Swapping radios

RSD559 wrote:
Do you use it to play DVD movies to the coach TV? If so, that's something to consider as well.

Not this season. Maybe in the future I might. When I do, I will look at getting one that can play DVD/Bluray.

Right now, this is so I can play radio and USB. And the deck is cheap.

You can get a radio surround that converts a 2 din to a din opening that will reduce the hole to fit your radio. Visit a local vehicle radio shop.

Do you use it to play DVD movies to the coach TV? If so, that's something to consider as well.

I had to replace my JENSEN CAR RADIO in my POPUP.

Keeping my BATTERY DRAIN situation at a minimum I decided to wire in a ROCKER SWITCH to act as the ignition key function for the new Jensen Car Radio.

The original JENSEN CAR RADIO installation had both the 12VDC primary fused lead and the IGNITION KEY lead going directly to the 12VDC connection.

This places a small DC CURRENT drain on the battery setup which over time would add to the slow parasitic DC POWER DRAIN on the battery.

Now I can totally turn off the JENSEN Car RADIO by turning OFF both switch actions.

This action of course will remove your favorite radio setting but those are easy to reset when you get to your new camping location and then you would never turn off the radio just the ignition key function switch.

All of the local radio station and other local settings would remain active as long as the radio main section remains turned on.

You can see my IGNITION KEY rocker switch in this photo at the right of the Jensen Radio.


Roy's image

This may not be an important issue in your radio setup...

Roy Ken

Rather than CD/USB you might consider Bluetooth/USB. Burn your CDs to a thumb drive and set up for device shuffle. Hours of random music from your collection. Warning: Barbra Steisand repeats more often than any other artist :)

Bluetooth will allow you to set up one of the many online radio stations.

JaxDad wrote:
You have two options, you can either replace the factory unit with a “double din” unit like what is there, or replace it with a “single din” (standard smaller size) unit and fill in the extra space with a little storage cubby-hole that any radio shop will also sell.

If you buy from a place like Best Buy the price usually includes installation, there are special little keys needed to release the factory unit from the dashboard.

However you can often get a newer unit from a similar van off a sales site like Kijiji or from an auto wreckers. This gives you factory plug & play with wiring and likely a more ‘factory’ appearance.

The unit is going in my trailer, not my vehicle.

You have two options, you can either replace the factory unit with a “double din” unit like what is there, or replace it with a “single din” (standard smaller size) unit and fill in the extra space with a little storage cubby-hole that any radio shop will also sell.

If you buy from a place like Best Buy the price usually includes installation, there are special little keys needed to release the factory unit from the dashboard.

However you can often get a newer unit from a similar van off a sales site like Kijiji or from an auto wreckers. This gives you factory plug & play with wiring and likely a more ‘factory’ appearance.

It should be easy, chances are they used a standard automotive wiring harness quick connector (Ford, Chevy, Toyota, etc), though it may be a challenge determining which one. If there is a quick connector harness on the back of the unit, you might try googling the number on it. Then buy an aftermarket adapter harness so you don't have to splice all the individual wires.

I would not expect any difficulties, at least none that aren't obvious (like the new one being half as large), assuming you're putting in a car radio. Do check to see if it's likely that there's sufficient depth clearance; a CD player needs to be relatively deep compared to a tape player. I think most RV radios use the same type of antenna connector as car radios (which is not the same as most home stereos use).

I'd also suggest at least thinking about getting a unit with basic bluetooth support; it can be mighty handy to play back sound from a cell phone or iPad or whatever through the stereo.

If you were to install an automotive DVD player, there may well be some trickiness involved in getting it to display as they aren't legally allowed to show the movie (when in a dash) while the vehicle is being driven. They have a lockout typically tied to the parking brake switch, and many require some specific sequence of applying and releasing the brake before turning the screen on, so it's not just a matter of wiring that to a constant ground or +12V circuit as appropriate. A little bit of searching online in regards to the specific unit will usually show what, if anything, can be done to work around that. Obviously this won't affect you since you aren't talking about putting in a DVD player.