Replacing Stock radio with something...

[schu777]

Hi All,



I haven't got my truck yet, but I got to wondering... since I'm going to have the radio controls on the steering wheel, is there any radio/cd decks out there that I could still control them with the stock controls on the steering wheel?



Just wondering if anyone has done this or not...



Thanks, Michael

 

[jrusko]

http://www.go2pac.net/



They make a "steering wheel interface", a little black box that you splice into the wire for the steering wheel controls, and it has a little infrared transmitter you can program to work with any head unit that has a wireless remote. I think it's somewhere in the neighborhood of $60ish. I got one when I installed a Pioneer DEH-P9200R head unit in my trans am... it works pretty well, but it can be kinda touchy... sometimes you'll hafta try really hard to get the button to register, other times you just touch, say, the "next CD track" button and it'll advance by about 2 or 3 tracks. It really seems to depend on whether the sun is causing alot of glare and whatnot. Only real issue is finding a place to mount it... I installed mine over a year ago so I can't really remember how long the wires were, but basically there's a red wire for power, black wire for ground, and green wire to hook up to the steering wheel controls. I think they were pretty long, and could be extended if necessary. Then there's a wire that comes out of the box with an infrared transmitter at the end. If I remember correctly this wire was only a couple feet long, and I don't know if you could really snip it and splice in a longer wire without causing any problems. You'll want to put the infrared "eye" somewhere where it's somewhat hidden (so it looks pretty ), but somewhere where it's facing your head unit and has an unobstructed path so the remote will work reliably. After I make a few more payments and get around to putting a nice stereo in my ram, if I buy a SWI I'll probably try to put the transmitter eye on the front of the dome light or something, it should be fairly unobtrusive there. Only problem is I don't know if the wire for the transmitter will be long enough, and the box is big enough that I don't think I'd be able to cram it up under the headliner or anything without an obvious "lump", so who knows, I'll figure it out when the time comes.

 

[dsnook]

schu777,

you might contact Crutchfield, they have been helpful for me in the past. They, more than likley will have an adapter to link the controls to whatever head unit you choose. Or, they may suggest a head unit that is compatible. Here is their url,

http://www.crutchfield.com Here is their # 1-888-955-6000



Good luck!

"D"