Even when the seat in my C6 is all the way down the mirror impinges on my view to the right in turns and curves. This is especially so if there is an uphill component to the change of direction. I live and drive in Arizona, not Nebraska, so those take place from time to time .

I'm looking into the possibility of removing the mirror completely and installing a small rear-facing dash camera in its place. The camera can be mounted a bit higher than the mirror is, and while it would still be in my field of view it would be much less intrusive than the mirror. As to size, there are several available on Amazon that fit the bill, particularly those with a cylindrical form.

The camera will have WiFi capability of sending the video signal to a surplus cell phone, which would be mounted horizontally between the visors on the bow above where the mirror is now. It, and the camera, would draw power from the existing harness (after reconfiguration) that goes to the mirror.

OnStar controls in the mirror are not an issue; I disconnected that long ago. A seat belt telltale and interior lights on the mirror can be mounted on a subpanel elsewhere or dispensed with entirely. (I own several flashlights)

Has anyone done or seen or considered an installation like this? Thoughts as to how best to do it would be appreciated. I'm not concerned with vehicle inspection/legal issues.

Pilgrim

 

 

 

Thanks for the responses.

I considered the rear license plate mount, and since I installed a GPS antenna and laser jammer back there I understand about the wiring. The issue, though, is that a license plate mount only shows me a bumper-level view. I want a view of the road behind.

Do you know of some particular problems with WiFi in this connection? The camera I'm looking at says that it streams real-time to a cellphone. Its intended use is as a forward-looking dash cam; the maker intends that the cellphone be used to record data if the user wishes, as well as show it on the screen and stream it to the Internet.

 

That sounds like a mess to me but I drive with my mirrors as well as I see out the windshield. I've got cameras out the tail in all my large vehicles and are seldom of any use to me except my tow vehicle.

 

 

Thanks for the further thoughts, Chevyrelic.

Addressing yet another reason I want to do this is that the modern use of dimmable mirrors sucks! I haven't seen one yet that works as well as the old-style lever-flip. With what I'm thinking of, the image can be dimmed on the cellphone monitor.

Below is a pic of the camera I'm thinking of; it's 3' wide by 1.2" high and deep. The button is a radio remote that triggers a 12 second recording at any time, but in the rear-view use I intend it's not an item. At $130 the camera midrange $$$ as such things go. On Amazon there's a customer video of an accident on a city street after dark; it's high-rez and very clear.

You can see that the camera body rotates in the bracket, making it possible (apparently) to stick the bracket to the windshield and then twist the camera body into the appropriate orientation to get the view you need. Naturally, I'd mock it up to find the best position on the windshield, as high as possible without losing any of the field of view to the top of the hatch. I want the best view possible of what's going on behind and a low location won't give me that.


My main area of concern is distortion by the rear glass of what the camera sees. That will have to be determined by the mockup - and if it's too much then, well, I never screwed anything up so bad I couldn't throw it away.