Dash Cam

So I got into a minor fender bender this weekend.

We were both turning left in a double left lane and the person that hit me crossed her lane and hit me in the rear wheel. Not much damage to my truck and it messed up her fender.

Now she is claiming that it was me that crossed the line and hit her. I'm hoping I can prove that she hit me by showing the damage on her front bumper and that I was hit in the wheel... With that being said I still can not prove what lane I was in. So it got me thinking about installing a permanent Dash Cam.

I would like some thing that when I turn the truck on it just starts recording. Some thing brain dead to use. When It gets full It just starts recording over old data. I want to go way simple.

I would also like to know who else is using a Dash cam and what your set up is.

 

Guarantee the day you install the dash cam you will never get in to another fender bender again.. murphee's law : )

 

Isn't that enough reason to get one installed???

 

Ummm if she hit you in the back, that means she was behind you and could see you. Wouldn't that fall under the same rules as if she rear-ended you? Best of luck for ya man...

Found something on Newegg...

Seems simple and effective.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA0U008M6430

 

i saw a HPD Patrol car with a go-pro as a dash cam the other day.

 

I'm looking at putting in the these in the wifes 4R and my Tacoma:
http://stuntcams.com/shop/dash-came....html?osCsid=3cc72abe6decc56ae6572e4a6bee4ca9

Auto On and Loops like you want.

I might run my Go Pro for a while and see how it works...but without the auto on....Not real sure how great it'll be.

 

That one looks okay, I'll need to read up on it and read some reviews. The only thing I don't like about it is that it looks like a radar detector.
I was also thinking of going with the Go pro, If I left it mounted in the truck I'm sure it would get stolen.

I think I am leaning to this one

SMARTY BX1000 PLUS 170 Smart Black Box Car Drive Recorder

http://www.amazon.com/SMARTY-BX1000...UTF8&qid=1352989896&sr=1-12&keywords=Dash+cam

It looks like it is small enough just to fit on the back side of the mirror and be out of the way.

 

I like the name. "Stuntcam" Makes me wonder what kind of chase scenes we will see from your wife's car.

 

Good luck with the insurance nightmare. I have been thru this headache many years ago when a woman bullshitted a story out to try and get out of it. I won, but it took almost a year.

 

+1

 

Yeah that sucks I work in insurance and by brother is an adjuster. This is going to be a mess did you have a witness? Probably if she does not accept fault your insurance will pay minus deductible and her ins. will pay for her damage. Its your word against hers. My wife was in an accident last week and luckily 2 people stopped.

Check it out at least it wasnt this bad.

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/off-topic-discussion/247527-wife-totaled-her-car-last-night.html

 

I installed a radar detector and a dashcam with audio/video after I got pulled over going 35 in a 35 coming home from a poker game late one night (cop was coming the opposite direction and flipped a u-turn). The cop asked to do a breathalizer, and I was fine with it as I hadn't had any drinks. He went back to his car to get it and when he came back he was about to have me blow into the device when he said, "Oh, this one has some alcohol left on it from the last guy, one sec." and proceeded to go back and get a "new" tip or whatever. I back police almost 100% of the time, and I'm all for keeping drunks off the road, but I was like, WTF!? I could have gotten a DUI after not drinking, and after getting pulled over for not speeding and not getting hit with radar!? Not going to let something like that happen again.

So, after doing quite a bit of research, I purchased this dash cam off Amazon about 6 months ago and it has been perfect:

Aketek 2.5" HD Rotatable LED IR DVR Video Camcorder with Camera Holder

http://www.amazon.com/2-5-inch-Vehi...=UTF8&qid=1352996555&sr=1-1&keywords=Dash+cam

Here it is installed:



I have an 8gig memory card (12$ best buy) in it. I have it set to record in 15 minute cycles. Once the card fills up, it starts back from the beginning and rewrites your older files. Saves around 3 hours of video.

It records in daylight, and then has a sort of night vision for low light. It comes with a long cord so you can position it wherever you want, as well as a pretty beefy suction cup for putting it on your windshield.

