I just replaced mine with one that has the trailer hitch light so I can take a look at my old one.

 

What did you use to connect the video wires by the fender to the camera? Great write up just trying to figure out exactly how I need to do this. Also would I be able to use the factory camera. They have pretty good quality and it would keep it as oem as possible. If not what other high quality camera could I mount in the tailgate handle?

 

Thanks for the write-up I'm about to do this on my '17 STX. I just have a question about splicing in to the 2 wires under the hood. Did you splice into an RCA AV cable to connect to the +/- wires or use something similar to this connector I found on amazon:

 

Origianlly I installed a similar AV cable end but it was proving to be unreliable for whatever reason. It seemed that where the AV cables plugged together was being effected by heat/cold cycles and would intermittently loose connection. I was going to try another connector but in the end decided to just cut and splice the wires directly. It's had a stable feed ever since.

The only thing I ~might~ try in the future is a power source that is always hot with "key on" vs the hot with backup lights I am utilizing currently. Reason being is that the camera is designed to stay on a few seconds after you take it out of reverse and it would also make the camera somewhat more responsive. There is a 1/2 second delay now. The reason I went with reverse light power is to preserve camera life but the camera was dirt cheap anyway.

 

Just checked my C316 harness under the hood and located the White/Green and Brown/Violet wires off the front harness connector. However, the wires continue on through the back harness. Strangely enough, they do not terminate at the tailgate harness; ie. I am not prewired.

Anybody else's like this? I would have expected the two video wires to terminate at the front harness but that doesnt seem to be the case so I have no idea where they go. I was thinking of just cutting these two wires out of the harness to make them easier to tap since they are supposed to terminate here anyway assuming you are not prewired to the rear harness.

 

This is the first I've read about that. If you are certain you have found the correct wires making it through the connector then I would expect to also find them at the connector behind the spare. I've researched the diagrams and connector locations and there aren't any breaks in between.

 

So after some more investigation I found that the bundle of wires from the C316 under hood harness splits off to several smaller harnesses at the back. The two white/green and brown/violet wires are found in a separate connector (shown in blue below) that has a protective cap on it (the same one found in your glove box for protecting the camera harness during tailgate removal). The two wires for the power tailgate lock splits off into another harness (shown in pink) that goes to the gate.

So I am not sure if I am pre-wired or not but it seems I could just tap into the blue harness for the camera connection assuming that I am tracing the right wires in the first place! This is a '15 XL with 4.2" non nav display FWIW.

 

Here is my post in another thread. It has all the factory part numbers you need.

https://www.f150forum.com/f118/installing-backup-camera-2015-f150-scab-300a-313837/index6/#post5411536

 

The illusive tailgate ajar circuit is still out there in some late 2016 & early 2017 F150s in this same harness location as well. Ford deleted the feature after a very short production run where it was included by default on all trim levels. The wiring still exists in the body harness of many trucks, despite the fact that Ford erased every mention of it from Planet Earth.

 

FYI, C316