Sub + Amp Install Help

I’ve had more issues with the custom harnesses not having good connections. If I’m soldering 2 wires I’d take that any day. If the harness saves me from making 20 connections I’ll take the harness.

also I recently installed 2 aftermarket radios in other cars with the harness from crutchfield I still had to solder up about 12 wires from the aftermarket plug to the new harness.

 

So I’m looking at everyone’s replies and I am beyond confused. I don’t want to have to tap into a speaker wire from an existing door speaker. I’ve seen videos online of people running wire down thru the kick panel up thru the fire wall into the back of the head unit and the battery.

 

So what size sub are most of you using with this set up ? And where is it located ?
I’ll bring doing this forsure this year

 

I’m using a 10” JBL sub
It’s custom fitted into the single seat in the back. I have a hole drilled to feed the black and red wire to the sub.

Sub Box: https://www.ebay.com/itm/1338310170...odqxvchrao&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

Sub:

$90 JBL Club WS1000 800W 10" Club Series 2 or 4-Ohm Selectable Shallow-mount Subwoofer

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07SDMLHKT

Amplifier: https://www.rockvilleaudio.com/rva600-1/

Door Speakers: https://www.crutchfield.com/p_20646CC693/Kicker-46CSC6934.html
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_20646CC674/Kicker-46CSC674.html

If you do end up using the same sub and box, you will need to get a little creative getting it to fit. I had to shave the hole for the sub to make it a little bigger for a perfect fit. Once I am done with the whole thing I will post pics of the finished product. Very minimalistic, no one will know you have it unless you put the seats down. In my case I never put my seats down so it is 100% hidden.

 

Rockford Fosgate has a powered sub that fits perfectly in that back cubby without any cutting - not earth-shattering sound but I have been happy with it. I believe it is the P300

 

I was looking at that one, but a buddy of mine has it and said he didn’t recommend it.

 

Yeah, I guess it is expectations - this is the first "hidden" build I have done in a pickup truck - still blows my mind how little room there is to actually use. In my old Tacoma, the whole back seat was no longer usable due to being full of sub-boxes and such. You can only expect so much from a 8 or 10" sub - especially a slim line due to depth restrictions.

I do have an aftermarket head unit that gives me a bit of additional tuning ability that may be helping my case - haven't tried this sub with a signal from the stock head unit.

 

You may need to do a little research and watch a bunch of YouTube videos. I watched so many that I started to become very confident that I could pull it off. I ran into a few snags but I got through them with the help of a few great people on his site.

I wanted to do my best toward a high quality install even though it was my first time, so I took my time and broke this project into 3 mini projects.

1) replacing the stock HU with the new aftermarket HU. This was immensely easy for me because I used the Trail Grid Pro Sony XAV-9000ES bundle and they attach the maestro and XM radio unit prior to shipping so it’s plug and play. This took me about an hour to do.

2) detailing how I would get power from the battery through the firewall and to the space under the driver seat. This included knowing what gauge wire to run based on my power needs, how to mount the fuse holder near the battery, how to properly crimp the terminals and how to ‘dress’ the firewall grommet to accommodate my 4awg wire. This took me a week but it looks better than the pro install on my last Tacoma.

3) installing the amp and speakers. After installing the component speakers with crossovers, I learned that my HU actually has a 2CH setting with built in crossovers! Live and learn. This could have been a better execution but I’m going to clean things up in the near future. This took me two weeks because of various issues…some unrelated to the project. This was the toughest project. I ran all new wire to the speakers (through the kick panel, through the door boot and into the door. I used Tessa tape to wrap and hold the old harnesses in place so they don’t rattle but are easily visible and accessible if I ever need to sell the truck and retain the aftermarket system.

 

I used my rear speaker wires from behind my HU to plug into my underseat 8" Powered Sub. Works great!

 

Here you go. Pull kick panel and scuff guard... this took me 30 seconds.

find this plug. use the f (front plug)

pull the plug that says front pull the black loom off look for the wires twisted together this is your front signal tap into it...run a new speaker wire from this wire to your convertor. now since you have these covers off run your 12 volt amp power wire from your battery. Find a ground near your amp, ground it... hook up wire from battery to amp... plug in rcas hook up remote turn on wire from convertor to remote turn on, on the amp turn the key on. You're done.

