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

That’s what I would do.

 

i ended up having a JL MX280/4 installed. Was going to do the key, but the guys talked me into the JL. The two independent crossovers front/back made sense to me. $50 more, but hopefully should be just as good.

 

I'm doing the full Kicker upgrade to tweeters and doors as suggested. I picked up an Alpine Power Pack at my local BB and was curious if I should use the RCA female ends that will be cut off to tap into the front speakers off the harness I'll make out of the two Metra harnesses if I ever wanna add a sub I can already have RCAs ready to go.

Basically can I make a T-junction between the Metra harness ends and the RCA female ends to it so I can use them in the future if I want?

Will I get any interference doing this?

Also has anyone with the Alpine confirmed that wiring the +/- to the factory connections via a clamp slice works for power or should I just run it to battery? What about an add a fuse that matches the 15amp rating on the unit?

TIA for the help.

 

You can absolutely add the RCA ends to the front channels of your T-harness as you mentioned. I would also make a pigtail from the blue wire in the harness as well for your remote turn-on to the sub amp. This way you won't have to tear apart or splice into your harness down the road. Will make for a super clean and easy install down the road! You shouldn't have any interference doing this. Just be sure to keep the ends of the RCA's covered up, and add them BEFORE the power pack.

You can definitely use the Radio's 12v and ground for power. The powerpack style amps are designed for this exact use!
I wouldn't use T-taps as you mentioned. I would tie it into the yellow and black in your metra t-harness you'll be making.

 

Ok awesome I just wanted to confirm before I went ahead and made the harness. Thanks again for the help!

 

I wanted to share the results from my 2 hours of work to get this harness made lol. I also wanted to get opinions to see if everything looks correct.

 

All looks good! You even used the correct remote turn-on wire! (Which most people mix up)

 

Hooray! This was my first attempt at soldering too (definitely need practice lol). I tried to keep it clean and simple I just connected everything that wasn't speaker input/output back to the corresponding color haha. I tied the amp +/- into the middle of the "bypass" harness to make sure everything gets power and ground. I didn't do the RCA connections but I can always splice them in on the output side of the amp where I have plenty of wire to work with.

 

Ehh, I wouldn’t do them on the output side. Once (if) you add a sub, you should set the low-pass crossover on the PowerPack and this will limit the bass frequencies being output. That, in turn, would limit the bass frequencies going to the subwoofer amp.

Luckily, splicing without cutting is easy! You can cross that bridge when you get to it

 

Ah! That makes total sense. I'm stoked I can't wait to get this all installed this weekend. Thanks again for the write up and the help it's much appreciated!

 

Hey Destin

Had a local shop install a jl 70x4 amp. Everything was great and then literally 10 mins ago I got random cracking and popping and then no sound from the front passenger door or tweet. Any idea what it might be?

Taking the truck into the shop I had it installed at tomorrow.

 

The issue I see most? The speaker wires at the speaker are just connected with those little spade terminals, and those are crap. They fall off super easy. I always solder the wires directly to the speaker terminals

Whether or not that’s the issue, I’m not sure. But I see that a lot.

 

Thanks. I'm going to take it back to the place that did my amp just to be sure.

on my way to work i did get some more popping and then the sound came back FWIW. but then it went away again.

 

Yeah I would wager it’s a wiring issue, either in the door, at the tweeter junction, or at the amp.
If it was some cheap amp, it might be an amp issue, but I wouldn’t expect issues from JL

 

Crazy part is, that even with only 3 channels the sound still is better than pre amp

 

if it were at the tweeter junction, wouldn't i still get sounds out of the door? or is that not the case with these trucks

 

Not necessarily the case. Depends on how it’s wired up.

 

they just called. bad cold solder joint at a line converter. fixed it for free.

 

Have you seen any weird things happen with these trucks after an amp install? Like some lights delay coming on or the radio delay turning off by a second after turning the truck off?

 

I haven’t done too many amp installs in 3rd gens so I can’t say I’ve run into these issues. You “shouldn’t” have these issues, at least not in a Toyota with wiring as basic as ours.