thanks. just got back from best buy, they ordered the wrong one, 95-8512 for the 04 and up.
called them and the had the 8518 in stock, one left. so they put it on the side for me and i just picked it up. and as a thank you/i am sorry to make you come back to the store, they gave it to me at the same price as the newer kit.
so i am now all wired up except for two things.
one is they want a wire hooked up to the parking brake switch, and one to the reverse wire on the shifter.
what is the reason for the parking brake wire, and is it needed??

 

Put the parking brake wire into your ground, the reason they have that wire is so you have to set the parking brake in order to watch dvd or tv. The reverse wire is a black wire with pink tracer. Two locations for this, under dash or on driver side wheel well harness. See this thread for pic of under dash location
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...-location.html

 

thanks.
and all i can say is WOW!!!
i had no idea how bad the stock units really are until i just hooked the pioneer up to test the wiring!!!

the sound quality from the new unit is amazing!!

 

I've heard that many times from people who install a Pioneer. Congratulations!

 

My installer installed a toggle switch on that parking brake wire. I have the ability to pop in a video Dvd then the disclaimer pops up, I flip the switch twice and the movie plays. I have never used it but if my wife wants to watch a movie while I drive we could do it.

 

Yeah, new units are way past just grounding the wire. Just installed a Pioneer double DIN in my friend's Colorado and I had to look up a diagram on how to use a relay to bypass the Parking Brake wire. The units now require a signal twice in rapid succession for the DVD to function with the brake set, which I imagine is why your double-click switch trick works. Would've been way easier than that damn relay mess, but it works flawlessly any time you hit the DVD button.

Stock units up until the newer recent years are just terrible. Having a multi-band equalizer (I've got 10 in mine, nothing fancy) makes a huge difference instead of the typical bass and treble, if you're lucky you get mid as well. Between the equalizer, the built in crossover, and the high-pass system my bone stock 2001 speakers sound amazing. They'll get loud enough while retaining clarity and crispness to hurt your ears. I did cheat a bit and completely cut out all the bass to the speakers, frequencies below 160hZ are directed to the subs. Helps the speakers out a lot keeping the bass out of their operating responsibility.

 

TJ! I had to so some filing on the lower and upper part of the opening for the radios I installed . Opening no quit big enough !!

Smokie

 

yea, i am trying to convince myself to go out and pull the bezel off to fit the radio and trim piece.
except it is raining like a son of a gun, and it is warm and dry here on the couch

 

ahh the evil couch! i understand that fight well my friend. good luck and i hope you win the battle.

 

same thing i just did. it works great

i had to do a lot of trimming.
i am not happy with the way it came out, and the radio is loose.
i need a new bezel anyway, so when i get a new one i will custom fit it.
but it will work for now.

 

what install kit you use?

 

the metra 95-8518, for 99 to 03 ford superduty pickup.

 

 

Thanks for the tip I'll have to try that. So if you just wire the parking brake wire to ground you can then put a switch in as a ground break. I guess from what I am reading is that the parking brake wire to ground makes the head unit think the parking brake is on. So all you are doing is breaking the ground twice to get the dvd to work with the switch.
I had installed a head unit for a friend and I had to install a relay also to get the dvd to work. It was a stupid set up!! I agree that most stock head units and stock speakers were crappy. I have a old 2000 vintage Sony in my truck and it is no better than stock. So as I follow threads like this on head units I got tired of dealing with blown speakers and started on that end of my sound system. I'm going to start a new thread on that subject and I hope you'll weigh in on it.

I'm glad you got it installed and now have some nice tunes (music). I don't know where live that you are getting rain??? But in my parts it's 17* not including wind chill and snowing and there is no way I'm doing anything outside. So the couch and the chair in front of my computer is where I can be found until it at least gets back to 50*

 

i am in central Jersey. it was around 50 degrees and heavy rain yesterday, sunny and 24 today.