Front camera on cheese grater grill

Anyone mounted a front view camera on a 2018-2019 with the cheese grater grill? Getting serious about adding one but can't see how to mount it without removing a compartment.

 

Did you ever get an answer to this? Bought one version of the Natika and it didn’t work that well, so I just bought a different style of Natika. Would be curious if there’s one that works better, though, especially before it ships and I’m charged for it.

 

Haven't yet moved forward with this addition. Other priorities, but I am still interested in it if someone has a solution.

 

I’ll let you know if my other camera works out. If it doesn’t, I’m contemplating filling one of the combs with epoxy, drilling a hole in the epoxy, and then mounting to that. Really trying to not permanently alter the grille in any visible way, though.

 

I have had this one since December 2017:

$27 iNewcow Car Front View Logo Embeded Camera for Toyota with CCD Waterproof IP67 Wide Degree (Middle)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00P2EN5J2/ref=twister_B00P2EN3T4?_encoding=UTF8

It worked great until recently when some moisture got in and the image is fogged. A couple notes. It is not the best looking camera. It is all straight angles, not fisheye, which is great for somethings but does not allow me to see the edge of the bumper for parking. It is about 4in away.

Also, the side option in the listing is nicer and is fisheye / wide angle but does not fit the Taco badge.

 

I have a spare grille if you mess it up. It's just a dust collector.

 

Do you have a ‘16? I don’t think these will work with TSS but are a great option for someone with the standard badge.

 

I installed a bullet style camera from Amazon with the anytime harness on the 2018 grill. Then I upgraded to the 2020 OR grill and used the camera mount from the tacogarage

 

I haven't mounted a front camera on my 2019 but when I was looking at LED lights YotaLED had an accessory mounting bracket for the honeycomb grille. I do know the grille lights mount well and the bracket looks similar in nature.

 

Yes. 2017. The subject was for the cheese grater grille, which are generally 2016 / 2017 grilles. I see that I got crossed up there with yours and the OPs MYs.

2018+ are egg crate grilles? No big deal though.

 

Let me know about your camera set up. I'm thinking about the camera from Amazon. I'm assuming you bought this Natika since it has a lot of reviews.

$40 NATIKA Backup/Front View Camera,IP69K Waterproof Great Night Vision HD and Super Wide Angle Metal OEM Style Reverse Rear View Backup Camera for Cars Pickup Trucks SUVs RVs Vans (Black)

https://www.amazon.com/NATIKA-Backu...ories+front+camera&qid=1615232898&sr=8-7&th=1

 

I bought that one, and it didn’t fit nicely anywhere without trimming, so I just bought the other Natika with the swivel mount. I’ll let you know how it goes.

 

Okay thanks. Looking forward to seeing how it works for you

 

So, I’ve been tinkering with this a bit, and I decided to buy some black HDPE. The problem I’m having with the Natika camera with the shank is that, with a fit that looks clean and that doesn’t require drilling/trimming, the shank is not long enough to get a washer and a nut placed in the inside of the grille. Sooooo, I’m going to try to fabricate a piece of HDPE to fit in the center- and lower-most honeycomb of the grille, directly below the center of the emblem. I’ll drill 3 holes in the HDPE. One will be for the shank of the camera to fit through, and I’ll use a washer and nut to mount the camera to that piece of HDPE. The other two holes will be small ones to run two bolts through, which will line up with like holes drilled in another piece of HDPE placed behind the grille to make a mounting bracket of sorts. I’ll crank them together with washers and locknuts.

 

Alright, so I installed this over the last two evenings. I ditched the HDPE idea and just ended up drilling two small holes behind the grille.

I used this camera:
Reverse Backup Camera,RAAYOO L002...

$17 Backup Camera Flush Mount, Metal Housing 170°Wide View Angle Rear/Side/Front View Camera for Car, Clear Night Vision IP69 Waterproof Reverse Camera for Vehicle SUV RV Pickup, 18.5mm, 12V/24V, Black

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074P45P7G?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share



It’s off-center bc it didn’t fit well in the center opening. If you raised it up a bit with a prop or something, it would fit.

Not a great picture, but you can see the holes I drilled here:


I tried to better waterproof the camera by adding some silicone where the camera wire goes in.



So, this camera had a sightly different connection than the Natika. The power and aux connections are separate, and the power wire isn’t long enough to reach the head unit. Thus, I used the trigger wire in the aux to power the camera by connecting that to positive in the power harness and the positive in the Car Solutions harness. I then grounded the neutral wire in the power harness to the bumper. See below:





The ground (I added the connector).


The power wire is long but not long enough to run all the way to the head unit. Because you’re not running it all the way to the head unit, you could trim it shorter (it’s positive wire connects to the positive wire on the side of the aux that plugs into the camera inside the engine bay; you can kinda see this in the picture with the red and yellow connectors hooked to one another by the horn; both sides of the aux wire are the same with the aux connection and the red trigger wire), but I didn’t figure out my ground location until near the end of my install, so I didn’t trim the power wire. So to tidy everything up, I folded the wire in the power harness and taped it up to shorten it a bit. This is mid taping:


I ran the aux wire through the firewall using the grommet behind the master cylinder. I did this before wiring everything together. The grommet is up and to the left of where the main OEM harness enters the cab, and it comes in by the brake pedal.



Closer picture:


Where it comes into the cab:


I then loomed EVERYTHING and ran along factory wires, securing with zip ties. In the engine bay, I went along the driver-side fender, beside the battery, up by the radiator, and to the horn/TSS wires. By the radiator, I had to remove push tabs to take off the plastic piece that runs along the top (pictures reinstalled below). In the cab, I went up and over the steering column, and then up through a gap by the HVAC into the head-unit opening. I don’t really have any good pictures of the interior wiring bc of angles and such.

Driver-side fender:



By the radiator with plastic reinstalled:


Using the horn/TSS wires:


This is the best I could do looking up under the steering wheel. This is where it first comes into the cab. To get it over the steering column, I secured the cable to the wiring on the driver-side wall, by all of the OEM harnesses and fuse box. Here, you can see it connected to my trailer brake controller, which secured to the same wires.



I tired to set everything up where I could unplug the camera and remove the grille without having to cut zip ties. Ultimately, I’ll have to cut 2 ties to take off the grille.

Let me know if you have any questions!

 

I bought this(https://www.yotaleds.com/products/mounting-bracket-for-tacoma-off-road?_pos=1&_sid=c132ecb65&_ss=r) to mount my camera to. I haven't done it yet, but when I do I'll post up pics.

 

I bought that too initially but it didn’t work for me for some reason. The Natika shank wasn’t long enough to go through that and through a washer on the other side of the grille. Maybe it was just operator error, but I couldn’t find a mounting point that I liked.

 

Thanks for he the heads up. I didn't purchase the camera yet, so maybe I'll look for a different camera then!

 

Awesome Write up and pics man! I have never done any wiring before so this may be out of my league a bit. I may have a buddy come over and help out. Thanks again!

 

It’s super easy. Get some connectors and crimp. Nothing to it. The Car Solutions interface is clearly labeled where everything goes. You only have to crimp 2 wires, 3 if you make the ground like I did. A guy on YouTube said that, if you wire the camera like I did with the trigger wire, the aux connector acts as the ground, but I didn’t trust that. He didn’t sound too sure of himself. Haha

Edit: This guy shows you how to use the trigger wire. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=igx3OCVfN7o

Edit 2: This shows you how to prep the grommet I used. https://youtu.be/RUiKfNhCyuA