Stinger HORIZON10 Radio Kit Questions

Hey guys,
I'm thinking about installing a Stinger HORIZON10 Radio in my 2018 TRD Sport Double Cab, so I'm just curious to hear from anyone who has it installed. Any feedback of the pros and cons. Is the high price worth it? There's a couple specific questions I have about it that I can't find by searching online. Any additional information, reviews, tips or tricks would be appreciated.

Currently with my 2018 TRD Sport when I turn the truck on the OEM radio automatically connects to my phone's Bluetooth and starts playing whatever music I was previously listening to, whether that be from TIDAL, my VLC player or Bandcamp. I recently was loaned a 2024 TRD Off Road 4th Gen while my truck was in the shop, and it had Car Play/Android Auto, and every time I turned that truck on it would first turn my phone's WIFI on then connect to the truck to play music. How does the HORIZON10 compare, does it do the same thing as the 4th Gen Tacos and have to connect to the phone's WIFI before connecting to use the Android Auto, or does the HORIZON10 radio connect through Bluetooth? This was a HUGE irritation for me with the 4th Gen because a lot of times it would not connect so I'd have to go in and manually connect Android Auto which was really annoying. Also, for the 2 weeks I had the truck, the google maps only successfully worked about 4 times.

I also was wondering with the HORIZON10 can we still access setting features that the OEM has like maintenance and vehicle customization for things like door locks and lights?

https://stingersolutions.com/products/toyota-tacoma-horizon10-radio-kit

 

Wireless AA or CarPlay works via WiFi only. Bluetooth is only used to initiate the connection before switching over to WiFi.

You don’t have to use AA or CarPlay and just have it connect via Bluetooth and use it that way as well. You would probably have to disable AA or CarPlay first.

The Stinger unit does not retain the OEM customization functions. A different head unit that uses the Maestro will retain the OEM customization functions. Stinger uses PAC Audio which just retains steering wheel controls.

 

Sounds like this will be a no go for me then. So with the HORIZON10 there would be no way to go in and change settings like how many clicks it takes for the doors to lock/unlock or how long the lights stay on. Would the truck stay in whatever setting I currently have, or go back to whatever the default settings are?

So is it possible to disable Android Auto or Car Play on the HORIZON10 and have it still work correctly? If not that's another deal breaker for me as I hated the AA in the 4th Gen 2024, so much so I told myself I wouldn't trade my 3rd Gen in for a 4th Gen. I have unlimited 5G data on my phone, so I keep my WIFI off, so this was an annoyance with the 4th Gen.

 

I now have the Horizon10+ radio in my truck. I had the Horizon10 in my truck from 2019 to earlier this year. The first radio started acting up, backup camera wasn't showing well and front camera went out totally. I also wanted AA wirelessly, Horizon10 is on by wire. Personally I love it, I do use the front facing camera for off roading and parking and I love the 10 inch screen. So it is worth it for me.

 

So how does it work as far as connecting to AA? My first experience with using AA was with the loaned 2024 4th Gen, and I absolutely HATED it. I had nothing but problems with getting it to connect and work correctly the entire 2 weeks I had the truck. I'm someone who since I have unlimited 5G with my Verizon phone plan doesn't keep my WIFI on because I feel like it drains the phone's battery faster; so it annoyed me every time I got in and turned the 4th Gen Taco on AA automatically turned my phone's WIFI on.

The screen looks great, I don't know though, having to use AA to do things like use Google Maps and listen to music as well as not being able to access the truck customizations that the OEM radio has are big negatives for me.

 

It does turn on whenever the truck is started, but you can just not link it to your phone. I have a charging usb c cable I keep in my truck to charge my phone when I need to. I also have Verizon, and I am using a Samsung S24+ phone. I have a Subaru Outback also and it turns on the wifi also whenever I start it, I just put it on charge also. I like the AA system, I do wish it would turn off once I turned the vehicles off to stop the drain on my battery.
Radio works great so far, I have already used the front facing camera off roading in Cleghorn, backup camera shows like 4k now.

 

So if I don't link it to my phone doesn't that mean I'd loose things like the ability to listen to music through apps like TIDAL, Bandcamp, etc as well as Google Maps and phone calls through the Bluetooth?

Oh wow, so it made the backup camera look better than the OEM? I've read with some of the other Stinger models the camera screen looks the same as the OEM screen. Installing a front camera is probably the #1 mod I want to do but haven't done yet.

 

Yes, but the Horizon10 is not wireless, it is wired only. The Horizon10+ and the next model up are the only ones that are wireless. When Google maps is giving me navigation, the map is on the radio, and only turn by turn directions is showed on my Google maps cell phone screen. Radio is a little slow turning on and connecting to my phone when I start my truck, I am actually getting more apps in AA than what I am getting in AA in my Subaru Outback. I don't like the wireless charging in my truck because it doesn't charge through my cell phone case. The best thing you can do is to hook up a USB C phone charger while driving to keep your phone charged. When we turn on location for Google maps, it will drain your phone anyway.
Installing the front facing camera is very easy, I am thinking about putting another camera in the back window to see the vehicles behind me and what I have in the bed of my truck.
I still need to contact Stinger because I haven't been able to load my own background picture to see in the radio. I have been through the instructions and it's not doing what it's supposed to do.