Camera Prep Package and Trailer Camera

[atrimble2u]

I am up grading from a '96' GEN2 to a 2019 3500. I haul a Lance truck camper that has a backup camera. For the '96' I had to wire through the cab to a Voyager screen that I hung from the rear view mirror that displayed the back camera image, it worked well for the '96'. When I selected my 2019 I got the Trailer Camera Wiring (No Camera) option.
After taking delivery of my new truck I asked the dealer what I needed to connect the trailer camera. 6 weeks later I had to figure it out my self as there is very little from FCA on the subject of the trailer harness side of the feature. Very frustrating!

So the Auxiliary Camera Prep Package (XFQ) PN 82215833AB that came from the factory installed on my 2019 has the following description from FCA parts:

Rear View Camera, Trailer Camera Vehicle Prep Kit: Available for vehicles not equipped with Auxiliary Camera Prep Package (XQF). Requires Uconnect system with 8.4 or 12-inch screen. Prep Kit does not include trailer camera (82215770AB).

Note that with all the searching the dealer did this description is the only place this 82215770AB PN exists. Unless you read and retain the fact that the 82215833AB part points to the 82215770AB you can not find the trailer harness.

Once I noted this, I requested the dealer order the 82215770AB kit for me.
As part of the truck prep kit the 4-flat plug above the 7-round at the bumper is removed and replaced with a 12 pin round connector. Dealer was also unable to find the trailer connector for this 12 pin or the pin-out with which I could have built my own cable. With some digging around, I found that Ford has the same 12 pin connector that in their case supports not only trailer camera but also looks to support TTPMS. Could this be a new trailer wiring standard? I also found a blog where other RAM owners were fighting this issue. In the blog the 82215770AB camera kit works but the Mopar camera in the kit was a POS.

Today I received my camera kit. I would have had to do damage to my Lance to replace the existing camera with the one from the kit, that I was not looking forward to doing. I tested the Mopar camera from the kit and sure enough it was a poor camera, the existing 13 year old one on my Lance was much better and already intergraded into the Lance . I noted that the Lance camera had 5 pins and the RAM 12-pin connector from the kit also used only 5 of the 12 pins. If this is industry standard perhaps the wire colors match. RAM cable had black, white, red, green and gray. The Lance has black, white, red, and a coax. After ignoring the IMPORTANT warnings about trying to modify the RAM camera kit, do not cut, splice, solder etc. I was able to connect the Lance camera to the RAM harness and have it display on my Uconnect with much better quality than the supplied Mopar camera. BTW I connected the inner conductor from the Lance to green and the outer shield to the RAM gray wire.

I am happy that I need not deface the Lance to replace the camera, and that I am able to retain the better camera. The RAM camera kit comes with ample cables to cut, splice and solder as desired. Tomorrow I plan to do just that to adapt the Lance cable to the RAM harness and finally complete the AUX camera feature.

The feature still has two short comings in my view. 1) will not display in half screen on my 12-inch display and 2) I think I will be unable to drive with the display on full time.

Art

 

[atrimble2u]

I am up grading from a '96' GEN2 to a 2019 3500. I haul a Lance truck camper that has a backup camera. For the '96' I had to wire through the cab to a Voyager screen that I hung from the rear view mirror that displayed the back camera image, it worked well for the '96'. When I selected my 2019 I got the Trailer Camera Wiring (No Camera) option.
After taking delivery of my new truck I asked the dealer what I needed to connect the trailer camera. 6 weeks later I had to figure it out my self as there is very little from FCA on the subject of the trailer harness side of the feature. Very frustrating!

So the Auxiliary Camera Prep Package (XFQ) PN 82215833AB that came from the factory installed on my 2019 has the following description from FCA parts:

Rear View Camera, Trailer Camera Vehicle Prep Kit: Available for vehicles not equipped with Auxiliary Camera Prep Package (XQF). Requires Uconnect system with 8.4 or 12-inch screen. Prep Kit does not include trailer camera (82215770AB).

Note that with all the searching the dealer did this description is the only place this 82215770AB PN exists. Unless you read and retain the fact that the 82215833AB part points to the 82215770AB you can not find the trailer harness.

Once I noted this, I requested the dealer order the 82215770AB kit for me.
As part of the truck prep kit the 4-flat plug above the 7-round at the bumper is removed and replaced with a 12 pin round connector. Dealer was also unable to find the trailer connector for this 12 pin or the pin-out with which I could have built my own cable. With some digging around, I found that Ford has the same 12 pin connector that in their case supports not only trailer camera but also looks to support TTPMS. Could this be a new trailer wiring standard? I also found a blog where other RAM owners were fighting this issue. In the blog the 82215770AB camera kit works but the Mopar camera in the kit was a POS.

