I tried the new Auto Anytime Camera, But...

Hello all,

I was very excited to install the new Auto Anytime Camera, but I ran into a number of snags that forced me to end up aborting the operation and returning the device, and I wanted to learn form others' experiences here to see how you may have overcome them, and if you've had a successful install.

Note, this is different than the most common Anytime Camera kit, this one is newer and a little different, 100% plug and play, no wire splicing or grounding or anything like that.

1st issue:
- There is no instruciton manual. That's right, nothing. I reached out to them and they provided me with a video of an install for a Tacoma, which was kind of sufficient, but wasn't great because it is not a 4Runner and does not address any common issues you'd run into specific to the 4runner. I was able to get past this with customer service once I understood what to do: including location of the camera in an ORP, whether or not the switch button harness reaches the other end of the steering wheel, because the button closer to the radio is already taken by the heated steering wheel button.

2nd issue:
- The Tacoma video references a grey and a white side of the harnesses, where the colors on the Tacoma match the kit, so its easy to plug and play. On the four runner there are three white cables, no greys, and two of the whites fit the harness, so easy to make a bad mistake. Customer service line addressed my concern, and I was able to move forward. However, its still annoying that its not on paper.

3rd (and biggest) issue:
- The wire harness in the 4Runner and how it plugs into the back of the radio is fairly easy, click in, click out, no extraneous efforts. Unplugging the harness from the radio is easy, plugging the car's harness into the Anytime Camera harness is also easy, just click in. But, plugging in the Anytime harness back into the radio is a PAIN IN THE ASS it goes in super tight, and it is very, very hard to remove without causing damage to either the harness or the radio, and that was the gray harness. The white harness is easily 10 times harder to put in and remove. So, I was absolutely not willing to try, so I gave up and aborted the entire operation. Yes, the harnesses were going into the right places, and yes, the pins match - but it just would not go in. I called the customer service line and they validated that it is tight (when you plug male and female to the harness itself to test) but they said "its doable" just not, as easy as OEM. I don't know if the one they tried with was better than mine, but mine does not qualify as doable, unless doable is "dump your car off a ditch when you're done." - It was bad. Luckily with a lot of patience, I was able to remove the harness without causing damange, but that should take 10 seconds, not 20 minutes (and for the white one, I didn't even try, it would've been worse).

So my questions is:

1. Has anyone who has installed this version of the Anytime camera (or even an older version) ran into this issue?
2. If yes, did you resolve it, how? Or did you plug it in, and didn't care about ever needing to unplug it?

It's a bummer, because I thought it was a great device, in my opinion, better than OEM because you can flick it on "anytime". But... it wasn't worth a $3k damage to the infotainment, or anything bizarre like that.

 

Yeah. No instructions is not a serious company. My guess is you’d have a field day in a lawsuit when they send a product that can ruin your electrical system with zero instructions. Very poor company. I would stay away.

 

I’ve never had issues with their kit and even bought the front camera to add.

 

Yeah I have this kit for the Front and Rear and the install and everything worked fine. I didn’t the buy it from them directly though, I bought mine from Trail Grid Pro and the support and troubleshooting was top notch. They even had a step by step instructional video.