Protect your investment – A BlackVue 2CH Truck Dash Camera Review

Trucking fleets are more common than you may believe. American company, U-Haul built an enterprise just on people renting their trucks for moving and transferring goods.

People of business will know that they may not be able to function without the usage of their truck. Moving goods and ensuring that you get your goods is very important and for the owner of the truck, they need to protect their investment as that truck is their money maker.

There is a delivery company in Detroit, Michigan that recently suspended their night time deliveries as Detroit hoodlums would steal the truck and the goods inside while the driver delivered the item. After two robberies, they made the smart decision of no longer going there.

Infrastructure and investments need to be protected, therefore, truck owners should invest in a dash camera to become their all seeing eye. Theft isn’t the only thing that happens to trucks, accidents also happen and can be very costly.

A new product from a South Korean manufacturer brings a product that can protect your investment. It’s a heavy duty, feature rich dash camera that records daily activities including any mishaps that may occur. Keep tabs on where your truck is, record constant video of it moving, and even connect to it over the cloud.

Dubbed the BlackVue 2CH Truck, this dash camera has some high expectations to live up to as it comes from a brand that is known for its ultimate products that are always there for you. Could it be a worthwhile investment to protect your trucking fleet?

Welcome to my review of the BlackVue 2CH Truck dash camera. Throughout this review, I will be discussing the following topics: the design, setup, features, functionality, and my final thoughts. A special thank you to BlackVue for providing this product for review.

Design

If you are an avid reader of my reviews here at Tech Support Forum, chances are that you’ve stumbled upon one or more of my previous BlackVue dash camera reviews. Manufactured and engineered in South Korea, these dash cameras have become an absolute favorite of mine over the past few years.

The design section of BlackVue cameras may seem familiar for those who have read the past reviews, but the fact is, the BlackVue cylinder design is a staple that just sits right, no matter what vehicle you put it in. Additionally, this new model comes with a metal enclosed rear camera.

Beginning with the front, the 2CH Truck is shipped with a BlackVue DR650GW-FHD front facing camera, identical to the one I reviewed here.

Shaped into a cylindrical frame, the front camera is matte black in style and contains the front facing lens off center of the body.

Attached to the camera is a removable windshield frame that comes with a 3M super strong gel stick pad for a secure placement. Furthermore, the front camera’s I/O contains the BlackVue Wireless Button that doubles as a SD Card Self Format button, SD Card Slot (16GB Card Included), DC Power-In, and rear camera connectors. The camera also supports a microphone switch that will either enable or disable the built-in microphone. When pressed, the microphone will play an audible tone to indicate the microphone status.

The camera also contains status LEDs for GPS, Wireless, Recording, and a security LED if you wish to notify people that you are recording. That security LED can be bright, annoying, and discomforting, therefore, I recommend you turn it off in the BlackVue Smartphone application.

Being a truck optimized product, the rear facing camera needs to be heavy duty and survive the elements as any rear facing camera would need to be mounted outside. Here in America, the term “Truck” can mean a lot of different things; unlike the European or Korean idea of what a “Truck” really is. To clarify, BlackVue’s intention of this camera is to be used on a box truck, similar to a U-Hall or Box Truck. Likewise, it can also be used on pickup trucks. With a maximum 50 foot cable included (65ft cable available), 18-wheel tractor trailers and longer box trucks will not be compatible with this camera.

Starting with the building material of the rear facing camera, the camera is constructed out of an all metal housing which will definitely survive the outdoor elements. The body of the camera contains the camera lens and internal hardware, but this is bolted to a metal adjustable mounting bracket. Furthermore, the camera also has a bolted sun and rain visor that will stop sunlight from interfering with the lens and from water dripping onto the glass surface.

Behind the front glass is the camera lens, six IR LEDs for night vision, and a light sensor. With its position high up in the sky and rain water washing the camera from any junk, the camera stays remarkably clean and safe from any damage.

Setup

Setup of the BlackVue 2CH Truck is as straightforward as the last BlackVue cameras. Positioning of the cameras are key when setting them up for the first time.

Select the upper-front location of your windshield to mount the front facing camera. Since the camera’s lens is off center of its body, it’s best to align the camera lens dead center of your windshield. This camera uses a wide angle lens, so the front of your truck will be covered from a 180 degree view.

The gel pad that is attached to the front facing camera is very strong, therefore, ensure that you get the placement just right before sealing the deal and pushing the sticky pad onto the windshield. Do note that this pad is a one-time use, if you need to remove it, then it will be necessary to replace it with the additional spare provided in the box.

Cable management is also key when mounting the front facing camera. Being a two channel camera, you will have both a power and video cable to hide away in the interior. Many cars and trucks will allow you to push a cable up and behind the interior seams, but if this isn’t the case, BlackVue does offer cable management clips that attach to the windshield.

When choosing to power the front facing camera, there are a few different options. Option one is to use the provided power adapter which connects to your vehicle’s cigar lighter outlet. Option two is to cut off the adapter at the end of the cable and hardwire the cable into the fuse box. This is an option as some may choose for the camera to turn off with the truck’s ignition. Note: Most cigar lighter outlets will lose power when the engine is turned off, therefore, option one would just be meaningless. Option three is to use the BlackVue Power Magic Pro. Spoken about in my review of the BlackVue DR650GW, the Power Magic Pro is hardwired into your fuse box which then connects to the provided camera power adapter. This allows you to power the camera AFTER the truck has been powered down. You can either set a timer for how long to run or after the truck’s battery has dipped below a certain voltage.

