I was given a free CarPlay\Android Auto display screen recently and kind of installed it in my 2006 HSE. It's pretty nifty though I haven't quite figured our where I'll mount it permanently (right now it's secured while sitting on the little ledge to the rear of the OEM display, but at 10-3/8 inches wide it needs to be mounted higher on the dash and what came with it for that purpose isn't quite right...I'll figure it out eventually). It's good enough that I plan to keep using it, and I've got it velcroed (if that's actually a word) so I can swing it out of the way and still see the OEM display when needed.

It comes with a hardwired backup camera that integrates into the display and that's a tempting idea for me. You can only hitch up to a trailer so many times in your married life if you and the spouse have to always coordinate on vehicle and trailer positioning through screaming and arguing over what constitutes "close", "left", "right", "a little more", and "perfect". A backup camera would be quite useful for that purpose, as well as when every interior inch of the truck behind the front row is jammed packed with camping gear and you want to pull out of a parking space.

Obviously a wireless backup camera that is designed from the jump to works with a CarPlay display would be a much simpler project, but like I said, the display was free so wired it is for now. The camera comes with a very long cable for the video signal that plugs into the display and barring some good reason not to, that's what I'm going to use. I have no questions about mounting the camera or getting it switched power when in place (that topic has been revisited many times in this forum), but I would like your input as to the least problematic route I would use to thread that cable from the rear hatch area and somehow have it magically reappear somewhere around the dash.

Any ideas? Anything I should avoid doing? Is this a stupid idea?

Please advise.

Nick in Palm Springs

 

The cable for my camera runs along the sill panel cable tray up behind the cargo area trim then up the RH rear pillar and across under the rear roof light trim.
It then goes into the rubber cable conduit and into the top of the tailgate, down under the plastic trim and into the door handle where the camera is mounted.
I had to add a 1m extension AV cable as the camera cable wasn't long enough , my android head unit has a canbus decoder so i didn't need to tap into the reverse light.

 

Thanks! I think that the shop manual sections on removing pillar and liftgate trim should get me access to the areas you've mentioned. Haven't found the sill panel cable tray access instructions yet but I'm sure they are in there somewhere (there's a lot of stuff about the rocker panels, but only in association with corrosion issues). The only thing that really worries me is getting the camera wiring from the top of the rear pillar trim to the spot where the electrical lines go into the cable sleeves that connect the body and the liftgate. I have this horrific vision of me taping the camera wires to a long coat hanger wire and poking around from the top of the pillar towards the liftgate, only to punch right through the headliner. Any tips on that subject?

Thanks,

Nick in Palm Springs

 

You probably want to run along the headliner. If not, use a very good shield cable. Running along the rockers can result in noise in the camera image.