Aftermarket stereo

[FordGuy100]

Alright the time has come to take out the factory turn dial radio and put something in there thats more modern. I would like to buy a whole system everything from the amp sub and speakers, to the head unit and wiring. I was also wondering if there was a head unit that would fit in the stock location without any triming to the fake would molding.

I would also like to know what you guys have.

 

[yARIC008]

Well, i don't have an 85, but... i believe all radios are the same size. There are two flavors. There is the single height kind and the double height kind. I don't know what exactly they're called but that's basically how you can think of them. You should have the single height one. Any standard thing from best buy should fit in there without too much fiddling with it. Of course to get it to look nice you might have to mess around with it. They're all different.

I have a sony head. It's nothing too special, it's pretty old now too. It' just a cd player with a removable face plate. It has a sub out, so the subwoofer is controlled seperatley from the main volume. It's a nice feature to get when looking at stereos. The outputs on the back are just plain RCA - phono jacks for the sub. It also built in crossover where you can tell it to only send the low frequencies to the sub instead of everything including the highs.

If you're going to be buying new speakers, just match the speakers wattage to the head unit you are looking at. I have three way speakers in my truck. Mids, tweeters, and super tweeters. I listen to alot of classical music so wanted alot of high treble end. They also make 4 way speakers with another super tweeter on there. But they didn't make them in the size for my truck.

For a subwoofer, talk to argve, he probably has a good idea of where to point you. You'll i guess need something to fit behind your seat, so there probably isn't too many options for you, but i'm sure there are speacial ones made for pickups.

 

[NapaBavarian]

If you want a company that knows their stuff and can install yourself try www.crutchfield.com

I have a kenwood headunit driving a 4 component speakers and a bazoka powered subwofer, sounds pretty good, but it is in a noisy diesel I may add an amp later on.

 

[FordGuy100]

Thanks for all the information so far. I have all the essentials picked out, these include a Sony CDX-GT200 head unit, an Infinity Reference 5010cs 5 1/4" 2-way component speaker system. a sony XM-1252GTR 125 watt x 2 Amplifier, and a bazooka BTAG100 6" 100watt sub (I will measure tomorrow to see if this will fit). So I think I pretty much have all the essentials covered. But then theirs the wiring, and that confuses the crap out of me. Can you explain to me what all I need to have for wiring all of this in.

 

[The Warden]

'83's and '84's use different radios than '86 trucks. I'm not sure if the switch between the two radios occured between the '84 and the '85 model years, or if the change happened halfway through the '85 year. Both radios were twin-shaft design, but the '86 radio was still a full-face, whereas the radio on the '83-'84 trucks have the two shafts going through the dash trim piece. The dash trim piece is different between the years, for this reason.

If your truck has the later dash trim piece, any DIN (standard aftermarket size) radio will fit without any modifications. If you have the earlier dash trim piece (which will have once center hole and two holes on either side), you'll either need to cut the trim piece, use a two-shaft radio, or get a later trim piece.

Hope this helps some...FWIW, I put in the later-style dash trim piece on my '84, and have a Clarion DB345MP CD/MP3 radio installed now. I need to upgrade the speakers (I currently have two Rat Shack speakers in the doors, and a box with two West Marine 6x9's in the halfcab), but it's pretty good overall. Hendrix, Cream, and Led Zeppelin sound mighty good with the diesel roar backing them up

 

[f-two-fiddy]

I had to do some junkyard shopping to get the DIN mounts for my 85

 

[Compu Doc]

The wiring is the easy part. They should have a wiring kit for your truck. The wiring kit would fit the OEM plugs that are on the old radio and will convert to the new radio.

I hve a Pioneer unit in mine and I bought the Pioneer wiring kit for Ford vehicles. I did not have to cut a single wire and if I ever needed to put back the original Ford radio I can easily do that. All the major manufactirers I thinkl would make wiring kits.

 

[94f450sd]

heres what i got.

in my 94 car carrier,pioneer super tuner AM/FM/CD/XM ready,pioneer 220 watt 3 way speakers in the doors,pioneer 220 watt 4 way speakers in the back corners,pioneer 760watt amp running 2 pioneer 500 watt 10" subs in truck boxes,pioneer 6 disk changer,pioneer XM reciever,and wally world special 1 farrad capacitor cuz i killed 3 alternators with this system.

in my 95 PSD,evrything i have in the 94 except a 920 watt pioneer amp running the subs and an 800 watt pioneer amp running all four pioneer speakers.

i can make the over head doors in my shop rattle

 

[tonkadoctor]

I'm with Compu Doc, Get the wiring kit as it saves you from chopping the factory harness, makes the installation go smooth and makes it a breeze to reinstall the factory radio if you trade or sell it.