My 2020 front wire color. twisted together as from factory. It is blue/gray. the only twisted wires.
This took me about 10 minutes to soldier up and run this wire.

 

Don’t splice into factory wire. No professional installer would do it this way either. Either run all new wire to the speakers (best way and that’s what the pros do) or use an adapter harness at the back of the head unit (2nd best way and also what pros do).

Learn to do it the right way and you’ll learn that it’s actually not very difficult at all. The other great thing about ‘doing it right’ is that when you change your mind or tweak/upgrade your system…which you will do…there will be a workable and progressive path forward. And you won't paint yourself in a corner.

 

So to connect the amp to the HU, I need a harness that plugs in to the back of the HU. What wires from the amp plug into the harness?

 

What would be easier, RCA or high-level inputs. If I don't have to tap into wires with the high-level input that's what I am going to do. If I do have to tap into wires then I am gonna use an RCA cable/harness.

 

You have to tap into the high level speaker signals with either method.

You will tap into them and run them via speaker wires to the amp as your input,
or you tap them for your line RCA converter, then run RCAs to the amp as your input.

Point is, if your amp accepts high level inputs, why bother with a converter and RCA's?

 

My solution was to use the Red Wolf harness above, buy some structured wire from Crutchfield (https://www.crutchfield.ca/p_007CSW9W20/Crutchfield-CSW9W-20.html).

The steps I followed were:

1. Cut all of the Red Wolf harness wires at the mid point of the 8 wires.
2. Connect (crimp, solder, posi-connect - your choice) the wire harness half (8 speaker wires) that you plug into the back of the head unit to one end of the structured wire.
3. Run this structured wire to the input side of your amp (to high (or speaker) level inputs on the amp). My amp came with harnesses to connect this wire to that plugged into the high level inputs.
4. Run another length of structured wire from the connections (color coded properly) on the output side of the amp back to the head unit (obviously doesn't connect directly - see next step)
5. Connect the second half of the wire harness half (8 speaker wires) that connects to the EOM harness, that sends the signal to the speakers, to the other end of the structured wire coming from the amp (should look kind of like below without the wire bundle on the far left (orange, red, brown, etc).
6. Plug the first end of the wire harness (from 2. above) into the head unit and the second end (from 5.) into the EOM harness.

DONE



This setup essentially interrupts the signal coming from the stereo, reroutes it to the amp where it is.....amplified, and then reroutes it back to the speakers.

This negated the need to tap into any OEM wiring or pull any new speaker wire from the amp directly to the speakers which would require a lot of effort. The structure wired is a great solution as it is easy to pull and doesn't require to be loomed or taped to protect it.

 

I’d take it to an audio shop if I couldn’t splice wires.

 

I agree with you. Before I had my new headunit I used this harness to connect my amp. This really is an easiest solution. All these "answers" seem like they would confuse anyone not familiar with this kind of stuff

 

Don't get me wrong I know a lot about working on the electrical side of vehicles, but this is way over my head. I am beyond confused. I just ordered a harness to plug in the back of the HU with an RCA converter. From what it looks like I will not need to splice or tap into any wires. I can just run them thru the passenger side kick panel along with the wiring connected to the battery. So far its going fairly smooth. When I am 100% done I'll post pictures of everything that I did/am doing.

 

This, for me, is the way I'm going to go. I used this harness to connect the rear speakers to the front speakers so I have better sound from the rear. This is just a Band-Aid till I get an amp. Also, I went with the Subaru tweeters. Big difference and cheap upgrade as I do not want to switch the H/U.

 

Once you get the wires in it’s all fun and games after.
It was fairly simple installing an amp in my 22’ sport without the JBl.
the harness that was posted is the best (brown wires with red ignition crimp wire).
look back at those posts. People reassure it (Add an amp $50 on Amazon).
Taking apart the head unit is super quick, you just pull forwards on the trim and WALA. 4 screws and the head unit pops out. Use blankets/towels to protect the trim because it is heavy and sharp. Install the new harness inbetween the factory head unit and factory harness. Then crimp the connection and plug in RCA cables. Ran the wires all down to the dash and to the drivers side/console and separated them under the carpet. Ignition down the center console and the speaker wires and the battery cable can be ran along the driver side door/floor panel. For the battery cable you can poke a tiny hole in the rubber from it behind/above dead pedal in the the fire wall. Perfectly water proof still. The ground can be anything from a screw to the rear seats or a bolt drill in.