Tpp4's No Nonsense Guide to Kicker Key T-Harness (16-19)

The consequence is no “adjustable” screen brightness. It’s either fully bright when the headlights are off, or fully dim when the headlights are on (if I remember correctly)

not the end of the world, but can be frustrating on occasion

 

I will try and find a harness or just order another metra one, but in the mean time that was what I was hoping for. I’d like to thank you Destin, OP, and the guys who’ve reached out and helped here. I went and bought a solder gun and all things mentioned to go ahead and do this install the best ways suggested. It’s been more involved and took some mistakes, but hopefully be able to walk away with a new skill and something great to show for it!

 

If you're new to soldering like I was, I would highly recommend also buying a heat gun. Yes, you can use a lighter or a hair dryer for shrink tubing (I tried both,) but they do not work nearly as well. Also - since this project, I've found numerous other uses for it.

Wagner Furno 300 - $23

 

Installed the amp today and it was a breeze. I have kicker CS series in front and rear doors. The 6x9s sound amazing but the 6-3/4s in the rear sound pretty flat. Anyone else have this issue?

 

I ordered 5 conductor speed wire, and already built the harness to tap into the key harness for my future Hideaway install. I had a burned out PC power supply and found it had blue, gray, and white wires to make the harness, I used the black ground wires to also make the speaker tap grounds. Also, the power supply had an orange wire that I used for my dimmer to blue jumper connection for my key harness. I'll most likely pull out the harness in the morning to redo it for the Hideaway prep. Also with tpp4's okay, I made a printable version of his harness guide in .pdf in case you want to do this at your workplace away from the computer.

 

I wish I had done mine this way instead of the short t-harness and jamming it in my dash! Very nice work.

 

Is there a reason to run the power & ground outside of the rest of the wires in the harness?

 

Nope... personal preference. One of those things that if I ever need to get to it right away I can. My harness will last as long as my truck lol

 

https://youtu.be/12Jq0SyuxHQ

This video is a great example of wiring in Audiocontrol LOCs. Lc2i would work basically the same just two channel input instead of the four channels used in the video.

 

Where are you guys mounting the Key at under the dash on 3rd gens? I’d like to avoid mounting it under a seat and having to extend the harnesses...I do have some speed wire though if it becomes necessary.

 

From my own personal experience, NOT extending it at all and just using the metra and key harnesses, you’d be able to mount it behind the dash, and perhaps to the passenger side towards the glove box may work. YMMV

I realize you said UNDER the dash, so apologies if this is not relevant to your question.

 

Thanks for this post, as I learned a lot about this harness. However I am not installing a kicker. I am trying to install a powered sub
(Cerwin-Vega Mobile VPAS10 Powered Active Subwoofer Enclosure) . I think that is where I get lost. Any ideas?

 

@CXYyuppie Craig- want to save this guy some hassle? This is what you had, and returned twice isn’t it?

@Torin66 What exactly is your question btw? How to hook it up? Where to put it? For the how- search this thread (only a few pages back) should be where @CXYyuppie posted what connections he used for a powered sub.

Here is the pic;

 

I have a 2019 TRD Sport DCSB with the premium/tech package(non JBL stereo). So this information may not pertain to all vehicles.

I had the

$170 Cerwin Vega VPAS12 Cerwin-Vega CVMPCL10 Stroker Pro 10” Full-Range Speaker – High-Power SPL Performance Unmatched Power & Precision

Cerwin Vega VPAS12 installed for 10 months then it gave out. Sent it back to the manufacturer and they found it to be faulty. They sent me another one. The 2nd one would not power up at all. Cerwin Vega and Toyota do not play well with each other. Now, I did not have the remote wire(blue) from the amp hooked up. This may have been one of the problems, but it was supposed to get power from the high input of the speakers. It did work well with the first one I installed. I ended up returning everything and going to the Kicker Hideaway. Either one you use, you will get a better connection from the wire harness behind the head unit than any other place. There are metra harnesses you can buy and splice everything together. But they were out of stock when I went to install this unit last week.

You have to use a power lead from the battery with a fuse holder and have a good ground. I put the amp/sub combo behind my rear seat. I grounded the amp to the back wall of the cab. I did sand the paint off of the grounding point to bare metal to make sure I had good contact. I pulled the trim off from around the radio head unit. It is very simple, just give it a tug on the upper right hand corner and it will start to pop off. There will be 8 push in connectors that will come out. I put 2 layers of painter's tape on the climate control trim below the radio to prevent any scratches. Then using a 10mm socket remove the 4 bolts holding the radio in place. The radio will now slide out easily. Then I unplug the top right harness to give me more room. Next I unplugged the harness on the bottom right and the smaller blue harness next to it. You may have to unplug the both of them a little at a time to get these unplugged. They are tight. I then ran speaker wire and a remote blue wire from the amp to the front of the cab to the head unit to tie in there. I was told it would be best to tie into the front speakers b/c they put out more power. Using the diagram below, I used a T-tap to connect speaker wire to the Violet w/ red stripe to the positive wire of the speaker, used another T-tap to connect speaker wire to the violet with green stripe to the negative wire of the speaker. This is the wire that will go back to the amp(I used the gray, right speaker wire). Finally I used a third T-tap to connect the new blue wire to small gray wire on the radio harness. This will tie into the blue remote wire on the amp harness. This goes to the switched ignition. Meaning it will only power up if the truck is started or in the accessory position.

Make sure the fuse is in the amp and a fuse in the holder next to the battery. I chose the right side speaker b/c I have the amp combo mounted in the right cubby hole behind the rear seat. It really doesn't matter if you use the right or the left.

BTW, make sure to test everything before you put it back together. This may save you a headache later. Do not get discouraged. I fought with this for 8 hrs before @destin_meeks got me on the right track. He is the king of audio. I hope this helps. Good luck!

 

I replied to him. I hate to see someone else fight with it the way I did.

 

Thanks brother! Figured you would have some good insight for the guy!

 

I put mine behind/under the head unit, fits here nicely

 

I’m wondering if the amp will get to hot to put behind the HU.

 

Do you live in a hot climate? I have played mine and tried to break it... for science... It doesn't get that hot if your gains are properly set.

 

There’s enough air space around it that it’s not a problem. It’s not right up against the HU, maybe 1-2 or inches under it