Fitting a dash cam can be one of the most daunting aspects of collecting driving footage. Luckily, hardwiring your dash cam is pretty easy, thanks to our helpful guide.

Hardwiring your dash cam is a must if you want it to keep running while the car is turned off. Through hardwiring, you will be able to enable parking-mode recording for the particular models that offer it.

Before you hardwire your dash cam, be sure to purchase a fuse kit.

Find the Fuse Box

Take a look at your vehicle's owner's manual in order to find the location of your fuse box. Depending on the make and model of the vehicle, you might have to pry open some panels in order to get access to the fuses.

How to Choose the Fuse Slot and Hardwire

Once you locate the fuse box, you need to determine which fuse slot you should be using. It is recommended that you pick a fuse slot that is rated between 10A and 30A to provide enough electricity to your camera.

There are three wires that need to be connected. These are a wire for a constant fuse, a wire for an ignition-switched fuse, and a wire to the metal ground bolt.

The constant fuse remains on all of the time even when the vehicle is off.

The ignition-switched fuse turns off when the vehicle is turned off.

The ground metal bolt prevents electric shock.

Make sure that you use a circuit tester to discover which fuse is constant and which is ignition-switched. The constant fuse is usually colour-coded red and the ignition-switched fuse is usually colour-coded yellow.

Once you have selected the proper fuses, connect one wire from your hardwiring kit to the constant fuse and connect another to the ignition-switched fused. Plug the last wire into the metal ground bolt.

After you complete all of these steps, your dash cam should be successfully hardwired.

Cleaning Up the Cables

Cleaning up the wires from your dash cam is a must if you want a tidy, neat look. Purchase an add-a-fuse kit for a more professional-looking installation.

In addition to making your fuses look nice, an add-a-fuse kit typically makes the wiring longer lasting.

If you do not want to purchase an additional item, that is no problem. You can still tidy the wires without an add-a-fuse kit.

Wrap the tires around the leg of the fuse numerous times until the connection is tight and secure. Then, plug the fuse back into the fuse slot.

How to Hide Dash Cam Wires

Hiding the wires emanating from your dash cam gives it a professional, clean look. First, mount your dash cam to the windscreen.

Once you have mounted the dash cam to the wind screen. Tuck the pesky cables into the lip of the wind screen. The lip of the windscreen is where the roof of your vehicle meets the glass.

You can use some additional tape or clips to successfully hid the cables under the lip of the windscreen.

Allow the cables to follow the natural curvature of your vehicle. This way, you can hide those cables in plain sight! You can then wrap the cables around the corner of your door frame.

You can even push the cords inside the door frame or car moulding. Run them along the edge of the frame to seamlesly hide them away.

If using the door frame is not an option, you can run the cables under the floor mats or even under the glove compartment.

Hardwiring a dash cam may sound at first like a challenging task that only a professional can handle, but the average person can definitely do it themselves. Be sure to take your time and carefully tidy cords and wires away as you go so that your installation is seamless.