s219
Super Member
- Joined
- Dec 7, 2011
- Messages
- 8,548
- Location
- Virginia USA
- Tractor
- Kubota L3200, Deere X380, Kubota RTV-X
On your plans for a front camera, I'm wondering how it would be any more useful to you, as a practical matter, mounted on the loader bucket or loader arms. Seems to me that would make it unnecessarily vulnerable, and if you're using a wired camera, make it more difficult to run and protect the wire. What would you plan on using it to see other than what's going on at ground level when the bucket is down and you're picking up material or "dozing"? I was thinking it would be best to mount it on a sturdy 12" or 15" post fixed to the top of the grill guard, so you could see the bucket's cutting edge on the ground. I take your point about vibration, but if the camera weighs nothing, so if the post were sturdy enough, I don't think there would be any more vibration than on the bucket or loader arm itself.
Noticed I never finished replying last night -- thanks for the suggestions.
I have a couple goals for the front camera:
1) to better see down in front of the tractor when moving around, since I can't see past the hood ornament now -- kind of lose sight of what's happening for 7-8 feet in front of the tractor.
2) to better aim and position the forks when picking up pallets (I currently have clamp on forks that the bucket obscures, but plan to switch to proper forks at some point and would still appreciate some camera assistance). Many times, I am using the forks to offload a pallet from a truck or trailer that is 2-4' off the ground, so the bucket will be raised quite a bit and the camera will need to see over the bucket lip at those heights. Makes me think the camera needs to be bucket mounted to see what's going on regardless of height or angle.
3) don't want to screw up whatever eyeball vision I already have, so nothing sticking up in the driver's view as a distraction.
If it weren't for #2, the grill guard would be ideal an ideal mount. It has a horizontal strut about 3/4 the way up that gets a good view over the bucket in it's lowest positions. Wiring would be a heck of a lot easier for sure.