radio unit upgrade?

Most radios these days are one of several sizes called DIN (French national standards committee if you wonder what DIN is) Double, triple, quad DIN

All are the same width.. The difference is the height. All have the same control placement on the bottom part (The taller ones have screens for things like GPS)

www cruthfield com is a good shopping place

now one of the major differences is plugs and sockets.

Identify the make and model you have
Select the model that has the features you want

odds are very high Crutchfield has an "Adapt-a-cable" so the swap is plug and play

You may need to add one wire from the fuse block (Alawys hot battery lead) for memory retention but that's about all.

X2 on Crutchfield.com

In addition to making your choice from a vast selection, they have wiring kits to adapt to the factory harness plugs, and also to work with factory controls such as warning chimes and steering wheel controls.

So simple and super easy to follow instructions. I did 2 TTs and recently my truck.
The people at Crutchfield are amazing to work with, very helpful.

Most radios these days are one of several sizes called DIN (French national standards committee if you wonder what DIN is) Double, triple, quad DIN

Deutsches Institut für Normung e.V. (DIN; So the French have finally adopted German, glad to hear it./

wa8yxm wrote:

www cruthfield com is a good shopping place

Thanks for this suggestion. I have been putting off replacing the radio in our RV for some time but have kept putting it off. The one we have now is the 3rd radio for it.

Anyway, I checked out Crutchfield and they had a variety of units that fit our 2004 Sprinter/2005 LTV RV and one had all that I wanted so I ordered it and it will be here in two days.

I have installed the other two radio updates but Crutchfield includes installation instructions and what is needed so I am confident I can do it again.

Motivation for new radio was to get phone (android) recognition and be able to have hands free calling and ability to stream audio books from my phone.

I replaced the factory in-dash unit in my 2010 Chevy 3500 based RV with a Kenwood/Garmin unit that had GPS, HD and SirrusXM (no Apple CarPlay or Android Audio at that time). It was simple to find a unit and all the cables necessary.

Also replaced the in-dash unit in my 2016 Sprinter based RV with a very similar unit. A bit more difficult to find the cables since the Germans use different connectors, but I finally found everything I needed.

A bit more difficult to do in newer vehicles like my 2020 Jeep since many manufacturers have less space available behind the dash so one needed to find a half-depth unit. That wasn't an issue when I did the replacement in my 2011 Jeep though.

wa8yxm wrote:
Most radios these days are one of several sizes called DIN (French national standards committee if you wonder what DIN is) Double, triple, quad DIN

All are the same width.. The difference is the height. All have the same control placement on the bottom part (The taller ones have screens for things like GPS)

www cruthfield com is a good shopping place

now one of the major differences is plugs and sockets.

Identify the make and model you have
Select the model that has the features you want

odds are very high Crutchfield has an "Adapt-a-cable" so the swap is plug and play

You may need to add one wire from the fuse block (Alawys hot battery lead) for memory retention but that's about all.

I think that the rear camera monitor is a separate unit.

Otherwise the unit looks like a a single DIN... it's pretty small.

Will I need a pickup mic for the bluetooth?

coolmom42 wrote:

Will I need a pickup mic for the bluetooth?

You'll need a mic for the hands free for your phone, not for the bluetooth. Bluetooth is built in to the stereo unit.

My replacement stereo from Crutchfield came with the mic. Yours will too if you buy one with BT and hands free for the phone.

When I start my truck, the stereo detects the phone and grabs the signal.

You need to pair the phone, only once when you first install it.