Jump to content

idiots guide to fitting car radio please


Jamboat

Featured Posts

We had our car trashed recently & it was written off as a result, part of the settlement was a new car stereo but as our replacement car has one already we would like to fit it in the boat.

Bearing in mind that we are fairly clueless when it comes to electrics :lol: is this something we could tackle or is ir best to leave it to the professionals.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's easy to wire up a car stereo, as long as you know which wires are which (they're usually colour coded these days), it's just a case of joining them together with the speakers, power and an accessory switch (optional, but useful)... :lol:

 

Usually it's just 4 speakers, so that's 4 pairs of wire, power in, accessory switch and on some radios there's also a phone mute (for carphone setups). There's also other things like external amp outputs or CD changer inputs, but you don't need to fiddle with them... :lol:

 

All you have to do is lay out your wires to the speakers, find a power wire (may need a negative wire too) and run that to the radio, cut a slot for the radio and fit a frame to hold it in place and stick it all together and you're done... :lol:

 

You should consult the manual of course, which will also explain what's what and how to work it all... :lol:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

mmm... you make it sound sosimple :lol: guess we will just have a go then & when we get stuck we'll be back :lol:

 

It is pretty easy, just make sure you use connector blocks to make wire joints easy, if possible, use spade plugs on the speakers, otherwise solder the wires on, oh, and I forgot to mention, don't forget to fit an aerial, otherwise the radio will be all fuzzy... :lol:

 

I wired up my bed radio fairly easily (see pic), it was only the AC-DC power supply I had difficulty with... :lol:

 

F9LNEXPFSPRH3G1.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We had our car trashed recently & it was written off as a result, part of the settlement was a new car stereo but as our replacement car has one already we would like to fit it in the boat.

Bearing in mind that we are fairly clueless when it comes to electrics :lol: is this something we could tackle or is ir best to leave it to the professionals.

The modern generation of car radio's tend to conform with a standard wiring setup and you can usually buy the wiring harness from an accessory shop for a few pounds. Most of these looms are not only colour coded but also have name tags which make the wiring a doddle. Working in the motor trade, we use these all the time and even my apprentice who seems to be a little short of brain cells has not managed to blow anything up...YET! Don't forget the aerial and speakers.

Good luck.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We had our car trashed recently & it was written off as a result, part of the settlement was a new car stereo but as our replacement car has one already we would like to fit it in the boat.

Bearing in mind that we are fairly clueless when it comes to electrics :lol: is this something we could tackle or is ir best to leave it to the professionals.

 

The radio will need a positive + 12v supply, a negative 12v connection, usually a minimum 2 speaker connection (1 pair of wires for each speaker ) the aerial if attached to your roof will also need a negative supply (ground -) as the battery negative is not connected to the metal of the boat, as mentioned in one of your other replies if you have your batteries switched off you will need a permanent + positive supply from the battery to a memory wire to keep the memory alive, unless your radio has a non-volatile memory (one that doesn't need a power supply - a bit like your mobile phone. Car wiring is beginning to be more standardised for certain circuits, positive is normally red, negative brown or black, speaker wire can be any colour, memory wire sometimes orange, if your not confident just leave it until you meet a fellow boater with the knowledge and share a bottle of wine.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As you want an idiot's guide my input will be useful. I'm the idiot who once installed a car radio with the wrong polarity and burned out all the wiring in an MGB.

Whatever you do don't get the polarity wrong or you can damage all your wiring and maybe even start a fire.

Greater brains than mine will tell you what that all means, as I have never touched anything like that again and don't want to know about it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"As you want an idiot's guide my input will be useful. I'm the idiot who once installed a car radio with the wrong polarity and burned out all the wiring in an MGB.

Whatever you do don't get the polarity wrong or you can damage all your wiring and maybe even start a fire.

Greater brains than mine will tell you what that all means, as I have never touched anything like that again and don't want to know about it." :lol:

 

 

"if your not confident just leave it until you meet a fellow boater with the knowledge and share a bottle of wine."

 

Sounds like a plan, :lol:

Edited by Aira
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.