Today I received my camera kit. I would have had to do damage to my Lance to replace the existing camera with the one from the kit, that I was not looking forward to doing. I tested the Mopar camera from the kit and sure enough it was a poor camera, the existing 13 year old one on my Lance was much better and already intergraded into the Lance . I noted that the Lance camera had 5 pins and the RAM 12-pin connector from the kit also used only 5 of the 12 pins. If this is industry standard perhaps the wire colors match. RAM cable had black, white, red, green and gray. The Lance has black, white, red, and a coax. After ignoring the IMPORTANT warnings about trying to modify the RAM camera kit, do not cut, splice, solder etc. I was able to connect the Lance camera to the RAM harness and have it display on my Uconnect with much better quality than the supplied Mopar camera. BTW I connected the inner conductor from the Lance to green and the outer shield to the RAM gray wire.

I am happy that I need not deface the Lance to replace the camera, and that I am able to retain the better camera. The RAM camera kit comes with ample cables to cut, splice and solder as desired. Tomorrow I plan to do just that to adapt the Lance cable to the RAM harness and finally complete the AUX camera feature.

The feature still has two short comings in my view. 1) will not display in half screen on my 12-inch display and 2) I think I will be unable to drive with the display on full time.

Art

 

[atrimble2u]

Not so fast.

Today I went to secure all the wire harnesses, went for a drive to check it out where as before I was just sitting in the driveway. Dam if the camera stopped working! It looks like I may have killed the good Lance camera. Mopar one still works so not an issue on the truck side.

So looks like I may need to deface the Lance to install the Mopar camera, what a shame.

It may still be worth looking for a good camera that I can use but will still require defacing the Lance. I will most likely just run the cable on the outside instead of drilling holes in the Lance. Does not need to go far.

I was so happy yesterday with it working with a good camera. Oh well back to it. I really need a camera for the back view and the Mopar is working for now. If I manage to find a better camera that works for more than a couple of days I will update the thread with details.

Art

 

[lpennock]

Just a thought for you. I run my mopar camera mounted on my hitch extension. No drilling in the camper that way and I don't accidentally forget to unhook it before pulling out from under the Nothern Lite.

 

[atrimble2u]

lpennock, thanks for the suggestion, had not thought of that. But as I already have the Lance mounted camera I was hoping to integrate it with the truck.

More tinkering.

I did not kill my Lance camera. Turns out that the display, or Uconnect, does not like the camera much. When I first tested it I was stationary. As I started moving it went blue screen. So that camera is not compatible enough, sigh.

I then dismantled the water proof case of the mopar camera. Inside I find a camera with a mopar part of 68170934AI. A search on this shows that it is the same camera used for cargo view. It may also be the same one used in the tailgate. If you have ever removed your tailgate as I must do when loading the Lance, you know that there are two connectors that need to be unplugged. One has three wires and the other is a coax (2 wires). This is consistent with the five wires I seen in the trailer camera and Lance camera.

So the quality between cargo, tailgate, and trailer should be the same. Only difference if any must be due to the harness. For the trailer harness the kit provides 4 cables that may be connected together depending on length needed to reach the back of your trailer. At each connection the wires must be unbundled from the cable and fanned out to a connector. This includes opening up the coax where there is a shield around the video signal must be opened for the 2-3 inch span before it all recombines to a cable again. When I did my first testing I used as many as 3 of the 4 cables connected together. Kit indicates that 80 some feet is the max, kit comes with some 50 feet.

So faced with the fact that I could not use the Lance camera, and did not want to deface the camper, I did the following.
1) Cut the ends of one of the kit cables leaving about a 12in stub to the connector.
2) Cut the Lance camera off leaving a stub at the camera point.
3) Spliced one connector at the camera cable end intended to connect to the truck.
4) Spliced the other connector to the camera end stub.

In essence I created my own Mopar cable using the factory installed cable already installed in the Lance. I then connected to the truck 12-pin connector with kit cable and kit camera at back of my Lance. Only change I had to make to the Lance was to remove the old camera bracket and install the new on which required drilling two new small holes for the new bracket. Then took it for a test drive.

Conclusion:
I can't say the quality was better or worse as I did so many configurations, but it was acceptable for me. I am still confined to the Uconnect rules for display where you may only see the image for about 10s while driving at a speed greater than 8mph. If under 8mph and you shift you will also lose the display etc. It will all take some getting used to but I will get used to it. In my gen2 I had the image all the time and found it useful, however with all the distracted driving issues these days and trucks that are constantly trying to help you drive weather you like it or not I think I'm stuck. Progress is change.

Art