Suggestion on the power switch for the sub, which I plan on adding to mine in the next week or so:

I already have two 12's in my truck, and I put a switch inline with the remote turn on wire, so I can turn it on and off. The same will work with the Clarion sub. Just cut the remote turn on wire (the blue one I believe) and install a switch in its place and voila! You have a power switch for it. By the way, for those thinking why do I have this sub and two twelves, it adds very nicely to the already great sound. I now have bass from the front as well and not just the rear of the truck. I also put in Pioneer triax speakers in the front and Pioneer coax in the back. Everything is just about complete with my sound system.

I have never had any problems with the paint from paintscratch. It matches better than the touchup paint from Ford, and the plastic painting has not been a problem. I banged my Clarion sub around a little last night when I was installing it and nothing cracked or scratched. It had only been dry for about 10 hours too.

 

defunnel,
Where are your 12's? Now THAT is something I'd love to do, add a 12 or two.

Now I understand the problem here!! You guys are from the south!!

 

I have built two custom boxes for them, one in the rear console and one between the front and rear console. Very tight tolerances, and I will eventually get around to putting a fiberglass skin on the one between the two consoles and painting to match.

 

I have an idea how I am going to secure the thing with the zip tie idea but it appears from ccarara picture of his finished install that there were no zip tie used. How are you guys securing these things? Secondly I have a set of rca out designated for a subwoofer on my reciever which I plan on using for this sub but do I still use the other harness for power and ground and remote turn on? If I use the other oem harness for those things and the rca's will I be sending two audio signals to the sub? Any help would be appreciated.

 

The other way is to screw it to floor pan/tranny hump with the supplied brackets.. Most of us opted not to do this bracket mount for the obvious reason of not wanting to drill a hole in the floor...

I'm also curious as what other methods are there...

Chris (ReelWork)

 

To use the RCA's, you need to disconnect all the speaker level wires (purple, gray, and green wires, I think there are eight of them). The blue, black, and yellow are the only ones left I believe (power, ground, remote turn on). This is purely by memory, so I'm no totally certain, but I have done this sort of thing before, so I think those are the ones. You can either pull the pin out of the connector (I would do it this way) or cut the wire completely and wrap it with electrical tape.

 

As for connections, I installed the MP3 player from Visteon and an amp behind the rear seats. I used the RCA line out of my amp for the input into the subwoofer, you have mopre control of it that way. The power you can get from anywhere, I ran mine right to the battery with a fuse near the battery (since I had to run a power line to the amp as well anyway). The remote turn on just splice onto the blue (I think blue?) wire from the harness.

I secured the sub the way it is supposed to be done. Used the L brackets and cut a U shape in the carpet, screwed into the hump. Works nice and you can't see anything (as you can see from the above picture). The unit is perminent and very securly supported. I'm sure the zip tie method works ok too.

 

Same story. Been out of town all week on business and I get back to a huge box sitting in my office. Naturally, I was excited to finally get back to install... then the same thing happend....I initially thought it was the grey one. It's FAR FROM the color of my dash. I'm going to go with your suggestion and paint it dufunnel. Do you have those pictures available yet? I'd like to see it.

I'm pretty frustrated by the whole thing. The color is a 'brown'; far from the lighter tan color of the dash. After spending $30K+ on my truck, I'll be damned if I'm going to put something in there that's going to make it look like *****.

Dufunnel -- Also, you were talking about cutting some wires for speakers? I have RCA OUTS on my HU and I'm not sure what you're talking about. Shouldn't I just be able to run the RCAs from the sub to the HU and it work from there?

RP

 

Yes, the RCA's will work fine. I did that as well, except I ran the RCA's from my amp instead of HU.

You guys sound like ya shoulda bought 1972 Camaro's instead of TRUCKS!! LOL!!

 

For those of you that just ran the RCAs instead of splicing or using an adapter...

Which wires are used? I know the Yellow (power) and the Black (ground). Which other wire(s) do I need to splice in?

Are you all talking about cutting the wires behind the radio or the ones on the supplied harness? I'm confused...

Also...

Nah, not a 1972 Camaro... I'd much rather have a 67' Vette.

RP

 

I was out of town this weekend for graduate classes, so I was indisposed. I believe the instructions cover both methods of installation, although I really didn't even look at them. I will probably switch to RCA's once I have a chance to run some more in my truck. Right now I just have it running off the line level inputs.

 

Just out of curiosity, why would you want to run it off of RCA's when you can use the Line Levels? Is there any benefit or gain? Or is it so you can run it through a crossover, EQ or something of that nature?

Chris (ReelWork)

 

My understanding, and correct me if I'm wrong, is that the RCAs (on my particular head unit - Pioneer DEH-P7400) are specifically on the deck for a sub. Basically, it's a powered output for the sub whereas, if I use just the harness, it'll bring the signal down and then back up once it makes it to the sub. Plus, I'd say that there's less chance of interference with the shielded RCA cables versus the harness. *shrugs*

RP

 

That's what I figured. My Sony has the same thing but I am still using the factory HU.

Thanks for the reply...

Chris (ReelWork)

 

I've cruised the directions for this sub install and it makes no mention of RCA install that I can find.

I suppose that if I use the RCAs to send the signal to the sub, would I even need to hard wire the other purple and green wires? If yes, why I even need the RCA cables?

I'm still confused...

RP