Crutchfield is a great place to buy sterios etc...

This should be the kit you need if you have the analog factory radio http://www.crutchfield.com/S-dYwQDKYYyMt/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?g=751&I=127OEM2

Here's the installation kit http://www.crutchfield.com/S-dYwQDKYYyMt/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?g=112200&I=142FC1270B

 

[FordGuy100]

Thanks for all the replies. I guess I will have to go to a junkyard to find a later model trim piece. I see that for the head unit they sell a wiring adapter, so add that to the list. 94f450sd how much did that system in the 94 cost you, and what the heck does a capacitor do? Can you tell my how to wire the amp? How much does it cost per month for XM?

 

[94f450sd]

the system in the 94 cost 200 for the radio,300 for the amp,100.00 for the subs,120.00 for the boxes,400.00 for the speakers,80 for the capicitor,100.00 for the XM reciever and 70.00 for the amp wireing kit,the plugs for the radio was around 10.00.6 disk changer was around 250.00

wireing the amp is simple.everything is marked.run the power cable from the battery to the amp + lug,run the ground from a good spot on the floor(the bolt for the seat works great!) to the - lug on the amp.run a wire from the power antenna wire on the head deck to the remote lug on the amp.

if you use a capacitor the wireing for the amp is the same except that you need to run the battery+ to the cap and from the cap to the amp,same with the ground.dont spend the money for the expensive ones at best buy or anything.the walmart special has all the same features at a lower price and it actually works.i spent 200.00 for a rockford fosgate non digital cap and it dont work.80.00 for the wally world special and it works great

the capicitor stores excess voltage for the amp.ever see the cars that when the bass hits hard the headlights dim?the capacitor takes care of that issue.

the price for the XM depends on how you pay for it.you can go month to month or pay for a few years in advance.i payed for 3 years in advance on all 3 of my cars.i think it cost me like 900.00 for thre cars for 3 years.the more you pay in advance the bigger discount you get.and if you decide to cancel you get all the unused money back.it was worth every penny if you ask me.plus you can still switch to regular free radio so you get the best of both worlds.i have been told that if you call XM and threaten to switch to sirius they will give you a HUGE discount,havent tryed it yet though :Sly

 

[Freight_Train]

Basically,you it stops your amp doing what your glow plug relay does.Watch your volt meter ro turn on your headlights when you turn the key on.An amp will drain a lot of power when it hits.It basically will take a /\/\/\/\/\/\/ power graph and turn it in to a ~~~~~~~~~ where all the drops are flattened.A cap is nothing more than a quick charge and Discharge battery.When there isn't a lot of base it charges but when you get a big thump of of bass it discharges some of its power.But as for installation.NEVER CUT YOUR FACTORY HARNESS EVER!5-10 bucks you can buy a plug and wire the head unit(AKA radio) inside.Plus the head unit wires and the factory harness wires will be totally missmatched.The adapter and the headunit will have the same color wiring so you just match green to green,Black with white strip to black with white strip,etc and just click-plug it in.Also,I think the after market cages will fit right into the 85 radio hole.Just bend the tabs to hold it in and slide the new radio in.

 

[Agnem]

I say get a Highliner and go that route. 4 speakers over head too.

 

[FordGuy100]

That pretty cool looking Agnem, reminds me of my uncles Perterbuilt head liner. I think I will stick with the stock headliner though cause I just redid it about a week ago.

Thanks everybody for the replies, I have a pretty good idea of what I'm going to get. Heres the list:

Kenwood KDC-MP5032 Head unit, XM ready
Either Kenwood KFC-1389ie 3-way speakers, or Pioneer TS-1681R 4-way speakers
The Schosche Head unit mounting kit that tonkadoctor posted a link to
The PAC OEM-2 head unit wiring kit
Bazooka BTA6200 6" 200watt sub
Visonik V308XT 180watt x 2 amp
Rockford Fosgate CP10PO amp wiring kit
Tsunami Lite wave PP912um-CAP capacitor
and then probably some more wiring

 

[ClassicIDI]

Well I can say that depending on the amp you buy a capacitor is not needed with our trucks due to the dual batterys. I run a pioneer 760 watt amp two 10 inch pioneer subs a pioneer 200 watt head unit and two 6 1/2 in the doors with two 6x9 in the back and I have never once seen the volt gauge drop or any lights dim at all. I Have been running this system for several months now and have not had any problems at all.