Here is a real good youtube channel of a long-haul trucker who uses the same dash cam and has some good video of what he encounters. It will give you a good idea of the audio/video quality and types of situations it will capture: http://www.youtube.com/user/unitruth/videos?view=0




Pros:

• Inexpensive (no worry of it getting stolen/breaking)
• Basic and gets the job done
• Night-mode with 6 IR leds
• Internal rechargable battery (can grab it and go mobile if needed)
• Wide, fisheye video
• Fully adjustable windshield mount
• Long power cord

Cons:

• No way to turn the built-in screen off, so you can see a little bit of a glow even when the screen is flipped up. Not bad or annoying, just a pet-peeve of mine
• 3-5 second "gap" while it is switching to a new 15minute recording. Hope nothing drastic happens in that timeframe, but the changes are nil.
• Not the best video quality, but I'm not looking for wedding-quality video, especially for less then $40 invested.
• Your unit may turn on with a different language loaded in it. Follow the directions and you can switch it to english easily enough (I didn't follow the directions until I wasted 30 minutes trying to figure it out, ha!)

All in all, I'm 100% satisfied. In the video I accidently erased, a lady cut across 2-white lines (illegal here in Washington State) going 30mph slower than I. I came within a foot of rearending her, which would have looked a hell of a lot like it was my fault, except I would have been able to prove she crossed the white lines with the video (until I erased it, ha! lesson learned!). FYI, when I honked, she flipped me off, LOL.
A couple lessons I've learned with it: when you go to take memory card out, make sure you let the unit fully save and power off, otherwise it will erase a good portion of the last video it took. I almost got an accident and was so excited to watch it on my computer that I took the memory card out too fast and didn't get to see it, ha! Also, have a backup memory card, or a larger size then 8gb if you plan to do any long road/trail trips.

Hope this helps with your decision making process and feel free to ask any questions you may have. I can get more pictures/video if you want.

 

I'm thinking about picking one of those up myself. I've thought about doing this in the past but never really looked at them, didn't realize you could get something so cheap. I've had too many close calls with moron drivers. Plus all the people out there trying to scam you. Also, whole not a Gopro seems like it would be okay for some trail videos.

 

Screw it. Decided to pick one of these up for shits and giggles. We'll report back how it is once it's received.

Generic Car Dashboard Video Camera Vehicle Video Accident Recorder (2.0" 1080P)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0067XVNTG/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00

 

Looks good to me. Let us know how you like it.

 

Regardless of what she claims, the insurance company will most likely find in your favor.
Lacking witness testimony and evidence to the contrary, in general...

If you hit someone from behind, it is your fault.
If you hit someone behind their driver's door, it is your fault, as you could have slowed/stopped to avoid the impact.

 

sub'd

 

Arrived yesterday. For the money it seems solid. Lacks a lot of features that the more expensive ones do, but for the price I wasn't expecting it to have some of the other stuff. The mount seem sturdy, although I don't like how low it places it, although this is personal preference and not a flaw, I'd imagine all of these are similar, I just don't like actually seeing the thing.



I didn't have anything at the moment to try and rig up someting different, so I just took some double sided 3m emblem tape and attached it to my rear view mirror raising mount. Surprising it seems to be holding well it keeps it out of sight to me behind the mirror. Naturally when it hit bumps it will shake some but it's not a big deal to me.



As far as video, seems to be pretty good for the price. A lot of these claim 1080p HD and I wasn't expecting to actually be that good, nor is it. But it's good enough for what you need it to be. Main thing I don't like about this particular one is the lack of settings for loop recording. It only gives you the option for 1 or 3 minute videos. I would like the option to do longer clips of 10 or 15 minutes. My main issue with it seems that for some reason, it's not actually recording everything. There are large gaps where it just stops recording. Today I went out to pick up lunch. It started recording but stopped after a couple minutes and then there was no recording til I started the truck up again on my return trip. I'll have to play with the settings I'm hoping it's just a settings issue or something. I have yet to actually have it record a full round trip. I have a 32gb micro SD card in it, I know it's not getting filled up. I'll try to get up a video sample here shortly.

If I decide I like having a camera in here, I think I'll end up upgrading to something better if I can't get the issues straightened out with this.

 

Here's a short video clip. As you can see a couple time the video goes nuts. Seems to do this at least once every clip. Need to play with it some more, but right now I can't say I'd really recommend this.

 

Lots of good options in here thanks fellas