Where should a dash cam be mounted?
Updated 2026-09-23
High and central, tucked behind the rearview mirror. That is the best optical position — the lens sits in the swept, shaded part of the glass with a level view of the road — and it is also the placement that keeps you inside almost every state's windshield-obstruction rule. A suction mount low on the driver's side is the position most likely to attract both glare and an officer's attention.
Why behind the mirror
Three things line up there. The wiper sweeps that part of the glass, so the lens looks through clean windshield in rain. The shade band at the top of most windshields covers the camera body, which keeps it cooler. And the mirror housing hides the camera from outside the car, which matters more for theft than people expect. The one thing to check is that the camera body clears the mirror itself on cars with large housings — and on a multi-channel camera, that the cabin lens is not blocked by the mirror.
What the law says, in outline
There is no federal rule. State law about obstructing a windshield is what applies, and it takes three shapes: states that prohibit windshield attachments outright with narrow exceptions, states that define a permitted area — usually a small square in a lower corner or a band behind the mirror — and states with a general obstruction standard and no measurements. Mounting high and central satisfies nearly all of them. This is general information rather than legal advice; check your own state's vehicle code.
Adhesive, suction or magnetic
Adhesive mounts hold better in heat and are effectively single-use — peeling one off to change cars usually means buying a new pad. Suction mounts make a camera portable and are the ones that let go on a hot windshield, which is the failure owners report most. Magnetic click mounts are the best of both and are rare: where a manufacturer offers one, taking the camera indoors becomes a one-motion job, which is the only theft defence people reliably keep doing every night.
The rear camera is the harder decision
A rear camera mounted inside the rear glass is a far easier cable run, and it shoots through tint and defroster lines that cost real clarity at night. Mounted outside — on a tailgate or above the plate — it sees clearly and doubles as a reversing view, at the cost of a cable through a hinge or a light housing and a module that has to be weather-sealed. Several manufacturers now sell IP67-rated rear cameras specifically for this, which is the clean answer on a van, a truck, or anything with heavily tinted glass.