After pulling the door panels and the center dash I am very confused.
Do I absolutely require an aftermarket wiring harness to wire in my new front speakers and amp?

OR can I splice into the factory harness and get my signal?

My last concern is this "bass blocking" from the head unit past half volume, am I going to be affected by this? I just read this an am worried re: sq.

2009 XLT screw, no factory stereo upgrades.

New gear: Pioneer 720c, RF punch 150.

 

If you ever plan on selling your truck or putting the stock radio back in you will be much better off buying the harness, it keeps everything connected and clean. If you know you'll never be putting the stock radio back in go ahead and cut the stock harness (you can always get another one anyway).

As far as base blocking, I have absolutely no idea what you mean. If you have your amp connected through the sub rca jack there won't be any signal block. If you have it set through the rear speaker rca's and have your HPF set then yes you'll have some issues. Just make sure your gain and other amp settings are measured so you don't clip either the sub or the speakers.

(*EDIT: Just noticed you don't actually have an aftermarket radio. I've never connected anything to the stock radio so I'm not sure how it would be set up to accomodate an amp.)

 

You can splice into factory speaker wiring behind the plug left after you take out your stock speakers. Or you could by the harness for $12 if you dont plan on running new speaker wire into the door.

I am not familiar with the "bass blocking" feature you are talking about. If its that big of a deal, get an aftermarket headunit. More expandability, not to mention EQ controls.

Do not, by any means, EVER cut off your stock harness. If you absolutely must, splice in behind it, but do not ever cut it off. Even if you dont plan on putting your stocker back in, do you plan on keeping your truck forever? Someone, somewhere, someday will have to get back there to do something, and 9/10, people who cut their harness off have no clue what they are doing and leave a rats nest of wires back there.

 

I too have an 09 and have installed an amp to my stock head unit. I agree with the previous posts that you should use a harness. I used the metra bt 5500 . I think that's right. This harness is made for some sort of bluetooth device, but I simply cut that part out and used the harness to extend my wires to my amp. I also used an LOC because I could not find the high level adapters for my Alpine amps. As far as using bass blocker caps, I didn't have to becuase the LOC is set for High Pass and so is my amp. So as long as your amp has a high pass filter built into it, then you would not need one. I hope this helps.

 

Just to clarify I wasn't actually recommending it, just saying it is a viable option if you don't have an extra $20 or an address capable of receiving a package...

 

To the OP, here is what I would do. Splice into the wiring for your speakers at the stock radio harness if you have a stock radio. Use a lone output converter to run RCAs to the amplifier. Install your speakers and run the wiring to them. Cutting the wires off the harness is an option, but it's a bad one mainly because like SunDevil2188 said, one day someone will have to go back there and it is a headache when a loose wire is just dangling there. Out of good habit, don't cut wires off the harness.

As for the "bass blocking" you are referring to, it's normal with stock headunits because they don't have EQs and are designed for your average listener who doesn't demand loud music. Loud music is for the aftermarket radiohead, not the stockers. Also, you can't expect good bass out of your door speakers. It's a prayer answered if you can get four 5x7's to rumble 150+dbs @ 25hz, but you have to expect "okay" bass out of your doors. Just make sure you tune your amplifier correctly to the headunit and you will be fine.

 

Thanks for the responses guys. Was out of town. I soldered everything from the back of the head unit back to the amp and back to the speakers. After allowing a week of break in time the pioneers have really started to shine. I am very impressed overall. And I must say after ripping some of the interior apart I am impressed with the build quality of the truck.

One of these days I'll get some pics but it's $@#% cold here.