Backup cameras are one of the most significant innovations in automotive safety since anti-lock brakes. For people who use them, they’ve become an essential tool for parking, as well as having other useful features. They are especially useful for drivers with large vehicles like trucks and RVs to maneuver through difficult parking situations, and aligning trailers and vehicles for hitching with ease.
Since you rely on your backup camera to protect the safety of your vehicle, passengers, and cars and pedestrians around you, you should protect your camera too!
Unfortunately, while backup cameras are made to be exposed to the elements, they can become damaged and dirty, reducing their functionality. Instead of constantly cleaning, repairing, or replacing your backup camera, protect it with a backup camera cover!
Why You Should Cover Your Backup Camera
Many commercial and agricultural backup cameras are made with a form of camera cover or visor to help shield it from rain, snow, or sun from interfering with the camera’s vision. However, most stock and consumer backup cameras do not come with a cover to shield it from becoming dirty or damaged.
Backup cameras can get dirty in a variety of ways. Inclement weather like rain, snow, and hail can make the camera clouded and blurry. Mud, dirt, oil, and grime can become caked on and streak across the camera lens, obscuring its vision. When you’re out running errands, going to work, or picking up kids from school, you don’t want to have to stop everything you’re doing and clean your camera lens every time you get in the car. You’re more likely to get into an accident when you’re rushing or distracted. When you’re backing up and you notice your lens is dirty, you don’t have time to clean it. That’s when accidents happen. You backup without checking and hit another car, or worse, a pedestrian.
Relying on a backup camera with a damaged or dirty camera with obscured vision can be even more dangerous than reversing without looking.
The false sense of security in a backup camera with vision interference can make you less aware of possible collisions. The damage can be even worse if you drive a large vehicle, like an RV, which already has plenty of blindspots and can be difficult to maneuver.
RVs in particular especially benefit from the added safety and convenience of a backup camera and backup camera cover. Due to their large size, RV’s have multiple blind spots, and they can be difficult to maneuver around obstacles and corners. An RV backup camera can make you feel safer and more confident behind the wheel, and make your RV less of a threat to cars and pedestrians around you.
Being able to see behind you as you are backing up also allows you to check for children, pets, cars and any other obstacles that weren’t there when you started to back up. This is especially true in crowded and busy campgrounds. It can make it a lot easier for you to opt for the cheaper back-in spaces at your favorite campgrounds, since it won't be such an ordeal to wiggle into your campsite. Similarly, when wiggling through tight spaces or aligning hitches on trailers and vehicles, the camera and camera cover comes in handy for precise reversing without worry of impact with the camera. If you’d had to replace your RV backup camera because it was damaged from a collision while parking or hitching, a camera cover is the solution to prevent it from happening again.
The Benefits of Backup Camera Covers
Treating your backup camera with a cleaner and a liquid repellent solution can be helpful, but that’s not always enough to keep cameras clean and protected from damage. The solution is to shield your backup camera with a backup camera cover.
Benefit 1. Backup Camera Covers Keep Backup Cameras Clean
If you find yourself having to constantly clean your backup camera, a camera cover can help keep it clean. Covers shield from water, slush, ice, mud, dirt, oil, and other grime from accumulating on the lens. If you’re doing a lot of driving in unfavorable road and weather conditions and making lots of stops, you’ll want a clean camera, but it’s probably going to get really dirty, and a cover can help.
Here’s what the main functions of a camera cover are:
- They shield the lens so you don’t have to keep cleaning it
- They can provide additional stability for the camera
- They prevent debris and damage from blurring the camera
Some camera covers are also automatic cleaners, so you don’t have to get out and constantly clean it if the lens becomes obscured with dirt and grime.
Benefit 2. Backup Camera Covers Protect in A Collision
A cover can protect the camera itself in the event of a collision. A backup camera can help prevent collisions when you’re reversing, but it can’t prevent all kinds of accidents. If your car is in an accident, the camera can be damaged from the impact. As if dealing with a fender bender weren’t bad enough, it’s an added hassle to have to repair or replace your backup camera because someone damaged it.
Benefit 3. Backup Camera Covers Prevent Scratches & Dings
Camera covers protect your backup camera from scratches, cracks, and chips from rocks and other small hard debris on the road. The same things that can crack a windshield, scratch the paint, or put a hole or get stuck in a tire can make contact with the camera and damage it, obscuring its vision and prompting repair or replacement.
Backup Camera Covers Got Your Back
No matter what your current situation is, you should not use a damaged backup camera or scratched lens because partially obscured and unreliable vision can result in a serious accident. Replacing the camera or repairing it and installing a cover is a good protective measure. If you have a backup camera that’s not in good condition, we can help. Camera Source has a huge variety of OEM and aftermarket cameras that are designed to suit any need. Get in touch with us or start browsing our inventory today!
