Kicker hideaway- final upgrade to the $250(+) 3rd gen premium upgrade (+Kicker Key 180.4 amp)

I did the $250 Kicker / Subaru budget plug and play tweeter upgrade with Kicker CS front and rear door speakers. Massive improvement and a great way to go vs complete audio gutting and starting over.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/premium-audio-upgrade-for-less-than-250.510424/
I was so impressed with this upgrade it sucked me in and I decided to go one step further as others had and ordered a Kicker hideaway powered sub. I will try my best to keep this first post updated with any install tips as I figure them out.

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Update: (Hideaway install)
So I just finished the install as detailed below. WOW! I was excited after the tweeter upgrade and then again with the Kicker CS door speaker upgrade. The Kicker hideaway makes a similar jump in sound performance in my opinion. I am not a total audio geek like some but damn this thing sounds awesome now. The hideaway gives the punch from the bass that all of the other upgrades were missing. On songs with a heavy bass that punches hard the hideaway makes them come alive. The tweeter and CS upgrade while great lacks bass until higher volume. With the hideaway it just fills in what you didn’t know you were missing.
Update 2: (Kicker Key 180.4 install)
Originally my updates were to end with the Hideaway after previously doing the Suburu tweeter mod and the Kicker CS series speakers. Honestly there was no reason to do anything else as things sounded great. My only complaint was I would like a tad more volume. Then I read post after post about the Kicker Key 180.4 smart amp. Tiny yet powerful and fits behind the head unit. For a 180w amp I feel it is enough for my access cab. Anything more and I would need earplugs to listen.
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If anyone has already installed a hideaway or similar please pass along your mounting or wiring suggestions. I don’t want to drill into the floor (underseat install) or drill into the back wall between the seats (access cab). My intent is under the passenger seat I just haven’t sorted out how yet. I am going to use the high level input from the rear speakers to turn the unit on and most likely will solder into the plug and play speaker adapters for the rear Kicker door speakers. (Changed to remote turn instead of DC offset from the speaker wires when I added the Metra harnesses) I also want to make this install completely unobtrusive so I can always remove the hideaway if I ever sell this vehicle and want to remove it to use in a new vehicle. I have an access cab so my focus will be on this vs the double cab so not all solutions will work for everyone but someone will need to chime in with double cab ideas.

Will update as I go or others come up with solid solutions. Updates below:

April 5th
SO I found one issue with my plan to add my Hideaway under the passenger seat in my Access cab. There is a support under the PASSENGER SEAT but not the driver seat. So the hideaway will NOT fit under the passenger side without removing the seat and possibly removing the cross support. I don’t suggest this be done without removing the seat to see why this support is added. Because of this I am moving the Hideaway to the drivers side. I am waiting on Amazon for heavy duty velcro to mount the Hideaway to the carpet. It is pretty snug so the velcro will just keep it from sliding around.

I ran the Hideaway wiring under the carpet at the front of the drivers seat. There is a cutout in the carpet for the seat wiring so I just followed that. Then I ran under the drivers door sill and past the kick panel. I extended the ground to the block where the rest of the chassis grounds were tied in. The positive continued to the large grommet into the engine bay which is behind the felt in the corner. There is a small “tunnel” where the hood release cable goes through the grommet. It is a super pita but I was able to sneak alongside it and through. I then continued with the hood cable right up to the battery.



I want to add I have NOT yet run the speaker connections. I ran them to the front kick panel and have left them for another day.
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$5 METRA 70-1761 Radio Wiring Harness For Toyota 87-Up Power 4 Speaker

METRA 70-1761 and 71-1761 are the harnesses I am using to make my own harness. Thanks to @destin_meeks for the part numbers. This way I can make a plug and play option right at the head unit. Once Amazon gets the parts to me I will post further.



So tonight I proved myself a liar as it took me 7 minutes elapsed time to solder and shrink sleeve my connections to join both halves of the instead of the 5 I had previously claimed. The second harness is the connections for the rear speakers as well as I believe is the illumination circuit. I don’t need any of these at the moment so I will be setting this aside for now. Edit when installing the Key amp I ended up using the other halves of the harnesses to make my rear speaker connections.



