# Dash Cam Installation: 5 Mistakes That Void Footage When You Need It Most

Fleet dash cam installation goes wrong in five ways: a badly aimed lens, switched power, a loose mount, no telematics link, wrong time. How to check each.

Source: https://www.highpointgps.com/resources/dash-cam-installation-mistakes-that-void-footage
By Stefano Mazzone, IT Technical Support Specialist, published 2026-09-18, updated 2026-10-21

## 1. Poor Dash Cam Positioning: The Lens Is Aimed Wrong

The five dash cam installation mistakes that void fleet footage are a badly aimed lens, power on the wrong circuit, a mount that moves, a missing link to telematics events, and wrong time, GPS or firmware. Aiming is the most common and the simplest: the camera sits too high on the windshield and tilts at the sky, or too low and fills with hood, or leaves the near lane out of frame. After a collision, the footage shows a beautiful sky and no car. Pull a live frame from the platform after mounting. The horizon should sit in the middle third, both lane edges should be visible, and the hood should fill no more than the bottom fifth. A driver-facing lens should show the whole driver and the passenger side, not the headrest.

## 2. Power on the Wrong Circuit

A camera wired to an ignition-switched circuit shuts off with the engine. You lose parked-mode recording, so the hit in the truck stop at night goes unrecorded. Worse, the camera reboots on every start and can miss the first seconds of the day. Put fleet cameras on constant power with a low-voltage cut-off to protect the battery. On a High Point GPS install, the GO Focus Plus takes its power from the GPS tracking device's IOX port through Geotab's Smart Cable, so it needs no separate power wiring. To test it, review an event from a parked vehicle with the engine off.

![Diagram of what happens after a dash cam event: trigger, clip saved, upload over LTE, review and coaching](https://www.highpointgps.com/images/figures/dashcam-event-flow.webp)

*From a harsh event to a coached driver: the clip, with speed and location beside it, reaches the manager within minutes.*

## 3. A Mount That Moves

Adhesive mounts let go or creep when the windshield wasn't cleaned, when the glass curves at that spot, or in a Canadian winter. A camera that has turned twenty degrees since installation is recording the passenger mirror. Push it firmly after installation and at every service. If it moves, remount it on a clean, flat area with the manufacturer's adhesive, and consider a bracket for vehicles that see extreme temperatures.

## 4. Not Linked to the Telematics Events

A fleet camera earns its keep when a harsh-brake or collision event from the telematics device requests the clip automatically. If the installer leaves that link unconfigured, the camera records and the device reports, but neither talks to the other. You end up with a card full of footage and a platform with no clips, and you find out after the incident. Trigger a test event after installation and confirm the clip arrives tagged to the vehicle and driver.

## 5. Wrong Time, No GPS, Old Firmware

When a clip's timestamp disagrees with the telematics record, or the clip has no location, the other side's lawyer will spend an afternoon on it. Take time and GPS from the platform or the device, not from a clock someone set by hand. Keep firmware current, since detection improves with updates and vendors fix the bugs that drop clips. Check all three at install and at every service, in the same five minutes you spend on the framing and the mount.

## What Should a Dash Cam Installation Checklist Cover?

These five checks take five minutes and catch all five mistakes. Run them at installation and again at every service.

| Check | How | Pass |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Framing | Pull a live frame from the platform | Horizon in the middle third, both lane edges visible, hood under a fifth of the frame |
| Power | Request a clip from the engine-off, parked vehicle | Clip arrives; camera did not reboot at ignition |
| Mount | Push the camera firmly; compare framing to the install photo | No movement; framing unchanged |
| Event link | Trigger a test harsh-brake event | Clip arrives in the High Point GPS platform tagged to the vehicle and driver |
| Time, GPS, firmware | Compare clip timestamp and location to the trip record; check firmware version | Match within seconds and metres; firmware current |

## Why Does Professional Dash Cam Installation Pay Off?

None of these mistakes is hard to avoid. Each one is easy to make in a hurry, in a yard, in the cold, by someone who hasn't done fifty installs. A technician who has done that many gets them right. The install is a small one-time cost against footage that has to hold up on the one day it matters, and running the checklist at every service keeps it that way.

## FAQ

### What is the most common dash cam installation mistake?

The most common mistake is aiming the lens wrong. A camera mounted too high, too low or angled so it misses the near lane records sky or hood instead of the collision. After mounting, pull a live frame from the platform and confirm the horizon sits in the middle third and both lane edges are visible.

### Should a fleet dash cam be on constant power?

Yes. Put a fleet dash cam on constant power with a low-voltage cut-off, or power it through the telematics device. A camera on an ignition-switched circuit misses everything that happens after the engine is off, including parked-mode events, and may miss the first seconds of each day while it reboots.

### How do I know the camera is linked to telematics events?

Trigger a test event after installation and confirm a clip arrives in the platform tagged to that event, vehicle and driver. If no clip shows up, the link between camera and telematics device is unconfigured, and no clips will arrive automatically after a real harsh brake or collision either.

### How often should the install be checked?

Check it at installation and again at every service. The routine covers framing from a live frame, how firm the mount is, how the camera behaves on power with the engine off, the telematics link, and time, GPS and firmware. The whole check takes five minutes per camera.

## Sources

- [Geotab Support: GO Focus Plus and GO device (Smart Cable, IOX power)](https://support.geotab.com/help/cameras/go-focus-plus/go-focus-plus-and-go-device)