99 Ranger radio upgrade and cable routing

[JoshT]

I posted a few weeks ago about looking to install a radio in my dad's 2000. That's still in the plans, but looks like mine might be jumping in line too. As I mentioned elsewhere my radio has become possessed. It was already exhibiting symptoms when I got the truck back running (-aka- put a battery in it) a few weeks ago after sitting for well over a year. Right off the tape deck wasn't working, I primarily used it for a hands free adapter. Then the CD player started acting wonky, haven't tried to play it, but had issues ejecting the CD that was in it and getting some sort of read errors IIRC. Then over the weekend the display started speaking in tongues.

http://imgur.com/SsOyJvj

So yeah, I'm going to be doing a replacement on mine as well. Sooner rather than later out of necessity. I may do the install on dad's first then use his radio in mine until I collect the parts, or I may do it in stages to spread out the purchases.

I've pretty well decided on the following for mine:

• Alpine iLX-407 or iLX-W650 Multimedia Reciever
• Alpine KTA-450 Power Pack Amplifier (45W RMS x 4)
• Pioneer TS-800M 6" x 8" 4-way speakers (80W RMS) <already installed>
• Alpine PWE-S8 Compact 8" Powered Subwoofer -or similar-
• Alpine KAC-001 External Acessory Control Module

I'm hesitant on going mechless on the headunit. I won't miss the tape deck, but I have reservations about giving up the CD player. Kind of stupid, I know I won't actually miss it, but still feel like I need it. I still buy CDs rather than digital downloads, but I don't carry them around. The CD that is curently stuck in the truck is a Godsmack album thats been in there for years. Realistically I'll like it better having access to all my music stored on a flash drive or playing off my phone, and will probably be streaming SiriusXM a lot (if I don't get the tuner). Pretty certain that gaining built-in hands free, the touch screen display, bluetooth streaming audio, backup camera, and other features will more than make up for loss of a CD player.

Part of the reason I'm choosing the Alpine reciever and amp are the powerstack design. The radio is veryt shallow. The amp is small and relatively weak, but I don't need more amp. Heck, I usually I don't have an amp at all. These are designed to stack together and mount in the same space as a traditional 2-din headunit. Since the factory speaker wire is adequate for the 45W RMS, it will make atidy little package without the need to find palce to mount amp and run wires all over the place. Another, though relatively minor reason that I am leaning towards the iLX-450 is the available external acessory control module. It will allow external devices like lighting, seat heaters, or whatever else to be controlled through the radio touch screen. It'll control up to 8 devices eliminating the need for switch panels. May never get there, but I like having the option.

I think I pretty well understand installing the radio and even adding in the amp. Where I'm at a little bit of a loss is routing power for the amplifyer and subwoofer, and getting the RCA cable for camera into the cabin. Of course looking at the destructions every device says to connect directly to battery, but I'm not going to do that. Maybe for the amp initially, but not everything long term. I don't want the spaghetti of wires running out of the firewall and connecting to the battery terminal. I intend to run a large gauge cable into the cabin and have a fuse block for the amp, subwoofer, and other acessories to connect into. Probably a 2 or 4 gauge cable with a 100-150A circuit breaker feeding a 6 way fuse block.

I've created a power distribution diagram below of how I intend to wire initially and long term. The fuse ratings are straight from the product manuals.



My primary questions are:

1. Where is a good location for one or two 6-way fuse blocks?
   • One for hot and maybe another for keyed power.
   • Preferibly in dash close to radio and amp
   • Future work may include a full length Explorer center console
2. Where is a good location to route a 2-4 gauge wire into the interior from under the hood?
   • Preferibly through existing (unused?) hole
   • Clean, hidden routing using very flexible welding cable
   • Will probably take the same path to begin with with 8 gauge cable
3. Where is a good location to route a RCA cable into the interior for the backup camera?
   • Same deal, preferibly through existing unused hole
   • Clean hidden routing
   • Separate hole from power cable to avoid interference

I'll be fishing the temporary 8 guage power cable through wherever I can route it. When I do the install of 2-4 gauge cable and fuse block, I'll most likely be fully stripping the interior. I want to do a heavy cleaning, add sound insulation, and possibly a color change at the same time. Well it'll probably be more taking advantage of cleaning and doing a color change to install the other stuff.

 

[JoshT]

Ok, I guess I'm going with the iLX-407. Was already fairly sure that's the one I wanted, but Sonic Electronix and PayPal kind of pulled a fast one on me. Was weighing my options between buying the radio and amp separately or as a package, and wanted to compare prices across multiple vendors. Maybe see about an open box deal from Amazon or elsewhere.

Honestly Sonic had competitive prices with other suppliers, namely Amazon and Crutchfield. They were all going to be ~$550 for the Radio, ~$220 for the Amp, or ~$750 for the package (slightly more at Crutchfield). Well happens that Sonic is running a bundle deal at the moment for a free $100 gift card with purchase of the iLX-407.

I popped it in my cart, started through the checkout to make sure there weren't any hidden fees. Checking out with PayPal, so it took me to the little popup window. Noticed that price was an extra $30 something higher, figured taxes which weren't mentioned, but it looked like I'd be taken back to the Sonic website for review and finish checkout. Selected the paymenty options I wanted (6 months no interest) and clicked through.

SURPRISE! Order confirmed. Shit! What happened to my review? I didn't even set to my address because I wasn't planning to check out yet. Turns out that might have been for the best though, looking through the store policies for cancelation (can;t do it online) and see signature delivery pllicies. They were probably going to send signature delivery and PayPal was set to my parent's address who are retired and home most of the time.

Sonic also the amp with free install kit for $220. I'll turn around and use that gift card to order the amp. Probably works out to my advantage. I was going to be ordering a bunch of 8 guage wire to do the install and assemble a winch control box. Between the cable and supplies for wiring both, it was going to be another $120 worth of parts. The amp install kit has 20+ feet of 8 guage cable, fuses and other goodies. I might need 3-4 foot for the winch control box, so should be more than enough wire to do both. Just need maybe $10 worth of cable lugs, and some other supplies I don't know about yet.

$550 + $220 - $100= $670

$670 - $70 (included supplies) = ~$600

By the time you add installation materials I saved $150 off the package price at most places. Even the lesser iLX-W650 and KTA-450 kit was about the same price. Atleast that's my mental mathematics gymnastics to justify the somewhat accidental purchase.

Might wait a few months to actually purchase the amp though. We'll see how my bank account looks in a few weeks.