This is an update to our 2025 Improvements post concerning the installation of a second backup camera on our RV. In case you didn’t read that post, we had no way to see behind the RV as we drove. The rearview mirror on the chassis is useless as it only provides a view of the inside of our RV, which is perfect to see items falling out of the cabinets as we drive down the road, (Hey! Who left that open?!) but not at all helpful to monitor traffic behind us.

Our motorhome has a backup camera but Mercedes does not permit the factory-provided backup camera to function when the vehicle’s speed is over 10 mph. Also the view provided by the camera, which is 9 foot off the ground and looking downward, makes its very difficult to judge distances.

We decided to try an Auto-Vox Solar3A Plus 1080P Rechargeable Wireless Backup Camera to see if it would help improve visibility behind the RV both while traveling and backing into campsites. The camera is completely wireless so we didn’t have to drill any holes in the RV to mount it or run power. Power is provided by an internal battery that is initially charged by plugging it into a USB charger and maintained by a small solar cell integrated with backup camera. The image is also transmitted wirelessly to the receiver mounted on the dash of the motorhome. A second camera can be added so that you can have views both behind and in front of the vehicle, which is helpful when parking in tight spaces.

The backup camera is the red circle in the image below and the rectangular section to the left is the solar cell.

We didn’t know at the time we purchased this backup camera if the solar panel would be enough to keep the battery charged. It would be annoying to try to use the camera only to find that the battery was dead.

A another issue we had to address was how we would mount the backup camera to our bike rack when we travel with our bikes. The bike rack completely obscures the view of the backup camera when it’s mounted on the motorhome’s license plate. Most bike racks don’t include a license plate holder and the Yakima OnRamp XL doesn’t offer one for any of its bike racks we had so we had to shop around to find a solution.

We purchased a Thule License Plate Holder to mount on our bike rack. This permitted us to move our license plate AND backup camera to the bike rack. Why did we want to also move the license plate from the RV to the bike rack? Last year, when we crossed into Canada, the border agent politely asked us for our license plate number because the license plate was not visible because the bikes and bike rack blocked view of the plate. We didn’t want to cross the Canadian border again without correcting that issue!

Here is the Thule License plate holder mounted to our Yakima bike rack. The holder is secured using cam buckle attachment straps behind the license plate. The backup camera is located under the license plate so it does not block the integrated lights that illuminate the plate. Power for these lights is drawn from the 10-pin connector on the vehicle. You can see the red power wire protruding out of the back-center of the holder.

So how did the backup camera work out? The camera remained fully charged the entire travel season. The small solar cell provided enough charge to keep the battery full, even after the long gray winter we experienced in 2026.

We find the back up image much more useful than the factory-installed camera. Here is a comparison:

In the images above the Prius is about 5 feet behind the motorhome. The left image is from the Mercedes rear camera and the image on the right is Auto-Vox mounted above the license plate. We find the grid lines and the bumper-level view of the Auto-Vox camera to be much more helpful in judging distances.

Moving the license plate and Auto-Vox from the motorhome to the license plate holder on the bike rack takes about 10 minutes. We were concerned that should the license holder fall off of the bike rack, we would loose our license plate. A couple of zip ties ensure that license plate holder will not fall off. Indeed, the license plate holder remained in place for the entire 10,000 miles we traveled in 2025 😀.

The two downsides of this backup camera is that it takes a few seconds for the image to appear on the monitor after activation and it only stays on for 90 seconds. The backup camera is activated by pressing the rectangular button on the 12 volt plug shown below.

It would be ideal if the Auto-Vox Solar3A Plus 1080P could stay on the entire time we are driving. Obviously, the backup camera can’t stay on continuously because it has limited battery capacity. However we can turn the camera on anytime we want to see behind the motorhome, albeit with a few second delay.

We recommend the Auto-Vox Solar 3A to anyone with a Class B or C RV who is unhappy with their existing backup camera and doesn’t want to splice in power and run video cables. While this may not accomplish everything we wanted, it works well enough and was extremely easy to install.

We are looking forward to heading to Florida in April and leaving the cold weather and snow behind. This will be our first trip without first de-winterizing the motorhome. More on how we plan for that in a future post.