I got a flatbed installed on my 2020 F450. They were nice enough to reinstall the rear camera from the tailgate. The problem is, the tailgate camera is at an angle, it looks down just a little. The back of the flatbed is flat.



So when I use the backup camera, the lines on the ground aren't on the ground anymore, they shoot off into the horizon. And when using the 360 function, the view out the rear is messed up, not quite pointing at the ground, it's more looking up higher, but upside down, as if I were bending over and looking between my legs. Also, the camera is significantly lower than it was on the tailgate.

So, couple questions. I'm a decent fabricator and have a welder and whatnot, so I'm motivated to fix this. I was thinking of creating an inset panel (like the license plate panel) so the camera is more protected (just surface mounted now) and the panel would be at the correct angle, sort of angled downward, like the license plate panel is angled upward.. So my question is, does anybody know what that angle is? And do you have any ideas that are better than my panel idea?

 

1) Great idea!

2) Don't know the original angle, but since you still have the take off pickup bed, you can determine the angle with a builder's level set and maintained to vertical plumb at the back of the pickup bed, very close to, and parallel with the tail gate, which must also be set to plumb.

Then using an angle finder, and/or a contour gauge, you can determine the angle or contour, as distanced and by degree from the vertically plumb datum line, and then transfer the measurements gathered to paper, for use in building a prototype angle from cereal box cardboard (easier to work with than corrugated cardboard).

Build the cardboard prototype with wide flanges, so that it can be taped to the flat vertical surface of the back of the truck bed, for camera testing purposes, before committing to the steel fabrication. Make adjustments to the cardboard prototype as required, recognizing that the entire camera is jutting out from the position you intend to nest it in, but this exercise is just to determine camera angle, and more importantly, camera height so you know where to drill the new, larger, housing hole in the back of the CM bed.

With the camera angle established, cut the access hole where the camera will be mounted, and remount the modified cardboard prototype with camera mounted inside the hole, to set the final positioning and visual reference for hitching a trailer or the limits of the bumper for parking. making new cardboard prototypes as needed.

Unless you also can form and bend the material used for the recessed camera housing, I'd cut all four or five sides of the open face recess out of pieces of cardboard once more, and tape these pieces together to see if they match your final prototype in angle and dimension.

Then, I'd cut the steel to match the cardboard pieces, drill the camera hole, the water drain hole, and weld''er up and in the hole previously drilled in the back of the bed.

3) I have lots of ideas. I wouldn't say that my ideas are better than your ideas... just more ideas.

We think alike, in that I too, do not like things protruding from the vertical plane in back of a flatbed or contractor bed. It's too easy for the guys to break off lids to towing connectors, or scrape the lens to the rear view camera with their boots or with equipment they are hefting in and out of the back of the bed.

So I recessed everything...



The center area behind the flip down plate is reserved for a camera housing that I haven't selected yet. Truck needed to be put in service before I could recover from my metaphoric heart attack at the cost of the Ford factory plug and play camera. So good on you for recovering the camera from your pickup bed.

My wiring, btw, was not "plug and play".



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I see you used commercial baking pans, interesting.

How you describe was pretty much exactly what I was thinking. Thanks for the tips.