Oops thought I included her post. The remark was to Gulf Coast Girl and a link to an infrared backup camera for under 100 bucks
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Nope can be use at any time. All of those "backup" cameras are just cameras, the only thing that makes them "backup" is that they have a wire you can hook to your backing lights power so that when you shift into reverse the camera automatically comes on just like in the built in back up cameras you see on most new vehicles today. You don't have to wire it to the back up lights, if you read the comments you will see that a few people don't, they wire it to the running lights so they can have the camera on full time when driving.
Anyhow, I didn't go with that model because the wireless range is only to 10 meters (roughly 32 ft.) and my trailer is 30 ft... 33 to the hitch and then another 7 or 8 feet to my vehicle dashboard. It might have worked but I didn't want to be at the limit and risk it not working so I just ordered this one instead, it says it has 300 ft. wireless range. Even though I don't need 300 feet... I figure it should be more than sufficient for the 40 feet I do need.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01BOV88WK/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I don't know anything about the wiring in my trailer so I'm going to have the dealer install it and I'm going to have them NOT wire it to the backup lights but instead just wire it to the running lights so I can have it on anytime my 12v trailer battery is connected.
IMO the biggest thing with cameras is the ability to "mirror" the image on the monitor so you are truly seeing what is on your left or right. For instance, I've been using my GoPro camera to hook up my trailer to my TV and at first I was putting it on the bumper of my TV above the hitch (using one of those small bendy leg tripods) and then I am using their GoPro App on my cell phone to display the image in my TV (this makes hookup a breeze if you don't have a built in backup camera in TV), however their app doesn't mirror the image so what the display was showing on the right was really the left and vice versa. I did put in a request on the GoPro forums to add the ability to mirror image in their app and a bunch of people jumped in confirming they would like that too so GoPro said they would add it in a future release. Anyhow, what I did to solve it immediately was to move the camera off of the TV and onto the Trailer frame above the ball coupler. That way the camera is facing forward so the display in the app is correct. In the end, GoPro isn't touted as a rear view camera so no big deal.... I sincerely hope, and frankly expect, any camera sold expressly as a "rear view" camera would have the mirror effect already built into the monitor... we shall see.