- Jul 22, 2015
- 2,724
Some observations on installing a rear camera...
I installed a backup camera in my LWB Envoy; since it gets compared to a school bus, more visibility to the rear is a good thing.
Besides the safety aspect, a camera comes in handy for those who tow - much easier to line up hitch ball <> tongue. This was part of the reason I put mine in.
Note - this install locates the camera in the license 'pocket', and does involve removal of the pocket. If you wish to install in another location on the tailgate, the bumper cover, or somewhere else - then you may want to skip the parts about removing the pocket.
Note 2 - If you get a 'wireless' camera that uses RF to send the signal up front, you will save a bit of time making wire runs, especially for the video cable that goes up front. The downside is the potential performance / resolution of the wireless transmitter / receiver (which you won't know until you get it connected, but there are ways of doing a 'quick / dirty' test before doing a permanent install).
Finally, if you have other things you've been wanting to do (license pocket gasket, rear wiper upgrade) - this is an opportune time to do those as well. After removing your inner liftgate trim, check the painted surface for rust issues - again, this is a good time to address them before reassembling the trim (and forgetting about it until you see the rust on the outside)
Things you'll need:
- An aftermarket head unit, with at least one video input, or some other source, such as a rear view mirror cam.
- The backup camera, naturally. These come in various form factors - check on Amazon for many, many (cheaper) examples. My own was a license plate based mount - which was fine when I purchased it, but after installing, I will likely put in a new camera later. The one I put in does have two infrared LEDs for night viewing, as well as the six smaller ones used as regular lighting.
- 10mm (deep) and 13mm sockets
- A T47 (or T45) Torx bit, if you want to remove the rear seatbelt holder (XL or EXT only)
- A 1/4" torque wrench, if you want to reattach the license pocket per GM specs (to help prevent the surround from 'sucking into the gap')
- A trim tool (optional - I didn't need one, as I was able to pry all of the trim off w/o incident)
- Flat and phillips #1 screwdrivers.
- If you have a set of small 'hook' tools, those may be handy
- A drill, to make the hole to route the wiring into the license pocket.
- About 20ft of wire (x2), no higher than 16ga - I used 20' of red and black, and had 7-10ft left over. The tail light wires look to be about 18-22ga - pretty thin, and potentially pretty brittle, as we'll discuss later.
- Zip ties for tidying up the wire runs
- Something to use as a wire pull for routing wiring through the liftgate <> body channel (I used a coat hanger)
- Your connectors of choice for splicing into the backup light. At this point, you don't need lectures on how to properly splice wiring, so whatever works for you. I did use some heat shrink to surround my connections, if you're interested.
- Some electrical tape, and perhaps a grommet or two
- Beverages of choice, as needed. Stay hydrated! LOL
Removing the inner plastic trim from the liftgate and rear body
Start with the large piece in the liftgate (I started at the bottom, at the liftgate 'pocket' handle on the RH side.) BTW, you can pop the 'pocket' out easily, if you wish. I would not recommend re-inserting the pocket piece into the liftgate w/o the surrounding trim - it is a loose fit without it. You can use a trim tool for this, but I had no problem at all popping any of the panels or trim pieces off. Any metal clips can be reinserted onto the panel w/o issue (again, I had no problems here).
After the bottom large piece of the liftgate, remove the top surround.
In the body area, remove the top garnish (you'll need to peel the weatherstrip back, and if you don't rub off the residue on the body, you'll be able to push it right back into place when you're done.
Remove either the left or right D-pillar trim, after loosening the same side cargo panel trim. (LWB owners - to remove this trim, you'll need a T45 bit to remove the seatbelt from its mount) This is really a T47, if you have one (I misplaced mine somewhere in the truck), but a T45 will work pretty well.
You may find removing the sill plate to be helpful; it pops out easily. Start from either end; the connectors are about 4" apart, on center.
- With the trim removed, locate the five mounting nuts / bolts that hold the license pocket to the liftgate. Four are easy to spot. The fifth (really a double threaded stud with intregal nut) is at the center bottom, and you'll need a deep socket for this one bolt at a minimum. When I removed it, I found I was at an angle with the socket until I removed a wiring clip underneath (although I didn't have this issue when reinstalling it - go figure).
You can lower the liftgate at this point, but put something in front of the latch so that the liftgate cannot lock in place. You'll thank me later.
- After the bolts, there is one more thing to be removed, before you can pop the pocket, which is the latch handle connector. Look down inside - you'll find green and red plastic pieces (retainment clips) surrounding two rods. Ignore the green. Remove the red. I found it easier to pry the rod end from the circular hole, then disconnect the red clip from the rod - and the same on reinstall (insert rod, then lock in place - it takes a little fiddling, but it's not terrible).
With the rod removed from the latch, remove the license lamps from their sockets (standard twist connectors), and remove the wiring from its loom retainer in the pocket. Now the license pocket can be removed (there are retaining clips holding it in loosely - but if you've got an air gap around the entire perimeter, only the clips are holding it in at this point - go ahead and pull gently to remove). Note the heavier gasketing inside - it will probably be wanting to separate from the pocket. If it does, make a note of it and address as needed before reinstall.
