5 things to know before you put a CarPlay screen in the tow vehicle

Months on the road, a van on the back, and a 4WD that's never let you down — the last thing you want is the dash pulled apart. Ours is $169.99 right now (half price), backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee, and it fits any vehicle with a 12V socket. Here's what actually matters before you spend a dollar.

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The 5 things

What actually matters when you're towing

Navigation you can read at a glance, calls without holding the phone, and a mount that survives corrugations. Here's how to get all three without touching the dash.

Dashboard of an older LandCruiser with a factory CD stereo, caravan ahead

Don't let anyone pull the dash apart

On a vehicle you're about to take a long way from the nearest workshop, that's a genuine risk — not just a cost.

A head-unit swap in a 100 Series or a 120 Prado means the dash apart, wiring spliced into a rig you're about to trust for months, and $1,200–$1,500 once labour's in. New rattles and electrical gremlins are a long way from funny when you're three hours past the last town. A portable screen sidesteps all of it: it mounts on top of the dash and runs off the 12V socket. Nothing cut, nothing spliced, and it comes out in seconds if you sell the vehicle.

Easy install, easy to use. Have ordered another one for my Hilux.
Liam D. · Verified buyer

What does it cost?

Evara Display showing Stuart Highway navigation in a 4WD towing a caravan

The screen isn't the computer — your phone is

Which also tells you exactly where it will and won't work.

Your phone does the thinking; the screen just displays it wirelessly. That's why a well-made unit costs a fraction of an integrated retrofit. It also means the honest answer on coverage: where your phone works, this works — and where you've got no bars, you're relying on whatever maps you've downloaded to the phone beforehand, exactly as you are now. The screen doesn't add coverage. What it adds is being able to read the map at a glance instead of squinting at a phone in a cradle. Ours is a 10.3-inch display, $169.99 while the half-price offer is live, and 30 days to send it back if it isn't right.

Great product. Highly recommended. Starts and connects in about 5 seconds. Connected to speakers through FM — good sound quality.
Karlee McVee · Verified buyer

See it on the product page

Evara Display mounted in a Nissan Patrol parked at a bush campsite

"Universal" should mean one thing: a 12V socket

Not model lists, not adapters, not an asterisk.

If your vehicle has a working cigarette-lighter socket — 12V or 24V, so trucks and campers are covered too — a properly universal unit works in it. A 1998 Patrol, a 2006 'Cruiser, the Prado that's done three laps: same answer. One of our published reviews is titled "Great fit in the GQ". Be wary of anything that needs your vehicle's Bluetooth or stereo model to cooperate — the whole point is that your existing tech stays out of the equation. Audio comes through FM, aux or Bluetooth, so it works whatever's in the dash.

Check it fits my vehicle

Evara Display holding firm on the dash on a corrugated red dirt track

Corrugations are what kill the cheap ones

Two checks that filter out most of the junk before you pay.

Read the bad reviews on a marketplace listing and it's rarely the screen — it's the suction cup letting go on a hot dash halfway up a corrugated track, and a seller who's vanished when it does. So check two things: how it mounts, and what happens if it's not right. Ours sits on an adhesive-backed plate rather than a suction cup, and it's backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee and a 1-year warranty. That's the standard we'd hold anyone's screen to — especially one that has to survive a few thousand kilometres of dirt.

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Evara Display showing a reverse camera view while hitching up a caravan

Where the reverse camera earns its keep

What it's like to live with — and the one job it does that a mirror can't.

Hitching up solo is the moment you'll appreciate a camera feed on a 10.3-inch screen instead of a mirror and a lot of guesswork. The HD reverse camera is an optional add-on ($29.99, normally $59.99) and it plugs straight into the same unit. The rest of the time it's maps you can actually read, hands-free calls, and the phone staying in the console. Install is plug-in-and-pair, about two minutes. The one thing it doesn't do is disappear into the dash — if a factory-integrated look with no separate screen is the priority, that's what a $1,200+ head-unit install buys you, along with a day without the vehicle. For everyone else: 4.7★ across 826 reviews and 10,000+ sold.

Audio quality is great, happy to have a reverse camera as well.
Susana A. · Verified buyer

Get it while it's $169.99

See the Evara Display — $169.99

The honest comparison

Four ways to get CarPlay in the tow vehicle

Where each option genuinely wins — not just where it doesn't.

Feature	Evara Display	Cheap portable screens	Head-unit install
Works in any vehicle with a 12V socket	Yes	Varies	No
Nothing cut, spliced or removed	Yes	Yes	No
Wireless CarPlay & Android Auto	Yes	Often wired only	Varies
Optional HD reverse camera	Yes	Rarely	Varies
30-day money-back guarantee	Yes	Rarely	Store policy
1-year warranty	Yes	Rarely honoured	Yes
Factory-integrated look	No	No	Yes