This is a review of the Pemacom Magnetic Solar Wireless Backup Camera. I purchased this camera on my own and did not receive any free products or compensation from the manufacturer for this review. However, I earn commission from purchases made using the Amazon links in this post.
I was looking for a trailer camera to keep an eye on my horses while traveling, and a lot of trailer cameras I found were expensive, complicated to set up, or used a phone app to see the horses. I use my phone for navigation, so that last option definitely wouldn’t work for me.
I did some digging online and found a magnetic backup camera that seemed like it would be the perfect makeshift trailer camera.
It was easy to set up since the inside of my trailer is steel. If your trailer is aluminum, you can have a steel plate added where you want to attach the camera. The magnet is strong. The camera definitely isn’t going anywhere, but it can be a bit hard to get off when it needs to be charged. It does have a solar charging feature, but I find that to be hit or miss and the solar charges at a snail’s pace. On the plus side, it holds a charge for a very long time. I didn’t need to recharge it at all on a 10 hour trip.
The screen is large, making it easy to glance quickly at the horses without taking your eyes off of the road. When I have a passenger, they're in charge of keeping an eye on the horses. When I'm alone, I'm careful to only glance once in a while (usually when I check my mirrors).
The camera is advertised as having night vision, which it probably does when being used for its intended purpose as a backup camera. It does not have night vision inside a dark horse trailer, though. I haul with at least one interior trailer light on at night, so this isn’t too much of a problem for me. If you don’t have interior lights, magnetic work lights would be an option.
Pros
- Easy to set up
- Has its own screen and does not rely on phone app for viewing
- Long battery life
- Strong magnet
Cons
- Magnetic (problematic for aluminum trailers)
- Solar charging feature does not work well
- Can’t save videos (live only)
- No night vision inside a dark trailer
Overall I would recommend this camera!
On a 2.5 hour trip, one of my horses (Felix) decided to dive under one of the hay bags in the trailer, which resulted in him wearing it as a new fashion accessory. I saw it on the camera and thought, “Consequences of your actions, we’ll be there in 20 minutes.” He actually did appear to be pretty bothered by it a few minutes later, so I pulled into a truck stop and put the hay bag back where it belonged before he decided to do something dumb trying to free himself on his own.
