2020 Key Amp and Hideaway Installation Complete

Summary: Buy $74.99 "amp installation kit" from tacotoonz, cut off everything and use the two 10 pin / 8 wire connectors straight through to key amp. Run power and gnd from engine compartment. Set amp to detect speaker current for turn-on.


Hi Folks,

Just finished installing a kicker key amp and hideaway into my 2020 TRD Offroad. I thought it might be helpful to share since there doesn't seem to be a generally agreed way to do it yet (unlike earlier years where most people go the t-harness route using the metra kits).

The issue is that toyota changed the connector types for the 2020 model. That means the metra kits used to make the t-harness for earlier years would not work.

Note I didn't take a lot of pics while I was doing my install, so I'm using some of the pics that other members have posted to explain the route I took. Here is the back of the 2020 head unit (pic taken by @Ismism , but additional notes added by me)



Ok the nice thing about the 2020 headunit is that the speaker out wires are now all in one place. That's R51 circled above. But for the key amp you'll also need power, and possibly a remote turn on wire.

@caribe makaira posted in this thread: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/2020-taco-sr5-speaker-line-colors.656552/ the locations of the additional wires. R48 has the constant +12V power and Ground. R49 has the switched +12V (when car is running) that can serve as the remote turn on.

To make a T-harness you need both the male and female connectors for all three of those locations R48, R49, and R51. To my knowledge no such kit exists. @destin_meeks has shared his extremely informed opinion that a metra 70-1765 and 71-1765 could potentially work. I looked at both, but it didn't seem the wiring was right (the kits have different wires connected). I decided to try something else.

I ended up buying the "amp installation kit" from tacotoonz. It's $74.99, which is about the same as buying the 70-1765 and 71-1765. The kit shipped out quickly, but what I got was not enough to fully install the amp. Basically their amp installation kit is only for the audio/speaker wires -- or R51.

The kit comes with two bundles of wires. One bundle is the 10 pin (8 wire) R51 connector that plugs into the HU.



Notice the double set of purple wires going into the same pin. I suspect this is their setup for a sub. One set of the purple wires goes to the speakers, and the other set goes to the sub. It's a bit strange though. Instead of having left and right channels to feed into the sub, they are only feeding one channel. The other strange this is that they choose tap into the rear channel. The stock headunit puts out signficantly less signal to the rears. Not sure why they didn't tap into the front instead....

They give you a ton of wire, in case you need to locate the amp at the back of the truck or something. On the other end of this bundle are a total of three 4-pin square connectors.



I found this side to be unusuable. Perhaps it's for their own amp, but this 4 pin square connector does not fit into the kicker key.

The other bundle is essentially the same. Instead you have the female side of that 10 pin / 8 wire connector which is then connected to those same 4 pin square connectors.

Since I couldn't use those 4 pin square connectors I cut them all off. And since I planned on placing the kicker key in the same cubby hole as the HU, I didn't need all of the length of wire. Basically it means that I paid $74.99 for the two (male and female side) 10 pin / 8 wire connectors.

At least the connections were simple. On the male side of the connector (plugs into the headunit) -- it was a direct one-to-one match for the input side of the amp



the connector that plugs into this side uses the same color codes as the tacotoonz plug. cut off the RCA connectors on the kicker input wires and simply match the colors up.

On the output side of the kicker key, again match up the speaker color wires to the female side of the tacotoonz connector.

That leaves three wires unconnected on the output side of the key amp: +12V constant, ground, and remote turn on wire.

I went through all this trouble to NOT splice into the factory connectors. So I decided the next best thing was to run power and ground from the battery. After all I was going to have to run power anyways for the kicker hideaway. It turns out to be a pretty nice solution All of the factory connectors are left un-touched and plugged directly into the headunit. Only R51 is replaced with what I built which feeds the kicker key. The original R51 now plugs into the output side of the amp.

The other bit of good news is that i did not need to find or tap for remote turn on. I set the first dip switch into the down position, which detects a current on the speaker input to turn on the amp. works fine.

oh a little tip, the microphone wire can be routed through small opening in the glovebox:


While I was doing everything I also installed a kicker hideaway sub. On a whim I went with the new HS10 (10") unit. Note -- this new unit is slightly larger, but makes it too large to mount under the seat. Also it is too large to mount horizontally in the left rear seat bin -- must mount vertically. I also set the hideaway to use speaker line detect for turn on. It also works fine.

it sounds very good. in fact if I turn the bass control knob up I can rattle the rear window and mirror.



The standard kicker bass remote can be easily taken apart and re-mounted in a standard panel blank.



I took me about 7 hours to do all of it, but I took my time and tried my best to do a clean install (I'm in california so had nothing better to do anyways). I fabric-tape wrapped all the wires bundles, and every connection was made using a soldered lineman splice followed by heat tubing. Overall I'm pleased with how it came out. I didn't have to splice into any of the factory connectors. sound is very clean, no hiss of any kind. the key amp DSP does make a nice difference -- specifically it utilizes the rear speakers more for a better soundstage. the HS10 sub adds some nice bass.

Hope this helps. This is probably the cleanest solution until metra comes out with a 2020 version of their kit to make a T-harness.

 

Thank you for this information

 

picked up a couple different wiring harnesses. I plan on making my own t-harness to wire up an audiocontrol LC-6.1200. Both harnesses ran me about $80

 

After finding both of these connectors / harness kits online (just now) through google there they are posted above. Almost ready to pull the trigger on my cart to start the Kicker Key amp upgrade. Good work OP!

I only need the 2 black male and female connectors with pins for the factory 10 pin connector (R51) on the 2020 head unit.

 

What connectors did you use to plug into the kicker key if you didn't use anything from the tacotoons harness kit.

Nevermind I see they come with the key

 

@betteldude

I just ordered a wire kit for the Recurve / amp system from taco as well. I used the same setup with the recurve in the 2015 I had before. So I'm happy to hear I should hopefully be getting the correct one to redo the process. Now its just a waiting game to see how long it takes to arrive. Estimate was about 10 days.. How long did your order take? Especially with the way things are now.

 

I received the wiring harness.. The speaker side is correct.. but the other section of harness T tunes sent me just seems to be an extension of the R51 side of things. I have power and ground run to the back. I guess I will have to figure out some sort of remote turn on?

 

You mind posting a pic of the full harness they sent you

 

@destin_meeks the section of cable is pretty much as the OP showed. The only useful part is the 10 pin which does fit the radio, however it only has the speaker wires. I'll take some photos hopefully today.

 

The other is pretty much the same

 

Looks like 2 of the same plug.

 

No, the square end is made to plug straight into their in-house amplifier. So it’s getting cut off in your system

 

Correct. It’s color coded for the recurve unit

 

Also the recurve unit has a switch for both front or rear inputs for the sub

 

Well, those are standard colors for all car stereo applications.

 

Just need to hunt for a switched source and then run the remote blue. Also going to run the bass knob somewhere up front while I got the console out .

 

So is the only way decent way to get a power and ground to the key from the battery, has anyone done it a different way with good results?

 

i'm running this same set-up. Love the sound!

 

I tied into the radio harness. The other option would be the cigarette lighter. But I couldn’t get mine out easily.

 

Ok I got mine installed and wired and run through the auto setup and it sounds good, but when I turn off the audio sources, there is an annoying low static sound where it doesn't sound like the speakers fully turn off. Any way to fix this?