Now you can raise the liftgate again to run the wiring. What's that? You didn't block the latch and can't lift the tailgate? Don't worry - that happened to me, too. Remember those green & red rod retainers? They connect to dual latches. Lift up (or push down; I forget which) on both *simultaneously*, and you'll be able to raise the liftgate. Time to have a beverage and count your blessings.
Running the Wiring
By now, you've noticed a couple of things:
- The primary wire run is via the left (driver) side, and so is the routing channel between liftgate & body. Since it's easier to follow that path, get out your zip ties and proceed along the edge of the liftgate until you reach the rubber channel. Get your wire pull ready.
To remove the rubber channel from the body, pry up gently around the perimeter of the rubber - it will separate from the white grommet. Do this on both sides, and leave it in place, disconnected at both ends. If you loosened / removed the white plastic piece that the rubber surrounds, just push it back into place.
(Note - when reconnecting, it is MUCH easier to pop out the white grommet (push in latches top / bottom) and reattach the rubber to the plastic - then reseat the plastic grommet into the channel.)
Unfortunately, GM didn't leave us a lot of spare room in that channel. In my case, I was able to get two 16ga wires through for power / ground, but there was no way I was going to get the video wire, much less the RCA connector at the end of it, through that channel. Since the video wire gets routed up front, you can skip feeding this through the channel, if you prefer. You do need to get it to the body side, obviously. The upper trim garnish will hide the wire, but it needs to get across. I went through the white grommet, but stayed outside of the wiring channel (as mentioned above).
I'll mention this now - when pulling / routing wires, take a moment beforehand, just to make sure you've got the routing correct, and will reach your next destination correctly. In the case of the wire channel, that means you go through the top (liftgate end), and out through the bottom / body end. You can pry gently on the headliner to get your hand or a longnose in and grab the wires - that part is much easier.
Trailblazer owners - since your reverse lamps are in the main lamp assembly, you can remove the tail lamp of your choice, remove and poke a (small) hole through the body side rubber grommet that feeds the brake lamp housing, route your new wires through that grommet, and proceed to splicing the power / ground wire to the reverse lamp. They'll most likely be green/white and black - those are power / ground. Leave yourself enough room to reconnect the wires on each side, if you sever them - especially if you find the wiring brittle (the green/white is the worst of these). Be careful stripping the end of the green wire especially. Splice & reconnect the wiring with the method of choice, and you're ready to finish the video wire routing up to the front.
(To be cont'd, next post)
I installed a backup camera in my LWB Envoy; since it gets compared to a school bus, more visibility to the rear is a good thing.
Besides the safety aspect, a camera comes in handy for those who tow - much easier to line up hitch ball <> tongue. This was part of the reason I put mine in.
Note - this install locates the camera in the license 'pocket', and does involve removal of the pocket. If you wish to install in another location on the tailgate, the bumper cover, or somewhere else - then you may want to skip the parts about removing the pocket.
Note 2 - If you get a 'wireless' camera that uses RF to send the signal up front, you will save a bit of time making wire runs, especially for the video cable that goes up front. The downside is the potential performance / resolution of the wireless transmitter / receiver (which you won't know until you get it connected, but there are ways of doing a 'quick / dirty' test before doing a permanent install).
Finally, if you have other things you've been wanting to do (license pocket gasket, rear wiper upgrade) - this is an opportune time to do those as well. After removing your inner liftgate trim, check the painted surface for rust issues - again, this is a good time to address them before reassembling the trim (and forgetting about it until you see the rust on the outside)
Things you'll need:
- An aftermarket head unit, with at least one video input, or some other source, such as a rear view mirror cam.
- The backup camera, naturally. These come in various form factors - check on Amazon for many, many (cheaper) examples. My own was a license plate based mount - which was fine when I purchased it, but after installing, I will likely put in a new camera later. The one I put in does have two infrared LEDs for night viewing, as well as the six smaller ones used as regular lighting.
- 10mm (deep) and 13mm sockets
- A T47 (or T45) Torx bit, if you want to remove the rear seatbelt holder (XL or EXT only)
- A 1/4" torque wrench, if you want to reattach the license pocket per GM specs (to help prevent the surround from 'sucking into the gap')
- A trim tool (optional - I didn't need one, as I was able to pry all of the trim off w/o incident)
- Flat and phillips #1 screwdrivers.
- If you have a set of small 'hook' tools, those may be handy
- A drill, to make the hole to route the wiring into the license pocket.
- About 20ft of wire (x2), no higher than 16ga - I used 20' of red and black, and had 7-10ft left over. The tail light wires look to be about 18-22ga - pretty thin, and potentially pretty brittle, as we'll discuss later.
- Zip ties for tidying up the wire runs
- Something to use as a wire pull for routing wiring through the liftgate <> body channel (I used a coat hanger)
- Your connectors of choice for splicing into the backup light. At this point, you don't need lectures on how to properly splice wiring, so whatever works for you. I did use some heat shrink to surround my connections, if you're interested.
