aftermarket radio question

[WUnderwood]

OK fellas, I have a buddy with a 2003 Dodge Cummins, and he is looking to add a aftermarket amp and remote wire to his existing factory radio. He is looking to add the RCA wire adapter and a remote wire, anyone know how to do this, or what wires he needs to tie into? He does not want to go to Circuit City or Best Buy or any of those stores, because he has been burned by them in the past.



thanks in advance fellas!

 

[crabman]

Try crutchfield. Most of the time the adapters you need come with the equipment.



crabman

 

[scootergmc]

+1 to Crutchfield. If you order from them it's pretty much plug and play. From instruction sheets to connectors. You may pay a little more than other online stores, but for the ease of installation and customer service, it's worth it.



I bought some stuff from them for my old Mazda Protege back in my college days. The car wasn't worth much, but I had tunes, dangit. Crutchfield made it easy. Plus if you order from them you'll get catalogs for years and years. More reading for the crapper...

 

[MFalkinham]

Another vote for Crutchfield.

Unless your buddy has a high end factory stereo, it's probably not worth trying to modify it. Crutchfield has new CD decks with built-in amp, MP3/WMA capability, and (most importantly) an 1/8" aux input jack for under $200. Included in the price he'd also get the mounting hardware, wiring harness, and antenna adapter, plus free shipping during specials. It's quite a bargain, and installation is pretty easy.

 

[onesloryd]

I have been down that road and used an Audio Control EQX to balance the output from the factory head unit. As for the remote power on tap I had to use the key on power. With that being said the factory head unit only lasted about a month before it was replace. Another option is to use the JL Audio Clean Sweep.

http://mobile.jlaudio.com/products_cleansweep_pages.php?page_id=193

 

[p-Bar]

junk the factory radio and start out with a good foundation it will be easier to build on.

 

[WUnderwood]

OK guys, thanks for all the responses, but I was looking as to what wires I need to splice into, and what fuse you tapped to use for the remote wire.



he already has the RCA adapter, and wants to hook it into his factory radio



he has a factory cassette/Sirius/FM-AM radio.



thanks again!

 

[ENafziger]

It's not clear what the amp is going to be used for... to provide more power to the existing speakers, or to drive a sub? If it is used for a sub, or to power speakers where bass is desired, I believe you have to use the wires going to the front door speakers for the signal. The factory amp behind the glovebox has internal crossovers or something that elimate some of the low frequencies to the back door speakers, and nearly all bass from the dash speakers. The easiest place to get this signal would probably be to remove the kick panels by the driver's and passenger's feet on each side in the front. I've had mine off before, but forget which wires they are. Pull the door panels off and it's easy to see which wires feed the speakers. Hope this helps! As far as the remote turn-on... I think the safest way to add electronics on the '06 trucks is to use a separate fuse block (geno's sells them). These blocks offer both constant power and switched ignition power and eliminate potential problems with wiring to the existing factory circuits.



There is a website (I think one for hemi owners) that gives the wiring diagrams for all the different factory radio/amp options. Maybe someone will remember and post the link... Eric

 

[Jeff_K]

This is what you are looking for... . http://www.logjamelectronics.com/pacaoemchr2.html



Plug and Play... . Works great

 

[WUnderwood]

the amp is for 1 10" sub, and he wants to stick with the factory radio



thanks again for all the great replies