Awesome info and pic! I just ordered this head unit and it will be here in a few days. I am just trying to figure out where to put the GPS antenna.. I talked to a local installer and they wanted to put it in the little tray above the radio but I was thinking of mounting it on the rear window. Any reason that is a bad idea? Any other suggestions??

Thanks in advance!

 

Hey Aaron, I ran my GPS antenna through my 3rd brake light, and tucked the wire inside the plastic along the headliner over to the driver's side and down the column to underneath the dash, the antenna sits on the roof in front of the 3rd brake light, hope this helps.

 

wow.. you went all out! Does it stay on magnetically just fine in that location or did you glue it on or something? I assume the GPS signal is better outside of the vehicle.

I had a 20% off my whole order at crutchfield.com and I went ahead and got the bluetooth and HD radio adapters as well.. you have any experience with those? This head unit is so new there is very little info about it out there.. I just knew it was the only double din nav integrated with a detachable face.. a NECESSITY in my area!

I am so stoked to get this stuff setup and I will try and post a pic of it on this thread in about a week.

Thanks for the super fast response!

 

Yeah, the antenna is magnetic and does not move at all. I have the bluetooth and it works great! I wish they would put a national ban on cell phone use while driving unless the driver is using a handsfree device, much less distracting. Don't know about the HD radio though, I have Sirius instead.

 

awesome! There is only one rock radio station in my town and it is only available as HD so that was kind of my motivation there. I will begin the mental prep to be ready to install the GPS antenna.. wish it was as plug and play as the head unit though.

 

got it installed.. 6+ hours so far.. way too damn tired to take pics tonight.

Now I understand what all this about dremeling the kit to make it work. I had to midnight dremel the thing and I got it where I can remove the face but strangely it still catches when loading a CD. I will attempt to fix that tomorrow with it in the truck. Major props to anyone who gets it as clean and flush as the pic earlier in this thread.. I got it to about 1/4" sticking out and the Metra install adapter is not sitting flush with the dash like the stock radio did. Im guessing that is a quality control issue..

Anyways.. sleepy time now.. will play with my new toy tomorrow.

 

Hey Aaron, you have to dremmel out the holes on the side brackets of the metra kit, and by the sound of it, you'll have to dremmel out the bottom of the kit a little more. Hold the side brackets of the kit up to the side of the factory mounting holes on the HU and try to gauge where the unit will sit flush and slot out the holes on the side brackets to line up with the holes on the HU. Hope you uderstood that. It's a pita, but if you take your time, it can be done. When your done trimming out the bottom of the kit a little more, take a file to it to smooth out the cut edges. PM me or e-mail if you have any questions, and when you get some time, post some pics. What year is your truck?

 

my truck is a 2008 XL with 499 miles on the odometer

I know exactly what you are describing.. I noticed how poorly the stock holes in the adapter meshed up with the unit when it looked close to flush. PITA is a nice way of saying it! haha.. oh well back to work.

Does yours show RDS data for radio stations? (song and artist..) Mine didn't seem to pick any of that up.

 

Only the Sirius stations. FM and am don't show song/artist. Haven't listened to fm since getting Siruis. I imagine the h.d. radio displays RDS.

 

yea I have the HD radio hooked up and I am still getting no RDS for FM. Haven't been able to pickup an HD station either but I live in a small town so its possible there aren't any yet (though I heard there was one..). Either way I am headed to Houston this weekend and I know some of their stations are HD and do RDS so I will know for sure soon. I will really be pissed if they don't because some/maybe most factory head units get RDS these days.

Otherwise the head unit is tops.. I made a call on bluetooth this morning and the receiver said I sounded better than I normally do (directly over the phone). Finally figured out how to set the "Home" location.. took me forever to find that one. I guess it would help if I RTFM.

Will try to redo the mounting kit / drill holes and dremel this afternoon.

 

Cool. Take some snapshots and post some pics later.

 

When I first installed this the top of the face kit was sunk in like a quarter of an inch below the stock dash.. BAD..



I brainstormed for a bit and decided to add washers to make it level with the dash.. which worked but then the damn detachable face quit detaching because it was rubbing on the top edge.. so I dremeled the top edge too.. hopefully i can smooth it out aesthetically a bit tomorrow but I got it working perfectly.



I put new holes in the kit too to allow me to sink the radio a bit more into the dash... Located the bluetooth above the radio with the mic by the steering wheel.

 

Toward the end of the wiring phase it began to look like my dashboard puked..



GPS antenna.. did not feel like routing it too far..



done..

 

Nice pics of the install. I think your gonna like the fact that your unit tilts foward a little to ward off some of the glare you get while driving during the day. I sometimes find mine sits a little too flush because it gets hit by the sun at certain angles. Would be nice to tilt it foward instead of back. Almost bought a Kenwood unit instead because their units have an option to tilt the face foward instead of back, which I thought was pretty sweet. Have you tried your nav. yet? Just curious if that antenna location is working out alright.

 

Hate to be so late in this thread but the best place for the GPS antenna is right behind the radio. There is a U shaped bar. Right in the top of that. Picks up perfect and is hidden. Normally about 10 of 14 Satellites average.

Sirius and XM - 3rd Brakelight. 3/3.