Which brand dash kit ??

Hey guys I see there's a debate between metra and scosche and I'm not sure which one to buy.
I'm looking to get double din pioneer head unit. Any pros or cons that would make you pick one or the other ?

 

Thanks I'll be ordering tonight

 

I have the Metra around my 8100NEX, and it sucks. I ordered a scosche yesterday to replace it.

 

Is the 8100 NEX able to display the backup camera?

 

It is, any of the Pioneer AVIS head units are able to

 

So I have a 14' Tacoma and I just recently had a Pioneer 8100 installed with a Scosche kit. It truly is a lot to stuff behind the unit, but I can not get the damn thing to stay put. It looks like the top center clip doesn't line up with the guiding hole (maybe the 12's and earlier were slightly different?). The Scosche black looks amazing, but currently I can not open/eject my Pioneer unit (cor CDs or SDs) because it catches slightly at the top, and even if I hear the "click" when trying to push it in completely it just slides out before I even leave the garage. I have filed down the plastic supports that seem to rest against the metal chassis that the head unit is actually attached to, but that hasn't fixed it.

Another question I had is does anybody know if the supports are metal or plastic? I heard people complaining about cheap plastic supports in the Scosche kit, and I'm wondering if maybe they just kept in my stock metal ones and tried to slam the Scosche face over top?

 

I don't believe the stock mounts fit the 8100, so I'd say plastic

 

After reading through all this i as well ordered an 8100nex with scosche today. Getting everything installed Sat.

 

I went with Metra. There are aspects that I did not like, like the plastic mounts (I believe the scoche has plastic as well). But once it was installed it looks like it came from the factory. The color and texture match the other surfaces on the dash while the scoche does not.

Also, the picture of the Metra in post #2 just looks wrong. I don't know what is going on with that but this is what the Metra looks like (just installed on Sunday).

BTW - if anyone from Metra or Scoche is reading this why don't you make a kit of higher quality (metal brackets and parts) and charge a little more for it? Call it the Premium or whatever. I would gladly pay a little more for a more solid product.

 

How does that work? Can you set it up so it goes on display automatically if you flip it in reverse?

 

There is a wire (purple) in the Pioneer harness that is supposed to get connected to the reverse light circuit, so when you shift in reverse the head unit senses that and switches the display to the camera view. The camera is connected to the head unit via RCA cable. Some head units have 2 camera inputs (mine does) so you can operate 2 cameras.

What I'm doing is wiring the purple wire into a switch so I can activate the reverse camera view at will...



Using one of these switches:

 

He is correct, the reverse gear signal wire is behind the drivers side kick panel. Getting the actual stick camera feed though, that was tricky.


I bought a high quality RCA video cable, cut kne end off, and soldered on some d-sub pins.

I found the harness that pushes the camera feed to the rearview mirror, and pushed the d-sub pins into the corresponding ports on the plug.

It worked, but I ended up with a bad 8100 NEX unit that got permanently stuck on the camera feed, couldn't do anything else. Pioneer replaced it for free, but I haven't hooked the camera back up yet.

I know it wasn't the camera that caused it, I just like using my rearview anyway

 

In terms of thr problem with the metra on the second post...

That small piece boarders the head unit itself, is put on the unit, then the large metra piece fits over it.

So in yours, that piece is behind the larger piece like it is supposed to be.

On post 2, the large piece was put on first, which is incorrect.


I have tried both now, and I like the scoche kit better because it puts the unit at a lower angle. I hot the eject button, and hit the little + icon, so it changes the angle to the perfect spot, without anyone even noticing that is isn't supposed to be that way.

The metra kit put the unit at a weird kind of upward angle, and you can't adjust down

 

Ah, now the pic makes sense. Yeah, other than metal brackets the angle of the head unit is another thing I'd like to change (have the screen more plumb rather than leaning back). I installed a similar Pioneer in my Camaro and it had a good forward lean, which allows me to use the screen tilt feature to angle it just right to avoid glare...

 

The scoche kit make the unit sit almost perpendicular to the ground, just a slight back tilt, that one click of extra tilt put it in the perfect spot for me. I'll get a picture tomorrow. The metra was just a horrid angle and the sun always screwed with it for me

 

For those of you that have the scoche kit... did it have the little clips with it? Mine didn't have any, crutchfield sent me a new one, and that one doesn't have clips either...

 

I can't speak about the Scoche but just for future reference the Metra did, however they didn't seem to hold the faceplate in very well. I popped it off and got the original clips off the stock faceplate and those worked much better...

 

My metra kit had them, but they aren't long enough to for the tabs on the scoche