To prevent draining the battery, the Power Magic Pro uses a programmable timer as well as an auto kill switch if the battery drops below a certain voltage. A perfect investment for most cars as it allows it to record a few hours after you turn off the vehicle. This would be very useful if you parked somewhere where your car could be damaged while you were away from it, shopping for example.

To mount the rear facing camera, up high is the best position for most trucks. Since the rear camera has a metal mounting bracket, screws will need to be used to attach the camera to the truck. Screws are provided which should be able to bite into the exterior of the truck. Provided to you are three steel self-tapping screws and four stainless steel machine screws. If you are buying this camera for your business, I would recommend screwing the camera into place to ensure it never becomes detached. If this is a personal pickup truck, then I recommend using a gel pad or another type of mounting material if you do not want to drill into the car.

BlackVue provides 50 feet of water-proof cable which is long enough for nearly all small trucks. A glue or epoxy will be needed to ensure the cable is properly mounted and does not move around. Take note that the cable is a one way cable and must be connected to the appropriate ends.

Once everything is cable managed, setup and ready to go, I recommend downloading the BlackVue application for either Android or iOS. Connect to the created wireless network by the camera and load up the live view of the camera. Use this live view to perfectly align these cameras so that they get the picture perfect viewing angle.

Features

The features of a dash camera are what really make it stand out among the rest of the crowd. Every dash camera is good at recording, so it’s all about what more you can do with your camera that somebody else can’t.

Since the front facing camera is a DR650GW, not much has changed in the features department. This is the brains of the operation as it contains all of the bells and whistles.

As mentioned before, the camera has a built in wireless module that connects to your smartphone. Here you can see a live view, watch old recordings, change settings, lock videos, and download videos. This is a useful application, although I have found it to be a little slow and watching old recordings can stutter unless you download them to your smartphone.

There is also the built-in microphone and GPS functionality. By default, the microphone is set to record sound and it does a very good job at doing so. The microphone picks up all interior voices and even the radio if it happens to be playing. This is a great tool for truck owners as you will have video and audio recordings of your drivers if needed. GPS location is also built-in so that you can watch your videos on the PC (Using the BlackVue software) and get a Google Maps location of where the video takes place. You also get the vehicle speed time-stamped on the video.

Included with the camera is a 16GB SD card, but this is upgradeable to 128GB. With 16GB of storage you can average about three to four hours worth of video for trucks that run at a constant driving rate. Although, your results will heavily vary depending on the driving times.

Both the front and rear facing cameras use a wide angle lens to capture a 129 degree viewing angle and will surely capture any accident or incident.

When it comes to specifications, the front facing camera uses a 2.4M CMOS sensor that records at 1080p 30FPS. For the rear, you get a 1M CMOS sensor that records at a lesser 720p 30FPS.

Finally, this camera now supports BlackVue’s new Cloud functionality. By connecting your camera to a smartphone or another wireless hotspot, your camera can become remote controlled over the cloud. By using the BlackVue Cloud application, an owner can remotely view, backup, track, and alarm the camera inside the truck. Furthermore, they can also use the built-in speaker to speak to the people inside the truck; likewise, they can speak back to you. If your truck happens to be stationary and one of the impact sensor are triggered, then you can also receive a notification that the vehicle was in an accident. If your truck as a built-in hotspot and is stolen, you can track the truck through GPS and even speak to the thief if you wish to do so; best to let the police take care of that last part though. The best feature of this BlackVue cloud is its functionality towards business owners as they can keep tabs on their fleet and even know their exact position by either the live view or GPS.

Functionality

Knowing how well BlackVue cameras have performed in the past, I also had great expectations for this unit.

The front facing unit is an exact copy of the functionality found in this review and I highly recommend you read that section to get a full understanding of how well it performs.

In short, the front facing camera records a stunning and vivid video that is both clear and well-lit during both day and night situations. The 1080p and 2.4M camera allows you to see close images of what is going on and capture everything that is important.

As for the rear camera, the higher up position and 720p capture is acceptable for most situations. The camera can have a hard time to capture the constant driving motions, but the video is still viewable even at higher speeds.

I find the camera to be best used for accident or theft reporting and nothing more. The viewing angle of the camera will capture the truck doors, and in case an accident happens you will have your video proof of who was at fault.

All-in-all, the functionality of the camera is fairly straight forward with the cameras doing their job well and recording over past recordings, as intended, when the SD card fills up. Video playback is watchable with details that become clear even at high speeds. The camera even captured a dead deer in the middle of the road that came out of the blue one evening on the way home.

My Final Thoughts

As expected, I am very pleased with how well the BlackVue 2CH Truck performed. Priced at $470 on Amazon, the camera is not something you buy on impulse. If you are a truck fleet owner or have a truck vehicle that you need to protect, I can promise you that this camera will do the job better than other dash cameras on the market. It’s a feature rich, well built, and powerful dash camera that will protect your investment in both theft and accident reports. With only the setup process being somewhat troublesome, this dash camera didn’t spark up any anger or frustration when in use. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, these dash cameras are your ultimate all seeing eye as it avoids the “your word vs theirs” in accident reports to the police.

Buy it Now:

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