Best Dash Cams for RVs

When it comes to life out on the road, who knows what you might see? Be it a joyrider recklessly passing your hefty vehicle or a surprise rainbow shining across the horizon, a high-quality dash cam is imperative to capture every detail, from the intricate letters on a license plate to the full-colour spectrum of the landscape.

Lower Resolution is often considered 1080p, while 2k or 4k will provide you with significantly better image quality. Modern dash cams have taken this even further with the latest Sony STARVIS 2 image sensors, offering much better colours, and night vision for those all-night drives.

While the camera quality is important, a large SD card is just as important for multi-hour trips, especially when recording in high quality. A small SD card will usually fill up quickly, and loop over existing footage, erasing all trace of the scenic view you passed at the start of your trip. We recommend the largest SD card possible (usually 256GB/512GB) for your camera on road trips, along with possibly carrying a second SD card to swap out halfway, depending on your trip.

For alternative solutions, some of the brands we’re about to mention have some novel solutions. VIOFO, for example, has time-lapse mode, which will record footage at a much lower framerate, taking up significantly less storage. The resolution, bitrate, and video segment length can all be changed as well, to further decrease video file size, and allow for more storage. BlackVue, on the other hand, can compress footage to H.265, which reduces file sizes by 50%.

For more information on SD card recording lengths, check out our SD card page here.

Unlike regular vehicles, RVs normally have much larger 24V batteries. This means that your dash cam parking mode can last significantly longer to watch over your vehicle while you sleep, but given the RV might be idle for longer, having a camera with low-voltage cut-off is ideal to ensure the camera does not fully drain the battery.

Many RVs wire to a Cigarette Lighter Socket. RVs often have many Cigarette Lighter Sockets stowed across the vehicle, which is often ideal for wiring a dash cam to, for the simplest, plug-and-play connection that can be set up in a few minutes. Still, it’s important to ensure that this cigarette socket turns off with the vehicle, as keeping a camera connected to a socket that stays on when the vehicle is off has the potential for the camera to fully drain your RV’s battery. BlackVue dash cams fully avoid this issue, by having the camera go into parking mode based on the vehicle’s motion, along with a parking mode timer to manually cut off power at a set time. BlackVue cameras are our top reccomended option when wiring to a Cigarette Lighter Socket.

For Hardwiring, the fusebox location can vary greatly and is not always the ideal option for connecting to an RV. If your fusebox is in the most common position, located near the driver’s seat under the dashboard, you can wire to it, though ensure that you are wiring to a low-power fuse, often rated for 10A-20A.

RVs are usually equipped with higher-capacity deep-cycle batteries and designed to support extended power usage while parked. This makes them capable of sustaining parking mode for much longer periods compared to standard vehicles, which use lower-capacity starting batteries primarily meant for short bursts of high current. Some RVs even have unique solutions to keep the vehicle battery topped up, such as trickle chargers or solar panels, which can charge more than the low drain from a dash cam, counteracting the power draw.

Your RV is your home away from home! As your second home, it’s quite likely you already have some Wi-Fi method, such as a mobile hotspot or other device. With advanced dash cams, they can connect to this Wi-Fi network and unleash their full potential thanks to the cloud feature of premium dash cams.

The Cloud offers countless advantages to keep you always in the know about what's going on with your vehicle, from remote cloud storage to two-way communication with loved ones, emergency notifications, and more. BlackVue and Thinkware cameras are the best options to take advantage of all dash cams are capable of for this advanced feature.

GPS and Speed tracking in a dash cam is useful for these long treks, as having a history of the path taken, and at what speeds can prove valuable in planning out the rest of your journey. Plus, having reliable evidence of your current speed is useful for any traffic stops. Both of these are in all of the cameras we’ll be recommending here, and can fully be disabled if preferred.

Driving an RV means wrangling with a large beast whenever you’re on the road, with both hands on the wheel. Plus, since the windshield is so large, reaching up to control the camera can be challenging. Thankfully, modern dash cams have solved this through voice notifications and voice communication. With Voice notifications, you won’t have to rely on cryptic beeping from cheaper cameras, as the camera will verbally tell you about its status. With voice communication, you can talk to the camera too! You can provide the camera with simple commands such as: “Take a photo, start manual recording, turn on wifi”

With such a large vehicle, it’s impossible to offer full coverage out of a single camera. Thankfully, there are plenty of multi-camera setups that offer comprehensive coverage, with front, rear, and interior systems, to get the whole picture. For 3-channel coverage, consider the BlackVue DR770X Box 3-CH.

For full, 360-degree coverage with 4-5 cameras, the Thinkware Multiplexer is well worth considering, including exterior camera options.

But don’t just take our word for it! Dedicated RV’er “Love Your RV & Boat” has run a DR750X-3CH setup in his vehicle, the successor to the even more unique BlackVue DR770X Box 3-CH.

Full HD @ 60 FPS | Tamper-Proof Triple Channel Cameras | BlackVue Cloud Connectivity

If safety and security are your top priorities, this newly designed BlackVue DR770X Box triple-channel dash cam is the one for you. Its 2MP Sony STARVIS sensors for the front camera, interior camera, and rear camera are powerful enough to record everything that’s happening around and within the car. Also included is a Box that keeps all the essential elements of your dash cam - making sure that your footage is all safe.

For additional convenience, it also has built-in WiFi, GPS, plus the BlackVue Cloud connectivity which you can instantly connect to through the CM100G LTE module. Among the dash cameras we have tested, this is the one that’s particularly built for intensified car safety. Not only does it have the Box head unit but it also features tamper-proof solutions on the main unit, and all cameras with the SD card hidden inside the box and locked behind its own unique key!