Hi All,

I am a new owner of a 2002 F250 which did not come with an audio system. I decided to purchase one that comes with a rear-view camera display so that I could see if my daughter is playing behind the truck (or if I left something back there) before backing out.

What is the best way to run the cable (video only) back from the rear bumper to the back of the radio? I am fairly new to operating on cars/trucks so any pictures or thorough descriptions would be appreciated. I am mainly unsure of how to get the wire from under the truck into the interior where the radio resides.

The radio also wants to be connected to the reverse and parking break switches. Do you have any suggestions on how to do this other than just find the switches and trace the wire back near the radio and splice it? Of course, I will ensure that it is the correct wire by looking at the schematic and pin descriptions for the connectors.

Thanks for all your help. I tried to search the forum, but kept on getting lost in threads that did not answer my questions.

Caleb

 

I ran mine along the inside of the frame rail and then through the firewall about the brake pedal. You might want to look in the AV section towards the bottom of the main page.

 

Its much easier than you probably think, when you're running a wire from interior to exterior you want to go to the drivers side under dash and look for some type of plug or access than can be removed. Try not to drill any new holes as it might rust there later on. Make sure you buy a premium sheilded video cable and cover it in convolute or any type of covering the entire length. Start on the inside and work your way out. Run your cable along the frame rail and tie it off with zip ties keeping it away from moving parts.

As far as connections, you have to splice into a reverse bulb to activate camera,it has to be power and parking brake deal is for DVD, which I would just hook that wire up to a ground I believe. Good luck

 

Thank you Simmy69 and sammy77. I will try what you suggested and let you know how it goes.

sammy77: I noticed several things that appear to be plugs near the driver's side but I was not sure (white on the inside and black on the outside that do not appear to be holding anything together). Does this sound right?

Caleb

 

If you have an automatic transmission, you can pass the wires through a plug in the firewall, where the clutch linkage would normally run.

Here's the plug I'm talking about. You can see all my gauge wires and my CB antenna wire in that pic.

 

Thanks a lot, 1975StroppeBaja. Your picture helps a lot and I remember seeing that on the driver's side.

 

Thats exactly where I went thru...

 

I was wondering what that was for

 

Years ago I installed a backup camera on my 2002 F250 after backing into a mini-truck narrower than my truck. (It wasn't visible in either rear view mirror or through my tinted glass topper). It's a Pioneer standalone camera mounted on top of my rear bumper. While that placement works, it doesn't give the overall view that newer trucks' cameras give mounted high in the tailgate. I've found a couple of different cheap tailgate handle replacements with cameras on Amazon and other websites for these '97 to 2007 tailgates. But too many of reviewers say the handles are entirely made of flimsy plastic which quickly broke on them. Or they said that the fit of these cheap handles is pretty rough where they don't lay flat into the OEM tailgate's recessed mount point for the handle. One of the reviewers said he was able to cut and modify his cheap handle to accept pivot / metal wear parts cut out of the OEM one. But that still wouldn't address the complaints about poor quality fit into the OEM tailgate's recessed mount profile for the handle.

Looking for an alternative I've seen talk about people modifying the actual OEM tailgate handles for these F250 tailgates to allow mounting a 3rd-party round backup camera on / in that OEM handle. I assume they've drilled out an opening and then fab'd up a short plastic cylinder saddle into which to fit the camera; with a back cut to fit flush with the contours of the OEM unit. But I haven't seen any pictures or text descriptions and what they did to accomplish this.

Has anyone out there done a similar tailgate handle mod for these trucks to have successfully mounted a 3rd-party backup camera such that it looked and fitted like factory? Or has anyone found a 3rd party tailgate camera that is well enough made to last like an OEM tailgate handle?

Thanks!
-Bob

 

On my 05 I put a 15 Tailgate so its not apples-to-apples but I put an 08 handle in it for the backup camera (all oem parts either new from dealer online or off ebay). Ran camera power]ground to my 7-way wiring junction box to trailer power\ground and for backup I found the backup wire in the cab and ran it to the radio, Brake depends on the radio, Pioneer you need a bypass Module (unless you hook it up the way they want, but then I don't know how that'll function) and most others you can just ground that wire to the radio chassis (My Kenwood). I ran a couple RCA wires end to end (with marine heat shrink at all connections) from the tailgate to the grommet in the floor i believe where it came into the cab then up to the firewall and across to the radio.
Sorry no pics.

 

Thank you very much for the reply. But when I looked at the 2008 tailgate handle online, that shape is very different from the '99-2003 handle. It's roughly rectangular vs. my 2002's uneven 4-sided handle with a shorter top than parallel bottom and two sloping sides ("isosceles trapezoid" or some such). And the 2002 handle is recessed into a tightly fitted handle-shaped indention in the tailgate's sheet metal. So I don't think that new a handle would work very well.

I could always buy a newer tailgate and have it paint-matched, but that would be expensive and mine is in perfect shape.