The grey and grey and black wires are the right front door speaker connections which I will connect to the hideaway speaker leads. I goofed in my excitement and soldered the left speaker wires together in the harness but forgot I still need to connect them to the hideaway harness. The blue and white is the amp turn on wire which I will use instead of the high lever speaker input for turning on the amp.



Now to pull the kick panel again and the sill covers to get at the remote amp turn on wire (blue in the kicker harness). At this point I need to make the three solder connections and remove the dash / HU surround and then the head unit itself. Unplug the factory harness and add in my pass through harness. At that point the install should be completed short of testing and tuning the sound. One note is that the hideaway harness run as I have documented is just long enough. I would have been happy with an extra 6” of wire but it will make it if you run your wiring exactly as I have.

Thanks to all that helped. Hope this post helps others to figure out the best way to do their own hideaway install.

Edit
A big thanks to @destin_meeks. He has offered a ton of help to myself and pretty much everyone else looking for help in this thread. He came up with the Metra pigtail harness part numbers that many of us are using. He pretty much is the guru guiding many of us to success in our installs. I created this thread to document the process I went about in doing my install to help others looking to do the same type of install. Luckily @destin_meeks chimed in and helped me in my install and stuck around to answer many questions that I wouldn’t have had a clue about. Much of the credit for this thread needs to go his way. Thanks a lot.

Parts used
Metra 70-1761

$11 Metra 71-1761 87 - 94 Toyota Vehicle Harness

Metra 71-1761 (harness ends for making plug and play harness)
Kicker Hideaway
Kicker Key 180.4

 

I would get high level from the front speakers, not the rear. The 3rd gen radios seem to limit the volume going to the rears when compared to the fronts. The fronts are also larger from the factory so the OEM head unit may also limit the low frequencies to the rears.

As for securing it, you might consider heavy duty velcro

 

An easy to access place is in the passenger kick panel. Should be these two wires (I want to say grey and blue)

 

So I did a Velcro test last night. The carpet allows for fairly solid grip with common Velcro. I was afraid I might need a more aggressive hook to hold things in place but the standard stuff works just fine. I am almost 100% that this is the way I am going to mount underseat.

 

When I mounted an amp under the passenger seat, I just took a wood burning tool and melted holes through the carpet and used small screws and washers to secure the amp to the carpet. Worked pretty well.

 

Post 2173 by me. Also posted a few pics of my Hideaway install.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/premium-audio-upgrade-for-less-than-250.510424/page-109

 

I added a wide piece of double sided tape to the bottom of the Hideaway. Screwed the top brackets in to the plastic with some short screws. It doesn’t move or rattle at all. Cut a hole just wide enough in the plastic to run the Hideaway harness through.

 

Got started on the hideaway install today. Found a few snags to my plans and a few things went right. Updated to the original post.

 

Absolutely not worth buying the ********* harness for this. I’ll get you the wire colors and location tomorrow

 

Thanks in advance for the help. I am still debating fishing the front door grommets and running to the Crutchfield speaker adapters and then hacking and soldering to them. But if an easy and clean solution comes up I am game for that as well.

 

There’s a much easier and cleaner solution for sure. I’ll post up tomorrow morning

 

I am off to Detroit in the morning and Ottawa on Saturday. Would have liked to have had it all done before the trip. 8 hours each way to test and enjoy would have been nice.

 

Bring your wire strippers and grab some T-taps at the next autozone (or similar) you pass!

 

I have thought about it. I just HATE T-taps (scotch locks) or whatever you want to call them. When possible I prefer to solder even over crimp connectors.

 

Yeah, same here. They would at least get you a temporary parking lot solution until you get back home

 

Temporary permanent. One of the reasons I try to do it right the first time.

 

B pillar. Tap in to rear speaker wires. You don’t have to use the front, mine works perfectly using the rear.

 

Also, I’ve found the Hideaway and Entune in general sound way better using the usb input and not Bluetooth. Night and day with the Hideaway on usb.

 

He doesn't have a B pillar...

 

OK. Didn’t realize it was access cab. Might even be easier on an access cab. I don’t know