2011 Regular Cab

Not hugely different. I'd say slightly firmer without being harsh.

 

Installed a new radio over the weekend. The factory radio was malfunctioning and sounded terrible anyway. I wanted to avoid a gaudy flashy thing that would look out of place, so I ended up going with a touch screen Sony XAV-AX7000. I also wanted to keep what little space I had in the truck, so opted against a sub or anything that would require wiring around the cab. I did also change the speakers in the door to Kicker 46CSS674 (recommended by the Crutchfield dude). The Sony I picked had extra built in power that these speakers can take advantage of.

Install was more of a pain than anticipated, mostly because the radio wanted an additional power line from the battery and routing it cleanly up behind the dash (while standing on your head) took some time. Crutchfield also sort of left me hanging with respect to tweeter mounting. The parts they sent left no provision for it at all. I ended up gutting the cone and components from the factory tweeter and gluing the new one into the mount with construction adhesive and silicone.

Finally, touch screen units have a connection to the parking brake so they can force you to stop to do settings or watch video. This is stupid, so I set about defeating it. I purchased a bypass device from Amazon, but it ended up not working (Android auto still asked me to press the brake to continue). Grounding the connection got me past that, and may be fine forever, but some people report being told to release and reactivate the brake sometimes, so I think I'll install a switch to cover my bases.

Here are some pics. I started out documenting everything, but lost my motivation as things dragged out and got more frustrating along the way.















USB ports for audio in and Android auto:






Sound quality is night and day compared to factory, though it could use a bit more bass. Bluetooth integration works well. I haven't had a chance to fully test out Android auto since I need a USB-A to USB-C adapter for my phone.

 

Did you wind up selling the shell?

When I wired in my Sony, the Metra harness I got had all the provisions for switched and constant hot, along with ground. I eventually upgraded the speakers as well (went with Morel components), but surface mounted my tweeters to the kick panels (the stock tweeters are still in my doors, just abandoned).

 

Not sure which Sony you went with. This one has 100W per channel or something like that, so I decided to connect the additional direct wires to battery. In hindsight, maybe I should have just tried it without the connection to see if a fuse blew, because otherwise the install would have be super easy. The instructions say it could draw up to 10 amps, which maybe the stock circuit could provide? The wires in the harness looked pretty puny though.

I used the harness from Crutchfield. Funny though, with my base model truck I could see that most of the wires were not connected. There are three connectors from the factory, the Crutchfield harness used two, and one of those had no actual connections in common on the two sides.

Yeah, I sold the shell on Craigslist.

 

As I recall when I installed mine, one of the connectors was for rear speakers, which of course we don't have in the RC. I have a Sony XAV-AX100, which I kept from my last truck when I sold it. Being an iPhone/Apple guy, I will never go without CarPlay again, its just so damned intuitive and useful. When I first installed the Sony, I was driving the stock speakers with the internal amp, and it definitely made them sound better. I eventually went with the Kicker Key Amp, installed above the glovebox. The tuning features combined with the Morel speakers has made this the best sounding system I have done (I run the Sony flat on the EQ, but do use the crossover between main and subs). I added a powered JL Audio sub behind the seat; it's the 10" sealed model, and has a really small footprint with more than enough output. I opted for the optional volume control, and mounted it to one of the blanks under the radio; it's really much more convenient to adjust the volume there rather than on the head unit.

 

Back on this finally. Which is #4, furthest back?

 

Yup

 

I did a little underhood detailing today. I got one of those silicone intakes too, purely for the fun of it. I didn't expect and haven't noticed anything significant seat-of-the-pants wise, but it was fun and opens up the engine bay a little bit. I also cleaned the MAF and throttle body. The throttle body had noticeable buildup on the plates. I think the idle is a bit smoother. I pulled the back coil pack and it looked clean.

 

RCI skid installed today. Very impressed with the product and fit. I was going to go for their tranny skid too, but I think it doesn't fit regular cab.

 

Upgraded tires and wheels. 265/75R16 Cooper LT ATs on "Fifteen52 Analog HD" wheels:

 

Looks good! All of the RCI skid plates fit my regular cab without modification, the only difference is it is a manual.

 

Interesting. You have the trans skid? This is on their web site for the trans skid:



I wrote them about it but never heard back. Was going to buy during the 15% of group buy.

 

I have the engine, trans, and tcase aluminum skids. I drive past RCI a few times a week, so I was lucky enough to test fit before buying. All fit without any modifications needed. This was 2ish years ago, unless they have updated their skids it should be fine.

 

I had to extend the bolt slots by about a half inch or so for a perfect fit on the transfer case skid on my 2012 RC

 

Was the fuel tank skid a good fit? I decided not to get it originally but have been thinking picking one up.

 

No problems at all mounting fuel tank skid. I just figured I’d go ahead and add it since that was the last one I was missing. I’ve had it for about 2 months or so.