Radio & backup camera install…more or less

May 23, 2022, 12:26:35 pm

I wanted to share my experience with a DIY install of a digital multimedia receiver/radio and backup camera in our 2003 MB. I am relatively handy with tools although not an electrician by any stretch of the imagination, this seemed within my range of abilities. It took a long time though, and the help of a friend who does residential electrical work. There are a few decent YouTube videos demonstrating the process, this is more just detailing my experience so hopefully others won’t make the same mistakes.

If you don’t want to read the gory details and just find out if this DIY install is something you’d want to tackle, the question is, would I try the DIY approach again? I still don’t know. I’m happy that now I know how to install the radio (mostly), but it took a lot of time that could have been spent more productively. So I’m between a maybe and a probably on DIY the next time. Read on, those of you who feel bold. I added a few random pics of the various parts or areas where I got stuck.

Purchase
After browsing their website, I contacted Crutchfield to determine what additional things I would need to run the backup camera to the rear of the coach. Choosing a radio was easy and I confirmed with their sales folks what other equipment I’d need. Crutchfield was consistently helpful both for sales and tech support.

Extra items needed: 25’ of wire to bring power to the rear of the rv, a 20’ video cable, couplers & some “posi-tap” connectors to splice in to existing lines. Radios are sold with 16 feet of wire for power & a video cable to connect to a reverse light. I also ordered a $30 wire harness that would have been “plug & play” instead of matching a dozen different colored wires. I ended up having to match wires since the radio in the vehicle wasn’t the OEM radio. Crutchfield offered to refund me the purchase price but since that was really my fault, I didn’t think that was fair.

Delivery was free and fast. I also received an email with high-level installation instructions specific to my vehicle, warranty info and so forth. I also got all of the information hard copy in the nearly 100% recyclable packaging (water soluble packaging peanuts – why doesn’t everyone use these!)

Out with the old & in with the new
The install itself was an odyssey that took several attempts and multiple calls to Crutchfield’s tech support (thanks Shane!). Hopefully my experience (read mistakes) will serve others. The tech support was great, the written instructions don’t get too far into the details.

Removal: in addition to disconnecting the negative cable to the chassis battery, ALSO, disconnect the coach battery. If you don’t, you may short the constant power to the radio (ask me how I know). The radio is wired to the chassis and the coach. If you do short it, look under the hood for either a fuse or what Andy & Ron noted in their helpful post (Radio Install Electrical Issue posted by yours truly).

Install: If you’re smart and order a harness that connects the harness from your old radio to your new one, you will be able to avoid connecting all those wires manually. If not, connect all the wires to the harness. Crutchfield has a diagram that is useful & they’re happy to walk you through it. The extra wires are for power & video depending on the radio you order. There are several YouTube videos that walk through the install on an E450. Suffice it to say, you have a connection to the parking brake, camera power and camera video. Parking brake connection is needed if you’re going to watch videos on your radio. You can’t do that unless the E-brake is on.

For the power & video to the backup camera, I routed the wires behind the instrument panel and then down into the step-well next to the driver’s seat. At that point, you’re going to need to find the one wire in a cluster that powers the reverse light. I was unable to do this even with my electrician friend. We ended up connecting it to the constant hot (more on this later). From there, you can run the wires through holes in the well underneath the rig and all the way to the back.

I had trouble with the connection to the backup camera. I tried using the Posi-Grip connector but we didn’t get a signal. It turns out the wires to the camera were very thin and the Posi-grip didn’t make a connection to the wire, so we needed to strip and splice in the connection. The other problem is that we actually couldn’t find the power wire to the reverse light out of a cluster of 14. Crutchfield gave a color (black & pink) but the closest we found was a gray and maybe pink. In any case, it wasn’t getting voltage when we put it into reverse (reverse light works), so we opted with having the backup camera in the “always on” mode connecting it to a constant hot line. I have to check with Crutchfield on this because now the 4 little LEDs on the license plate frame mounted camera are “always on”. It’s a small drain, but nonetheless, I think I want it to work when it’s in reverse only so we don’t have those lights on all the time. So at some point, I’ll have to talk to Ford to find out where & which wire I can tap in to for the reverse light.

My electrician friend ran the wires through flexible conduit that we (he) snaked to the back of the rig and zip tied underneath. We tested the camera a couple of times along the way to make sure we had power. Even so, we had to re-route the wire underneath twice. A word on routing the wire – slack is a good thing. Figure out where you want to leave your slack before routing it for the last time. We needed more wire for the power to the camera than was available, requiring us to splice in additional wire. It all tucked nicely in the step-well.

After spending several hours doing this, the final task was “merely” a matter of cutting a wider opening where the radio is. I used a hacksaw blade for this. We finally managed to shove the radio in - it was pretty snug although there were gaps on the sides. One gap was enough to feed the two USB lines through to the front (USB charging and Apple CarPlay capability). Of course, after we were done and putting things away, I relocated the two plastic filler pieces that slot in to the radio cavity on the sides of the radio for plugging these two gaps. Maybe the next time I pull the doghouse off I will consider pulling the radio so I can add one or both of these pieces in – that will mean rerouting the USB cables though. I will also probably check all of the connections to make sure that they are all snug.

The microphone for hands-free capability is just plugged into the back and routed to wherever you want to place it. At least that was easy.

Questions, comments & tips

Determine your needs – how important is the backup camera? Will it be enough or do you need one that mounts up high? We’re hoping it will be good enough for us as I don’t want to drill into the coach to mount one. Since we always GOAL, we think it should be ok.

Don’t use the instructions as anything more than a guide. As best as you can, plot the steps and lay out all the pieces ahead of time.

Figure out what other wiring is for - I had wiring for the electric step and the levelers in the mix which added to the mix. Fewer wires is better!

Test as you go so you can find out where you may have gone wrong.

The wires on the backup camera were a very high gauge (22?). They were troublesome. If I had thought of it, I might have re-wired with some lower gauge wire before installing.

Why not hire a professional? Probably a good approach if you can find someone willing. The car stereo shop I called would only look at the chassis connections while the rv electrician would only look at the coach. Given the wiring problem I was trying to solve involved both, they didn’t seem like much help. Whether it’s stubbornness, desire to learn or just being cheap, I went forward on my own (with a lot of help). I saved two or three hundred bucks on the install by spending too many hours (6? 8?) myself doing it. I think it took 3 trips total (I store my rv away from where I live) to get it all done.

Why not just tap into the reverse light at the end of the coach? I read too many posts of people losing that precious wire into the back of the rv to mess with it. If I were a competent automotive electrician, it may have been another story…

A plug for Crutchfield – they were great. Once I got a tech, I was able to text photos and troubleshoot several issues. We finally hit a dead-end when I couldn’t find the wire to the reverse light – the schematic he had was not what I saw.

In the end, I’m glad it’s (mostly) done and I can deal with the next issue, which is…does LD have gaskets that go around the tail lights? When I pulled off the back-up light, the gasket crumbled. I guess I’ll replace all of them as I’ll be replacing all the bulbs with LEDs.