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When I pulled out the old stereo, I had to grind off the trim edge on top and bottom to get the new one to fit.. trim a little at a time until the new stereo slides in snug. Also there is a screw on top of opening that needs to be removed and not reinstalled.
This was from a previous post I had...copy and pasted:
I just purchased and installed the Kenwood DNX874S a month ago. Very happy with it as it does everything I want. NAV, Android Auto, plays DVD's or CD's, SD card, USB, compatible with Sirius and Maestro but I don't use those 2. Also purchased a backup camera for it. All works well with no issues. I have a 64gb SD card in it with about 300 24-96 (a little overkill from 24-48 sampling.) hi res flac file songs on it and its only half full, room to add movies. Sound Quality is great. Cost was just over $600 from amazon compared to $750 @ Crutch or $900 from Sonix. My only concern was using the Metra kit that once snapped into place, you had to remove the dash to remove the stereo again. My fix was to grind off the little tabs of the Metra. Tight fit going in but still able to pull stereo out if I need w/o removing dash. From the drivers seat, glare has not been an issue for me either. You can also tilt the screen. I also wanted the volume ****, was a little unsure how it would sit on the left side with the stereo set back in with the metra kit. Buttons are fine tho.
I bought a Jensen VX7020 for a steal of a deal at the time and am happy with it. It is definitely not an audiophile head unit, but I didn't care at the time. I drive with no music playing or sound anyway, so I didn't care.
The head unit has DVD playback which was good for my wife or other passengers when traveling across SD or something similar. It has navigation which was my main point for purchase. Yes, you can use your phone or tablet or whatever, but I prefer to have the map in the dash and readily accessible even if there is no 4G/3G signal.
Just last week we used the navigation in the truck to tow our 5th wheel trailer 1500 miles round trip. I set waypoints to avoid the cities and populated areas and it worked great.
It has bluetooth so Pandora is available at the touch of a button if I want to hear some Hank Williams Jr or Haggard... The bluetooth also works with the phone calling of course.
The back-up camera feature was key at the time of installing the head unit because we had a travel trailer. I wired the camera to be on all the time instead of only on when in reverse. This allows me to push the camera button even if we are going 65 MPH down the road and see the rear of the truck. I did this mainly because I have a ZF6 and when hooking up, I put the truck in neutral instead of reverse.
Great head unit for what I needed it for, but not great for sound quality.
Take a look at the Pioneer line up too. I have the NVX 4400. The sound quality is excellent and with Apple Car Play and Android Auto, I can leave my phone in my pocket and have full phone functionality from the head unit. I also wire the camera to keyed power to be able to monitor the trailer while driving. Navigation and music are handled through whichever apps are on the phone, Google Maps, Waze, Pandora, YouTube, iHeartRadio and so on. For the camera, I spent a little more and went with a new tailgate handle with a built in camera because I didn’t like the view from the perspective of the license plate mounted camera.
I have been using an Android headunit the past year and it has been great. Would never go back to a over priced old technology name brand headunit. I purchased this
I strongly urge you to look harder at the "mechless" (digital media receiver) double din head units. Discs are dinosaurs, they use a lot of real estate in the head unit, and they have drawbacks while in use (railroad tracks, dirt roads, very limited storage capacity). The only disc player in my whole life is the Blu-Ray under the TV. Other than that, none of my electronics use discs. I have satellite, USB, SD, 4G, Bluetooth, WiFi, radio, backup cam, GPS, etc....
sadly the days of head units being for Audiophiles is long gone, nowdays it is all about apple and android intergratioin. to that point I agree with Tug, Id gladly give up the CD or DVD option in favor of a simple volume ****….sorely lacking from most head units which is amazing considering they can do everything from navigation to order a pizza. hey siri…. order me a dominios and turn up the volume !!!
Pioneer NEX-4200...I like it, but. I'd like it more with a volume ****. You just have to take your eyes off the road for too long to change the volume. If I could figure out how to get a steering wheel control.......
The volume **** was the first thing that broke on my now-gone Jensen.
As I said before, the Jensen doesn't even compare to a high end unit. Although, after nearly 4 years of use traveling the country the volume ****, GPS maps and bluetooth for phone or Pandora still work great.
Maybe I got lucky with the price and the volume ****, I'll take it though.
If I were to do it again though because this one dies, I would get one of the Android based units like L-light posted. Too many features that come with Android for the price to ignore.
Actually.... In a "perfect world", we would have an amplifier in the dash with no face - just a clamp for a 7" tablet and a USB C connector. All audio (and power) would flow through the USB cable (that fits in a pocket built into the amp). Technology is changing so fast, that i don't want to get stuck with what we have today... I want to be able to adapt. Look at a head unit from 2009 - it's dismal compared to now. Alpine has a nice KTA-450 amp that is an "add-on" to their head units, so we're going in the right direction. I've seen DIYers put a Bluetooth receiver on the inputs to an amp, then fit a tablet in the head unit space - that works pretty nice. A 7" phone would be an interesting "head unit".
The only drawback to all these ideas is integration of the backup cam. The cam would have to be on all the time, and the head unit would need to be switched to the backup cam. I liked when my backup cam just popped up on the screen when I put the truck in reverse. Maybe the in-dash amp can have accommodations for backup cam(s), and it sends video to the tablet via USB C.
There are a lot of other considerations I don't mention here, but imagine using your phone or tablet to interface with all your vehicles as grab another set of keys for the day.
