Wiring up an aftermarket reversing camera

[GregMilner]

Chaps, I'm tired of jumping in and out of the car while trying to back up to the boat trailer - because in their wisdom LR designed a reversing camera that can't see the tow ball Grr - so I've bought an aftermarket wireless camera to attach to the rear bumper, and a separate screen to stick to the windscreen.
However, I can't for the life of me figure out how to wire the camera into the reversing light circuit. The cabling coming out of the lower tailgate goes into a junction box in the spare wheel well (pics attached) but all the wires are the same colour (black) and in any case I can't see how I could poke the camera power wires into that junction box anyway.
Has anybody done this on a late model L322, or does anybody know where else I might tap into the reversing light circuit?

A lotto ticket to the man who can solve this for me:)

PS I'd go to an auto sparky but it'd end up costing me more than the camera!

[Ean Austral]

Pull the light cluster out , see which colour wire goes to the reverse lens , follow it back to where you can splice it in and then just find earth.

And bobs ya fathers brother.

Cheers Ean

[101RRS]

I have got the same issue but as I do not want displays (gps/camera) scattered across the dash I bought a $32 wired version that I will only use when wanting to connect the van - otherwise it will live in the glovebox.

[GregMilner]

Thanks Ean, I know it sounds simple but unfortunately all the wires going into the junction box are back, including the ones that power the lower tailgate latches :(

[Ean Austral]

Thanks Ean, I know it sounds simple but unfortunately all the wires going into the junction box are back, including the ones that power the lower tailgate latches :(

So when you need to replace the reverse globe there must be a power wire to that plug that you remove from the light cluster, I would have thought you could splice into that wire.

Cheers Ean

[GregMilner]

Yep, did that in the end, removed the lower tailgate internal trim and got to it that way. All for nought unfortunately, the monitor won't even power up when plugged into the auxiliary socket. Back to Jaycar. Again.

[chaybra]

inside the spare wheel well there is a partially covered loom and from memory its the blue one (Pull the reverse light out and look at the back of the damn thing.
I did this to fit some LED reverse lights (well several anyway so its brighter going backwards than forwards haha) and I came across another problem, I thought i was crazy at first but the car has its light checking whats-a-magiggy that pulses a small current to each section to see if it can "feel" a resistance. this causes 2-3 flashed of an LEd due to little resistance so this may have an effect on your camera and screen setup? A ballast resister should remove the pulses enough?

[GregMilner]

Thanks Chaybra, I solved the problem in the end. There's a brown wire and a black wire powering the reversing lights. Call me old-fashioned, but I had assumed the brown wire was positive and the black wire was negative, and wired the camera power accordingly. The polarity was reversed, so a simple switch of the wires and everything working fine.
Hurrah, now I can see the tow ball when backing up to the trailer:)