Radio upgrade

I do not own a trailmanor yet. Our family is in the saving process and I hope to be able to purchase a late model used one next year or early the following year. In the meantime, I am 'lurking' on the forum gaining as much knowledge as I can and watching the for sale campers to see how much realistically I need to save...

So, on to my question... we are about to eBay a bunch of items in our house to clean out unneeded clutter and one of the items is a nice headunit from my DH's previous car. I got to thinking (this often insights fear in those who know me... ) "I wonder if the radio in the TM is just a car stereo... if I kept this one instead of eBaying it, I wonder if I could switch it out and give my TM an upgraded sound and MP3 capability...

So, is it just a car stereo in there? By switching it out will I loose some feature I don't know about? (The reason it is not going in DH's new car is he will loose the sync features of the car...) If I can use it and will not loose anything, there may be one less item I will be cleaning out...

Yep, it just a car stereo. Don't know about the specifics of your situation, but it should be a simple matter to swap it out. The mounting plate above the refer comes out to give you access to the connections. The dealer changed ours for us and it didn't take any time at all. I wouldn't have a radio in our TM without a jack for the iPod.

[mcgyver210]

Yes as Scott said it is a standard Din chassis Car Stereo should be a easy switch. I have plans on adding two more speakers at some point.

[ThePair]

Depending on what year model you get, mine came with a stereo in there that already had an aux jack on the front, and mp3 capabilities.

No need to upgrade for me

[Bill]

The "head unit" that you mention. What is its physical size? The size you need is known as "single DIN", and I think that Google will tell you how to translate that into inches. Many cars do NOT have single-DIN OEM radios, especially if they have fancy stuff like CD-players and elaborate displays (like the one in my Ford Explorer).

Second, what does the term "head unit" imply? Does it need something like separate amplifiers mounted somewhere? Sorry, I'm just not familiar with the term.

Bill

The "head unit" is the actual CD player itself. Most aftermarket "decks" or "head units" are single DIN units, whereas the stock ones are often not as Bill mentioned. I'm quite familiar with car stereos having installed many in the years (as well as amplifiers, subwoofers, etc...), and in my experience, stock decks typically have an external amplifier mounted in the car somewhere. In my last car, when I changed to an aftermarket deck, I had to bypass the factory amplifier which was mounted under the driver seat. It was a large pain but well worth it in the end. Stock decks are typically underpowered and not really packed with many features that aftermarkets have available. Aftermarket decks typically have an internal amplifier usually advertised as "45 watts x 4" or "50w x 4" or something right on the front of the unit.

From what it sounds like, HappyWDWCampers has an aftermarket deck that they have removed from a previous vehicle. So long as it is a single DIN unit, it will fit just fine and should wire up fine, providing you are able to crimp wires together. It shouldn't take long either.

My unit currently doesn't have a stereo but I have been keeping my eye out for a good deal on an mp3 capable unit that provides an AUX jack on the front so we can play our various iPod's and whatnot. Also handy is that the 12v receptacle is just around the corner of the fridge in our unit so I can get a car charger and not have to worry about our iPod's running out of power.

Something else I have toyed with was adding a 10 or 12 disc changer and drilling through the fridge wall and under the couch (if there was adequate room) and mounting the changer near the waterpump off the ground a bit. I don't recall anybody else having done a mod like that. If I do it, I'll be sure to post pictures/results and a procedure.

[mjlaupp]

Originally Posted by ColdFlame

Something else I have toyed with was adding a 10 or 12 disc changer and drilling through the fridge wall and under the couch (if there was adequate room) and mounting the changer near the waterpump off the ground a bit. I don't recall anybody else having done a mod like that. If I do it, I'll be sure to post pictures/results and a procedure.

I installed a 10 disk changer on both of my 2720SLs. There is very little space close to the fridge for this mod. I drilled a hole between the fridge cabinet and the sink cabinet and placed the changer on a piece of rubber non-slip shelf liner on top of the fresh water tank that is mounted under the sink on the 2729SL. It has to be free to lift out to insert and remove the changer cartridge since it had to go in endwise so as to clear the sink drain plumbing. I also made sure that the fresh water fill tube was well sealed to the top of the tank so that there was no water spillage for the changer to bathe in. Worked great for the entire time I had the TM. Sorry, no pictures. I sold the 2003 and the 2002 was wrecked.

Mike

Originally Posted by Bill

The "head unit" that you mention. What is its physical size? The size you need is known as "single DIN", and I think that Google will tell you how to translate that into inches. Many cars do NOT have single-DIN OEM radios, especially if they have fancy stuff like CD-players and elaborate displays (like the one in my Ford Explorer).

Second, what does the term "head unit" imply? Does it need something like separate amplifiers mounted somewhere? Sorry, I'm just not familiar with the term.

Bill

Hmmm -- let me try to clarify... It is a single DIN.. the car we had it in was not and we had to buy a special conversion kit from Crutchfield. No seperate Amplifiers... Basically it is a new radio with a better CD player that does MP3s for me without needing to pug in my IPOD...

[mcgyver210]

You shouldn't have an issue with upgrading the existing one sounds like a nice unit but also think about time frame since time will out date even the most advanced radio

Originally Posted by mjlaupp

I installed a 10 disk changer on both of my 2720SLs. There is very little space close to the fridge for this mod. I drilled a hole between the fridge cabinet and the sink cabinet and placed the changer on a piece of rubber non-slip shelf liner on top of the fresh water tank that is mounted under the sink on the 2729SL. It has to be free to lift out to insert and remove the changer cartridge since it had to go in endwise so as to clear the sink drain plumbing. I also made sure that the fresh water fill tube was well sealed to the top of the tank so that there was no water spillage for the changer to bathe in. Worked great for the entire time I had the TM. Sorry, no pictures. I sold the 2003 and the 2002 was wrecked.

Mike

That's great to know; thanks for that info. I do think I have enough room to mount it under my couch, but alas, I haven't actually measured yet either. I was going to screw it to the front of the couch on the inside wall so that the magazine was facing upwards. I figured I would have to fabricate some sort of "shield" to deflect water in the unlikely event that a hose was to spring a leak or the pump started to spray water. Just something to consider anyway!