- Some electrical tape, and perhaps a grommet or two
- Beverages of choice, as needed. Stay hydrated! LOL
Removing the inner plastic trim from the liftgate and rear body
Start with the large piece in the liftgate (I started at the bottom, at the liftgate 'pocket' handle on the RH side.) BTW, you can pop the 'pocket' out easily, if you wish. I would not recommend re-inserting the pocket piece into the liftgate w/o the surrounding trim - it is a loose fit without it. You can use a trim tool for this, but I had no problem at all popping any of the panels or trim pieces off. Any metal clips can be reinserted onto the panel w/o issue (again, I had no problems here).
After the bottom large piece of the liftgate, remove the top surround.
In the body area, remove the top garnish (you'll need to peel the weatherstrip back, and if you don't rub off the residue on the body, you'll be able to push it right back into place when you're done.
Remove either the left or right D-pillar trim, after loosening the same side cargo panel trim. (LWB owners - to remove this trim, you'll need a T45 bit to remove the seatbelt from its mount) This is really a T47, if you have one (I misplaced mine somewhere in the truck), but a T45 will work pretty well.
You may find removing the sill plate to be helpful; it pops out easily. Start from either end; the connectors are about 4" apart, on center.
- With the trim removed, locate the five mounting nuts / bolts that hold the license pocket to the liftgate. Four are easy to spot. The fifth (really a double threaded stud with intregal nut) is at the center bottom, and you'll need a deep socket for this one bolt at a minimum. When I removed it, I found I was at an angle with the socket until I removed a wiring clip underneath (although I didn't have this issue when reinstalling it - go figure).
You can lower the liftgate at this point, but put something in front of the latch so that the liftgate cannot lock in place. You'll thank me later.
- After the bolts, there is one more thing to be removed, before you can pop the pocket, which is the latch handle connector. Look down inside - you'll find green and red plastic pieces (retainment clips) surrounding two rods. Ignore the green. Remove the red. I found it easier to pry the rod end from the circular hole, then disconnect the red clip from the rod - and the same on reinstall (insert rod, then lock in place - it takes a little fiddling, but it's not terrible).
With the rod removed from the latch, remove the license lamps from their sockets (standard twist connectors), and remove the wiring from its loom retainer in the pocket. Now the license pocket can be removed (there are retaining clips holding it in loosely - but if you've got an air gap around the entire perimeter, only the clips are holding it in at this point - go ahead and pull gently to remove). Note the heavier gasketing inside - it will probably be wanting to separate from the pocket. If it does, make a note of it and address as needed before reinstall.
Now you can raise the liftgate again to run the wiring. What's that? You didn't block the latch and can't lift the tailgate? Don't worry - that happened to me, too. Remember those green & red rod retainers? They connect to dual latches. Lift up (or push down; I forget which) on both *simultaneously*, and you'll be able to raise the liftgate. Time to have a beverage and count your blessings.
Running the Wiring
By now, you've noticed a couple of things:
- The primary wire run is via the left (driver) side, and so is the routing channel between liftgate & body. Since it's easier to follow that path, get out your zip ties and proceed along the edge of the liftgate until you reach the rubber channel. Get your wire pull ready.
To remove the rubber channel from the body, pry up gently around the perimeter of the rubber - it will separate from the white grommet. Do this on both sides, and leave it in place, disconnected at both ends. If you loosened / removed the white plastic piece that the rubber surrounds, just push it back into place.
(Note - when reconnecting, it is MUCH easier to pop out the white grommet (push in latches top / bottom) and reattach the rubber to the plastic - then reseat the plastic grommet into the channel.)
Unfortunately, GM didn't leave us a lot of spare room in that channel. In my case, I was able to get two 16ga wires through for power / ground, but there was no way I was going to get the video wire, much less the RCA connector at the end of it, through that channel. Since the video wire gets routed up front, you can skip feeding this through the channel, if you prefer. You do need to get it to the body side, obviously. The upper trim garnish will hide the wire, but it needs to get across. I went through the white grommet, but stayed outside of the wiring channel (as mentioned above).
I'll mention this now - when pulling / routing wires, take a moment beforehand, just to make sure you've got the routing correct, and will reach your next destination correctly. In the case of the wire channel, that means you go through the top (liftgate end), and out through the bottom / body end. You can pry gently on the headliner to get your hand or a longnose in and grab the wires - that part is much easier.
Trailblazer owners - since your reverse lamps are in the main lamp assembly, you can remove the tail lamp of your choice, remove and poke a (small) hole through the body side rubber grommet that feeds the brake lamp housing, route your new wires through that grommet, and proceed to splicing the power / ground wire to the reverse lamp. They'll most likely be green/white and black - those are power / ground. Leave yourself enough room to reconnect the wires on each side, if you sever them - especially if you find the wiring brittle (the green/white is the worst of these). Be careful stripping the end of the green wire especially. Splice & reconnect the wiring with the method of choice, and you're ready to finish the video wire routing up to the front.
(To be cont'd, next post)
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