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

Bluetooth is for phone only. I use the radio, XM or USB thumb drive.

 

So got home last night after doing about 1800km (1120 miles) in 4 days. Really love the Kicker CS and tweeter upgrade. Now back to the hideaway. I am waiting to hear back from *********. The reason I pumped the brakes on ordering their harness is $31.46 plus the cheapest shipping to Canada (USPS) is $15.20 and then 30% exchange rate. I am at $60.66 plus any duty or taxes I could incur. I left my contact info in hopes of getting someone on the phone and finding a pricing compromise with them. I am not expecting much to come of it but I figured I would try and see. Better than having to use t-taps or hack the main harness. Hopefully they can help out or else I am going to see where it is best to grab the line level input. You guys have given a few options. I don’t want to rush and do an install I am not proud of or could lead to issues due to corrosion of the wire or connections years from now. It is really hard to not just jump in and get this up and running quick. I really am excited to hear the end result. I will update once I hear from *********.

 

The thing I don’t like about the ********* harness is that it uses rear speaker connections instead of front.

I have not taken an RTA to the signals to see if they’re both putting out full range frequency, but I have tested the voltage outputs and the tears are way less powerful than the fronts, straight out of the factory headunit.

 

IF the ********* harness ends up being the way I go I wonder if I can remove and swap the pins so I am using the front outputs. At worst I could solder into the front outputs if the pins are too much of a pita to swap.

 

Won’t be able to swap the pins because they only use one part of the harness. the front speakers are in the larger harness and the tears are in the smaller harness. So I “personally” wouldn’t throw all that money at it if you’re going to splice into fronts anyway. The hideaway leads might be long enough to reach behind the radio. They’re pretty long, but I don’t remember how long. If they won’t reach, just grab a few extra feet of speaker wire, splice into the front wires behind the radio.

 

Based on my drivers seat install and where I have run my wiring the leads will reach the head unit. If I go right to the other door speaker and use the speaker adapter harness to solder to I will need to extend the wires.

 

Then my vote is to keep it clean and just splice in behind the headunit. If you want to avoid cutting into factory, then just order a

$8 METRA 70-1761 Radio Wiring Harness Fits Select 1987-UP Toyota Vehicles Power + 4 Speaker (Packaging May Vary)

METRA 70-1761 and

$12 71-1761 87-94 Toyota Vehicle Harness

71-1761 to make your own harness extension for splices.

 

********* basically told me they are very competitive in the marketplace and blamed their shipping costs to well you are in Canada so its expensive. I can ship around the world for less than what they want.

The metra harnesses you listed I can get at Amazon Canada for $24 and free shipping. Thanks for all of the help @destin_meeks.

I responded to ********* regarding the direction I went in the end and gave feedback regarding the prices I was able to get in the end. You would think I just got caught in bed with the guys wife based on the response. I am really disappointed in their customer service. Compared to my call with Crutchfield asking similar questions regarding harnesses they were willing to help in any way. I copied the taco tunes chat window conversation. It is pretty bad. I noticed I had left the chat window open and got another agent chatting when I said I was leaving. He went off the deep end on me. Apparently asking for help with pricing or providing feedback is not appreciated. Got called a few names etc. WOW.

 

Yeah they don’t have the best reputation. I bought their tweeter harnesses and didn’t get a tracking number for over 2 weeks. They focus on in-store business at their shop in Texas so whatever I suppose.

Making your own harness extension is both cheaper and (to me) better in the long run. Gives you access to all 4 speaker signals, as well as an accy turn on, and illumination trigger (that’s actually what I’m tapped into for the backlighting on my switches)

 

From what people post I thought they were the bomb for Tacoma audio. When you TRY to be civil and professional and you end up being called names and well I won’t go into specifics but come on. When I do business with a company I expect fair. Nothing more or less and they can expect the same from me. So I feel I was fair in asking for pricing help. They can refuse as it is their price and their business. But how you treat the person in doing so is what I have an issue with. When I give you feedback on how I solved my issue and what the costs were you can accept the information and thank me or be unprofessional and deal with it that way. It’s done and we won’t be doing any business going forward.

 

I suppose at least you came to that conclusion before giving them any of your money

 

I just got a callback from Daniel at ********* (manager). He called back based on an unanswered call earlier in the day. We had a productive chat regarding the chat sessions today. I also passed on the previous experiences and impressions @destin_meeks posted. I will say I know at least one person at TT is professional and really wants the business and to keep customers happy. If you have any issues in the future he is the one to deal with phone calls and he is the manager so ask for him. I think there is going to be some interesting discussions with the guy who does the online chat. Daniel doesn’t seem to be very pleased and will be pulling the chat history.

Every business has issues at some time. I didn’t expect our discussions today to end up where they did but at least by accident Daniel and I did get to speak.

 

@destin_meeks I am a little confused on your statement of waiting for over 2 weeks for a tracking number, I looked up your order number (19517) back on 8-17-2017 and it shows it shipped the same day? when the label prints it automatically sends you an email, maybe the email was sent to junk? you can see here that the order was shipped the same day, so I'm not sure why you said you waited over 2 weeks for a tracking number when the pic here proves it was shipped the same day?

as for @Exracer2 I found the chat and after reading it, we just explained that there is no movement on our pricing. you then stated how ridiculous our pricing is with shipping to Canada from texas we don't make the shipping prices, they come directly from the post office.

pics of the chat and pics of the stated tracking info posted.

 

@tacotunesJosh

Can you have Daniel call me back again. I think him and I need to speak again. This is only part of the chat and Daniel and I will sort it from here.

 

@Exracer2 yes sir!
let me see where is he at!

 

other part of the chat, (sorry just saw this) (no this is not me on chat) (I do shipping)

NOTE:

"this does not fit in an envelope"
it does not fit in a regular first class envelope, we ship this harness in our bigger bubble wrap envelope. (first class shipping being 15-20$ for shipping out of the country)

 

@Exracer2 am I missing anything?

 

@destin_meeks

********* is accusing you of being a covert agent working for one of their competitors spreading misinformation / lies. They say you claims of not receiving tracking information is false and your items shipped the same day. This is what Daniel just told me. Buy your shit wherever you want. I know where I won’t be doing business.

I have to leave for a few hours so I can’t continue.

 

@Exracer2
I didn't accuse him of anything, I just asked how he came up with that because the info I have says different. thank you for trying to spread lies anymore lies you wanna spread so I can screenshot and post to our website for thousands of people to see hourly?

 

That's hilarious! I am very open about being a Geek Squad installer at Best Buy. Not sure if that counts as a competitor given I don't live in Texas? Not to mention we (as a company) don't sell one of the harnesses I told you to get. And I also don't know if we have locations in Canada? I didn't post links to best buys website, and I am recommending to do the work yourself (which is literally taking away work for me to do, as an installer.)

I'm not on this forum to argue with anyone. Dozens of things could have caused an email to not show up and shipping delays to happen. I was happy with the products I purchased from them, and have not even mentioned them in any thread or post of this forum (or any other) because I don't like talking bad about a company over something minor.

It is what it is. I'm not upset either way.