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After having pretty good luck with Rexing dash cameras, I decided to install one in my 2020 Ford F350 Dually. I prefer to power the camera through my truck's upfitter switches so it can be conveniently turned off if desired. On the 2020 Ford, the upfitter relays and fuses are pre-wired under the hood. To get power back into the cab, Ford "conveniently" includes four wires that pass through the fire wall on the passenger side.
This should have been a really simple job. If Ford had the foresight to install wiring, I'm sure they made it user friendly - right? Wrong. Retrieving and using the pass through wires became quite an ordeal. They hid the wires and when i finally found them, the were so short, they were almost impossible to work with.
I watched several videos about locating the pass through wires. Most of them are coiled and taped up near the fire wall on different model years. But they weren't there on the 2020. I visited several forums which pointed me to where they were located. To retrieve them, you must remove the battery and battery box or remove the RF fender liner. Once those parts are removed, you can locate the wires tucked under the fuse box. After locating and retrieving the wires, I had to cut off the heat shrink that Ford had placed over the ends of the wire. This left about 1-1/2" of wire to work with. It was barely enough to install butt connectors to allow for extending the wires. Here's a photo after the wires were retrieved:
This was a very tight area to work in, and was literally quite painful to cut and extend the wires. There were sharp edges everywhere which did a nice job of slicing up my arms. Trying to get cutters, strippers, crimpers, butt connectors and wires into this area was not fun, but I was finally successful:
Once the extension wires were added, I labeled them and secured them in an accessible area for future usage:
The inside of the truck was even trickier. The wires were hidden high up in the foot well. To access them, many pieces of trim, molding, and the glove box needed to be removed. The pass through wires were only 3/4" to 1" long after the heat shrink was removed and the wire was stripped. I tried for over an hour to attach butt connectors on the wires, but just couldn't get the correct angle to cinch them down. I finally gave up and decided to use straight line Wago connectors instead of butt connectors. Since this is in an interior area, I'm not concerned about moisture intrusion like I am under the hood. Here's a photo of the Wago connectors installed along with extension wires.
I estimate it took a good 3-4 hours to prep the wiring. Once that was done, the camera install was quick and easy and only took about 45 minutes.
Lesson learned: Convenience features sometimes aren't all that convenient.
Jim
This should have been a really simple job. If Ford had the foresight to install wiring, I'm sure they made it user friendly - right? Wrong. Retrieving and using the pass through wires became quite an ordeal. They hid the wires and when i finally found them, the were so short, they were almost impossible to work with.
I watched several videos about locating the pass through wires. Most of them are coiled and taped up near the fire wall on different model years. But they weren't there on the 2020. I visited several forums which pointed me to where they were located. To retrieve them, you must remove the battery and battery box or remove the RF fender liner. Once those parts are removed, you can locate the wires tucked under the fuse box. After locating and retrieving the wires, I had to cut off the heat shrink that Ford had placed over the ends of the wire. This left about 1-1/2" of wire to work with. It was barely enough to install butt connectors to allow for extending the wires. Here's a photo after the wires were retrieved:
This was a very tight area to work in, and was literally quite painful to cut and extend the wires. There were sharp edges everywhere which did a nice job of slicing up my arms. Trying to get cutters, strippers, crimpers, butt connectors and wires into this area was not fun, but I was finally successful:
Once the extension wires were added, I labeled them and secured them in an accessible area for future usage:
The inside of the truck was even trickier. The wires were hidden high up in the foot well. To access them, many pieces of trim, molding, and the glove box needed to be removed. The pass through wires were only 3/4" to 1" long after the heat shrink was removed and the wire was stripped. I tried for over an hour to attach butt connectors on the wires, but just couldn't get the correct angle to cinch them down. I finally gave up and decided to use straight line Wago connectors instead of butt connectors. Since this is in an interior area, I'm not concerned about moisture intrusion like I am under the hood. Here's a photo of the Wago connectors installed along with extension wires.
I estimate it took a good 3-4 hours to prep the wiring. Once that was done, the camera install was quick and easy and only took about 45 minutes.
Lesson learned: Convenience features sometimes aren't all that convenient.
Jim
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