Blackvue DR970X LTE Plus Dash Cam + Blackvue Battery install. Rear cam bracket from amazon for 5th gen. - DIY instructions & photos

[ToyoTech808]

Blackvue Ultra Battery B-130A installed under passenger front seat. Velcro which came with unit was used but only hook side was attached to grab to carpet.

Battery was hardwired to passenger side fuse box with fuse tap to P/Outlet fuse. Fuse box cover can not go back on due to tap but the trim panel under dash can go back.

Front camera was mounted and power wire run down passenger A pillar to Battery pack.
Headliner was lowered on passenger side from front to rear and wire was run on headliner with an existing harness. You CAN NOT just stuff wire between headliner after pulling out rubber door seals as there are side curtain airbags. There is what appears to be a double sided tape run on headliner which factory harness is secured to. It is light blue in color and the dashcam rear wire can be stuck onto it also with the factory harness. I have pics trying to show what I'm talking about. If you install as I did you will know what I'm talking about.

Wire can exit out of hole for pushclip in middle of headliner by hatch area as this is where you will secure the bracket for rear camera and push pushclip in to secure. Everything else is about adjusting angles to your liking. As some have mentioned its best to just get a tmobile data only sim 30g for $10 a month as the blackvue data is ridiculous with 1g for $10 a month.

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[Fishing]

Great work nice write up, how long can you get with parking mode? Also the fuse tap fits?? I gotta retry mines cause I was sure it doesnt

 

[Maximus4R]

Looks great! How solid is the rear mount? Any shaking or instability?

 

[ToyoTech808]

Great work nice write up, how long can you get with parking mode? Also the fuse tap fits?? I gotta retry mines cause I was sure it doesnt

Parking mode depends on your settings. I have mines on motion detection and I get around 18 hrs of coverage before the battery is depleted. I'm sure you will get more if you adjust the quality down and the sensitivity down.

 

[ToyoTech808]

Looks great! How solid is the rear mount? Any shaking or instability?

The rear mount is solid and there is no shaking. The only problem is that it can turn so if it gets hit it will turn. I just hit it with my head yesterday and it turned when went into the rear.

 

[Maximus4R]

The rear mount is solid and there is no shaking. The only problem is that it can turn so if it gets hit it will turn. I just hit it with my head yesterday and it turned when went into the rear.

Ordering now then. Thank you!

 

[Darkchief22]

I was literally contemplating how to mount the rear cam, thanks for the info

 

[Dongar]

Nicely done. I was running the DR970X on the '24 Tacoma rearview mirror when I first designed our PRO dashcam power adapter. I can't remember exactly but we got maybe 2-3 days of recording powering directly off the truck's battery before low voltage kicks-in, albeit I don't use LTE and I use non-default parking mode settings on the 970.

Prototype stage about a year ago:

Production PRO adapter with our USB-to-12VDC barrel jack converter cable:

Rear mount:

 

[scorp]

Production PRO adapter with our USB-to-12VDC barrel jack converter cable:

Is this available for purchase? I didn’t see it on the website. I was planning to buy a thinkware or BlackVue but didn’t see the barrel adapters on your site.

 

[Dongar]

@scorp thinkware and blackvue actually wire their plugs differently... same size plug but reverse wiring. I wonder if its a rivalry / frenemies thing because they're both Korean and two of the only manufacturers using 12VDC plugs. Anyways we have a bunch of BlackVue compatible cables but not thinkware due to low demand. When/if you purchase one, drop me a message and I'll make sure you get one.

 

[scorp]

@scorp thinkware and blackvue actually wire their plugs differently... same size plug but reverse wiring. I wonder if its a rivalry / frenemies thing because they're both Korean and two of the only manufacturers using 12VDC plugs. Anyways we have a bunch of BlackVue compatible cables but not thinkware due to low demand. When/if you purchase one, drop me a message and I'll make sure you get one.

Thanks. This is going to make my decision harder, I've had BlackVue cameras in my last 2 vehicles, but was thinking about trying out thinkware to see if image quality was any better and to see how their parking radar feature worked.

 

[Dongar]

@scorp The radar feature on the Thinkware U3000 sounds great in concept, but still a ton of debate about its usability, or some would say reliability: https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threads/radar-feature-useless.51169/ where crux of the issue with the U3000 is that while it conserves battery life, it's sensitivity to turn on and buffer video before the incident is questionable. So you may not get footage recording the context of the situation, i.e. a car barreling down the street and running red lights etc.

On the other hand, the BlackVue units will reliably go into a 'timelapse' mode when parked and record 1fps continuously. When it detects an impact, it'll reliably go into normal recording mode, so you'll definitely have full context of whatever is going on. You might also want a BlackVue for it's cellular connectivity which is good enough.

 

[Dongar]

Also I'll add: in my '24 Tacoma I've been running parking mode with the blackue then a 4-channel vantrue on the factory battery. 23k mi daily-driven miles in the last year and there hasn't been a single issue with the vehicle restarting, even after keeping it parked at the airport a couple times. If you're planning on driving your 4Runner semi-regularly, I wouldn't expect any issues running a blackvue.

 

[IMUKROX]

Nice write up and clean install. I'm researching dash cams and will dip my toes in sometime this summer. My challenge is that I need a minimal parking mode to last 21 days while I'm away on my work rotation. My vehicle is stored in a climate controlled parking garage. I wonder if anyone has used a portable power station like Anker Solix, Jackery, or Bluetti etc.... to extend the run time of a dash cam?

 

[scorp]

Thanks for the insight and additional details. I managed to drain the batteries in my last 2 jeeps, by forgetting to turn off my blackvue before going out of town. I had a blackvue 900x in my 4xe, it was wired to one of the auxiliary switches which worked well as long as I remembered to turn off the switch when going out of town. I do like the streamlined form factor of the blackvue models vs. the thinkwares.

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