I do a lot of trailoring of my boat during the warmer months from March through November. Between November and March I am hooking up to my 4-wheeler trailer. I am hooking up to either trailer 1 to 2 times each week on average.

I usually hook up by my self and was getting tired of backing up, putting the truck in park to see how close I am, backing up some more and checking again. So, at Christmas I received a backing camera from my wife. The camera mounts to the license plate and powered by splicing into the positive reverse light wire. The moniter is a little cheesy as it is powered by plugging into a power outlet like you would for a cell phone charger or GPS.

So, I'd much rather power the moniter by splicing into an existing wire that has easy access. This way I can tuck the wires away and have a nice clean look.

I have a 2005 Ram 1500 Quad Cab with the Hemi. Is there a wire under the driver side dash that I can splice into?

 

You could just make a completely different circuit for both the camera and monitor. Hook them up with a switch, that way when you are hauling your trailor, you can continuously monitor what's going on behind your trailor. Why wait to reverse for it to turn on; just have it on all the time while your hauling.

 

I agree with whiteram, I'd just pick up a $5 relay and power it directly or if you are afraid of leaving it on and draining your battery (although the camera shouldn't draw much amperage) then hit a switched source at the fuse block.

I put one in a buddies truck who owns a landscape business and he likes to keep an eye on the hitch "just in case" so I went with a switched source at the fuse box so he can monitor it at all times while towing...

 

If you do just want to splice it in as it, you can get juice from the cig lighter that way it will be switched with the car power. If you take the one screw holding the bag holder on the passenger side out the whole center dash area pops out and you can get to the plug and it leads.

I'd make sure though that the power adapter isn't also a voltage converter, if it is just wire the whole thing in back there, this is what I did for my satellite radio.

 

Another idea, if the lighter plug itself IS a voltage converter. My Sirius radio is like that, I bought an aux. lighter from Auto Zone and wired that in, that was the radio plugs into the aux outlet and I have power behind the dash. I wired it into the cig lighter closest to the steering column, that was it is switched. The one on the floor and arm rest is hot all the time.