dashboard (although the X is now looking out the rear and the Cobra 840 is back on the dash top).

Here's a picture and as far as I am aware, both cams visible are legal because one is mounted to the dash which isn't affected by windscreen laws and only affects my view of the bonnet, while the other only affects my view of the sky, doesn't intrude more than 4cm down the windscreen, and as I mostly have the sun visor in use I rarely actually have the cam in sight anyway.

 

[niko]

SGZC12RC would be ideal if mounted infront of the RVmirror rainsensor housing.
I draw "triangle space" which is free to use for installation of SGZC12RC and not be in your view.

 

[cyrix2000]

Yes that's also my favourite position to mount it. I decided to give the 0903 a try. If that isn't working out I may give up on GPS and go for the RC.

 

[niko]

Yes that's also my favourite position to mount it. I decided to give the 0903 a try. If that isn't working out I may give up on GPS and go for the RC.

Yeah, mini is also worth to try.

Found @kajmac installation in his BMW. Quite similar setup to what I am proposing to you. Also you will find comparison in size vs Mini. "Footprint" is about 1/2 smaller on RC model.

 

[cyrix2000]

This looks really quite tidy directly under the cluster

 

[niko]

This looks really quite tidy directly under the cluster

It is normal during installation process, especially when customer had to wait for his pre-order over 1 moth. It's like happy kid unwrapping a long waited Christmas gift !

 

[cyrix2000]

Do you sell cpl filters for this cam? I can see one in pier28`s shop but not in yours.

 

[jokiin]

Do you sell cpl filters for this cam? I can see one in pier28`s shop but not in yours.

they're only just becoming available now

 

[niko]

Do you sell cpl filters for this cam? I can see one in pier28`s shop but not in yours.

Nobody has it in stock yet. It's on pre-order. We got samples and testing them. No ETA when production stock arrives, but I will try to list this weekend also as "pre-order".