Fellow F-Type owners, this post may be a tad off-topic but I have been trying to raise awareness of the benefits of having a dashcam lately.
On November 8th 2021, while driving my 2020 Jeep GC SRT with my daughter, we had a catastrophic accident. I84 was closed 3 times in NY and CT that day, 2 accidents were fatal, the one at 3PM was my daughter and I vs. a tractor-trailer with a shipping container. While I was NOT speeding as most speculated, the accident caused life-altering injuries to me. My daughter has finally fully recovered.
So why this post? The dashcam was critical. The truck driver tried to get away, then he flat out lied with the narrative of the accident. If it wasn't for the dashcam footage, I would have been at fault... Had we been driving the F-Type instead, we would have been dead and decapitated.
Please do yourself a favor and get a dashcam. Should you have a fatal accident, at least your loved ones will know what happened. Should you have an accident that is weak on evidence, you will have some objective evidence of your own. As many pointed out, I have been absent from the group for a while, some noticed that I "returned" over the past week, truth to be told, I have some extra time between treatments and a Chromebook to kill time.
Please all, be safe, enjoy the F-Type and protect yourself as much as you can. I would hope that this thread can turn into a way for those that have dashcams to share what they use, how they installed it, and tips/tricks for it.
My install was rather simple, I tapped a fuse in the passenger footwell fusebox with a 12V pigtail to mini USB adapter (5V/2A) and ran it up the A-pillar and under the top windshield edge to the camera next to the mirror. Others will certainly have better ideas/ways.

 

Hi wishing you and your daughter a full recovery. Good advice.

Doug

 

I'm very sorry for you and your daughter's injuries.
Godspeed for you and your daughter's healing & recovery.

 

Sorry to hear about the accident but glad you’re here to share the advice. Hope your daughter a speedy recovery as well.

I was thinking about returning a dash cam that I recently purchased so your posting hit me (no pun intended) at the right time. Thanks for the advice.

 

Good, sound advice. Sorry for your accident and injuries...And wish you and your daughter all the best.

DC

 

Wish you both a speedy recovery. This just reinforces my contemplating on IF I should buy one or not. Personally I don't take my Jaguar on the highway due to the amount of flying rocks in AZ but solid advice even if you drive local like myself.

 

Thanks for posting and wishing you both a good recovery. It sounds terrible

Totally agree on the Dashcam. I bought a Garmin one a couple of years ago. V small, stuck at top of windscreen behind the rear view mirror so I don't even see it when driving. I just ran the long USB power cable across the top then right hand A pillar of windscreen. Tucked in all the way so you can't see it. Past edge of dash and tucked under pax footwell behind glove box. Then routed up to a USB adaptor in the center console power port. Took literally 5 mins to install. Totally invisible except 3 inches where the wire loops up to the center console to plug in - but I have a phone power cord in there too so it's not noticeable

I highly recommend it.

 

I hope you recover soon! Too bad they won't arrest the truck driver for filing a false police report or something.

I've been considering one recently since the dashcam videos keep appearing in my YouTube feed for some reason. Anyone have a recommendation for a good dashcam?

 

I've installed dashcams on all my cars over the last ten years. Never had an incident that required using the footage as evidence but comforting to know it's there. My recommendation as far as installing is to hardwire the camera rather than using a bulky plug thing in the 12V power socket. First off, buy the hardwire kit on line suitable for your camera. Most cameras operate on 5V and the kit has a little transformer for the purpose. You have to hijack a fuse in the car that has power when the ignition is off - power seats perhaps, or in my case the 5 amp fuse connected to the keyless entry system. My camera kit also has a 5 amp fuse so it's an easy match. On the XE the fuses can be found in the passenger side footwell (on my LHD car). Also you need to find a ground nearby but there are a number of screws available in the area. You have to pull off the extreme right (LHD again) dashboard trim panel anyway to run the wires from the camera. There are a number of videos on the Internet showing how to do this too. Much neater than running a cable to 12V power socket and, in any case. on my 2022 XE Jaguar have done away with a 12V power socket in the center console. Well worth installing in my opinion.

 

I bought a Viofo 3 channel (front, interior and back) cam off www.blackboxmycar.com along with hardwire kit, Blackvue Backup battery + an expansion pack that powers your camera when you turn off your car instead of using your car battery. The hard wire kit does have a battery saver circuit that allows you to select the minimum voltage before the camera shuts off to prevent a complete drain of your battery. Personally, I'd rather not drain or use the car battery on a camera. The other part of my consideration is that I have a lithium car battery and the way these batteries are designed, they die off real quick after they hit a certain point whereas a AGM is more gradual so the battery saver might not work well with the Lithium car battery. You can expand it up to 5 extra packs to keep it going for more than a normal 25-45 hours (depending on how many channels you have). I have an extra pack so I should be good for 30 hours for my 3 channel.

I'll be installing it later next week and will post up some pics.


Dat

 

I'll be interested to see your installation.

Vik

 

I've always thought of dashcams as something used to create YouTube videos of Russian drivers fueled up on vodka.

The OP has me thinking about it for my vehicles, any recommendations on brands would be wlecome. Some posts here mention a 24 hour circuit for power, why would you want to keep the unit powered if your not in the car driving?

Thanks.

 

Incase someone hits your car when you’re not there. Some cams have impact and/or radar to activate the camera. Some units have cloud functionality so that if you have Wi-Fi, it’ll notify you if there’s been an impact wherever you are.

 

Lots of good info on dashcams here:

https://dashcamtalk.com/

 

Sometimes it’s nice just to look back on some of the drives.
This one was useful to find out how I came to get caught for speeding!
The camera van was on the other side of the road under the bridge.
Waze did warn me but I stupidly thought I was safe on my side.
83 and limit 70. Had to do a Zoom course in why I should be a good boy in future.

 

Waze did save me from this one!

 

Understood, I don't care what happens when I'm not in the car and knowing me I'd probably forget to power down the camera when the car is going to sit for a spell.

 

That’s why there’s an external battery pack so you don’t drain your car battery or have to shut it down. Guess I’m a little different in that I do care what happens when I’m not around.

 

You can set the dashcam to come alive if your car is hit while parked, for example, or to detect a hit or record motion around your car. Handy if someone hits your car at the supermarket then buggers off.

 

It would be difficult to argue that having a dashcam in FType17's situation was a game-changer, but that's kind of being a Monday morning quarterback. The same case could be made for the person who decided not to go on a trip where the flight s/he was on ended up crashing or one of a thousand other examples. The point is that choosing to approach life from a fear perspective does not work out so well for most people.

I am for any individual chooses who to have a dashcam [or fifty of them for that matter], but in this age of safety at any cost, we end up as we have over the past couple of years with an approach to life mandated by politicians who will do anything to insure their place at the public trough. Millions of businesses were lost, hundreds of millions of people adversely affected by policies designed to "protect" the public from LIVING. This is antithetical to being a free person where each individual must choose for what makes the most sense for themselves and their families.

I always thought that driving a car like an Ftype was sort of like giving the finger to those who believe that we should all be incarcerated in vehicles that are all warning beeps and bells and no soul. Again, to each his own, but I can see the powers that be mandating universal cameras that record every second of our lives [of course, for our own good].

I, for one, will continue to take my chances and if tomorrow is the day fate chooses for me to move on to another form, so be it, but at least I will have accomplished living as a free person unwilling to succumb to the fear that is destroying Western culture.