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What Radio Do You Have In Your Truck?

2390 Views 10 Replies 6 Participants Last post by  BlackSheep01, 
G
My original radio in the '79 Little Red Express has passed on so I was wondering what others are fitting in their pride & joys as I need some inspiration.
I need an AM band, yes it is old hat but my regular station is still down there, and a CD player with a USB port. I am not looking for a "head bashing" sound system, I am already half deaf now.
I have seen advertised many different units, some with DVD, reverse cameras, GPS. I was looking at a one Din unit until I had another look at the original fascia, I haven't pulled the old unit out yet but it looks taller but not as tall as a 2 Din. I have many things on the go with my LRE at the moment so don't want extra parts lying around until I can get to it and complete the job.
Thanks in advance for you responses and suggestions.

David
Aussie Challenger
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V
The opening is 1.5 DIN. There are very few 1.5 DIN units so you'll probably need a single DIN unit with an adapter.

I had my 78 Little Red Express years ago and installed a AM/FM/CB from a car of the same vintage I scored at the junkyard.

There probably isn't one that will provide you a USB port, but more modern radios up through 1999/2000 (year depends on the car line) will physically bolt right in including the AM/FM/CD/cassette units. You do have to rewire a bit to use them.

I can't speak to aftermarket units as they are a target for thieves in my area.
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T
We have an Alpine with all the features you want. Super easy to control, excellent audio quality, even looks good in the dash.
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T
Pioneer used to make a "Chrysler-fit" radio that was meant to replace OEM-sized radios, I had considered one for the Cordoba. I don't know if they're still made or not, but they looked swell.
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Dave Z
Just on a company level I'd be inclined to look at the Pioneer. I've found in the distant past that they were very good with after-purchase support. A Toshiba rep once told me I couldn't get the parts for my then-recent stereo because "it's been discontinued and once we are no longer required to keep parts by law, we dispose of them, since they're no longer needed." In other words, when you need to buy parts, their policy is to throw them out.

Pioneer, on the other hand, sold me a motor to a 25 year old turntable, at a reasonable price.

Alpine is a Chrysler supplier and they've been very good in the past. I found Bose horribly overrated and overpriced. Would avoid JVC.

JC Whitney and Crutchfield might have something interesting but a junkyard might be the best bet! USB port will be a problem in that form factor if you don't want to go aftermarket. Aux in line would be easier. There are adapters to add aux in, maybe USB, to factory stereos with the external CD changer port.

Last time I looked, you can get pretty good aftermarket stuff inexpensively and Crutchfield had adapters. (I'd use those rather than destroying the original plugs. In the old days when I had more time than money, though, I always clipped off the connectors and hard wired the cheap Sony car stereos to the cables, "upgrading" 1970s cars to 1980s music. They looked OK and sounded far better than the stock AM radios.)
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O
I just dropped an Alpine CDE-HD149BT into my Imperial. Does everything short of play video and drive the car for you. Auxiliary input, HD radio, hands free Bluetooth, USB... it's pretty loaded. Fantastic sound quality too - much better than the Kenwood it replaced.
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BlackSheep01
I have a 1992 Ramcharger in need of a radio update (factory unit in place is ... tired) and a 1997 pickup in which the ebay-score replacement OEM unit is also wearing down (like much of the rest of that truck).
If what I want is an update to something similar to a 2013 T&C in-dash / backup camera view / HD radio, what do I need to add to this Alpine unit? Have known and loved their sound systems since the 1970s.
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The 149 is one of their single DIN models... you'd have to go to one of their more expensive touchscreen options for anything video. And do some modding to the dash, because those are all double DIN units. I'd have loved to do that for the Imperial, but I'm not hacking apart the dash of a car it took me 3 years to find ;)

Nobody's making 1.5 DIN aftermarket units except no name Chinese companies I wouldn't trust as far as I can throw them.
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DaveAdmin said:
Just on a company level I'd be inclined to look at the Pioneer. I've found in the distant past that they were very good with after-purchase support. A Toshiba rep once told me I couldn't get the parts for my then-recent stereo because "it's been discontinued and once we are no longer required to keep parts by law, we dispose of them, since they're no longer needed." In other words, when you need to buy parts, their policy is to throw them out.
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Heh. I used to say that "TOSHIBA" was missing a "T" after the "I", and a "G" at the end...
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Dave Z
Yes. Not that my Sherwood, purchased God help me because of a Consumer Reports recommendation, was better. Indeed, it took less time for the volume-knob LED to stop working - around a week. I waited for the warranty to expire and fixed it myself.

At that point I declared to myself that any future receivers would be Pioneers, and I did get a discontinued Pioneer fairly cheaply, which has served me well since.

I also took in my neighbor's Yamaha when he was getting rid of it and other than dirt somewhere (you need to jack of the volume when you first start to clear the channels) it's been terrific with the woofer and satellite speakers he provided.
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BlackSheep01
In 1986 my kid brother borrowed my 1981 Ram 150 318 4x2 shortbed standard. He flipped it end-over-end off an overpass on the far side of Texas via I-20 from where
we were working, trying to get to his Texas National Guard meeting (long story short: gas money we had, bus ticket money we did not) and put the rear bumper down over
the top of the cab. His battle buddy was thrown out of the truck, which then rolled over on (and, thankfully, off again) him. By the time my dad got there -- several hours
after the wreck, with the truck now in a salvage yard thanks to the state -- the Alpine radio in the truck was gone. So were the four speakers in the doors. (Half the value of
the truck, I figure.) I miss that truck, still; and that radio, too. I think based on the supplier code the radio in my '97 may be the Alpine version of the Infinity. No CD, though.
I use the cassette adapter to play podcasts from an Android phone. Sounds better than anything I've got in the house, even....
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