AUTO-VOX 2 Solar Wireless Backup Camera System: 3-Min Quick Installation

Why it's worth it

The AUTO-VOX 2 Solar system charges its cameras with sunlight and plugs the monitor into your cigarette lighter. You get a 7.2-inch split-screen display and two 1080p cameras with no cable to run anywhere.

Every other camera here requires you, or someone you pay, to get behind trim panels. This one doesn't. The cameras carry their own solar-charged batteries, and the monitor runs off the 12-volt socket. Mount the cameras with screws for a permanent setup or just slap them on with the magnetic base. Owners routinely describe getting it running in minutes, and several push back on calling it an installation at all.

The two-camera setup is more useful than it first appears. One camera stays on your truck's license plate area, the other moves wherever you need it — a trailer, a camper, a truck bed. Drop the trailer at the campsite and your truck still has a working rear view for errands. The 7.2-inch monitor shows both feeds side by side, which helps when you're merging or checking a hitch.

From our review of 7 backup cameras for car safety, by Ben Carter, Tech Editor

What we like

• +Every other camera here requires you, or someone you pay, to get behind trim panels
• +The two-camera setup is more useful than it first appears
• +Both cameras shoot 1080p with infrared night vision, and AUTO-VOX rates the wireless link at up to 500 feet
• +This is the pick for a car that lives outside

What to know

• –The solar charging isn't universally reliable
• –On this configuration, the second flexible camera lacks infrared, so it goes effectively blind at night while the fixed camera…
• –It's still a battery-powered wireless system, with all the maintenance that implies