Recently changed out my sound system in my 2008 Ram; I had thought about doing a complete DIY with lots of photos, but there was a lot involved and I decided that it would be a long, boring post. I'm sure a lot of the stuff has been covered before, so I am just going to talk about my head unit and a few of the ideas I had along the way.

I pulled my entire system, minus the amp; it was just too hard for me to get to without removing a lot of extra stuff. The head unit, Sirius reciever, the speakers.... all are out. I installed a Kenwood DNX5120 Double DIN Nav unit. I had origionaly planned on installing a Kenwood DNX8120; 6.95" screen, built-in Bluetooth.... but ended up going with the 5120 for about $600 less. The differences are a smaller screen (6.1"), 1 less RCA pre-out, only 1 USB port, and no Bluetooth. The smaller screen allows for a few buttons and a volume ****, which I've found I'm glad to have. I didn't need the extra RCA out since I had one on my main Alpine amp. You can add a USB hub if you want, and I added a Kenwood Bluetooth unit to it.



I like the Kenwood; the Garmin GPS package on it works great. I drove from North Alabama to Miami after I installed it, and it predicted my driving time pretty accurately. GPS boot up time is very quick most of the time; for some reason, it takes a couple of minutes if I've been parked outside of my apartment, but about everywhere else it's ready to go in a few seconds. The iPod controls work great; I'd suggest getting an iPod just to leave in the truck (refurbished 80gig iPods at the Apple store for $209 right now). Some people have installed a hard drive for all the music. You have a front panel AV input that isn't available on the 8120. I still haven't tried out the XM, the adapter I need isn't out yet. I still have to get an adapter for the Dodge antenna to the Kenwood.

I installed 6 1/2" Infinity speakers in the doors; you can go to Crutchfield.com to see what will fit. The rear doors got 2-ways, the front got componants, with the tweeters in the dash where the old speakers had been. This worked great, just took a bit of thought about installing the tweeters. The Infinitys came with a set of mounts that I ended up gluing to the underside of the dash panel.



I used plastic epoxy for the install. I'd suggest roughing up the plastic surfaces a bit before gluing; I bumped one of the mounts while checking things out, and the mount popped right off. I think it's a bit too smooth to hold good, seems to be working great after roughing up the surfaces.

Crutchfield sent me the wrong wiring harness, but it's an easy install without one. Don't worry about trying to find a dimmer wire; it only controls the edge lights and around the buttons. The GPS will control the dimming of the LCD at sunset. Speaking of lights; you can choose from a lot of different colors for the lights, or mix your own color. It's very easy to tweak it to match the rest of your dash lights.

When mounting the door speakers, you will probably have to drill new holes. You need to remove the screw clips from the old speaker mounting holes to let your new ones fit snug against the metal.



I mounted the main amp under the drivers seat, and a sub amp between the rear underseat compartments. The 10" JL sub is in a Fox sub enclosure. It's a nice setup, and unlike the Q-Logic box, it doesn't intrude between the seats where my amp is.

I mounted the GPS antenna where the center speaker had been. The installation manual says to mount it at the front of the dash, so this seemed like a good spot. Works great, but if you do this, think about the orientation of the antenna if you brought the cable out from the front of the dash. It took me a few minutes to figure out why the arrow on my GPS unit was pointed backwards all of the time, but once I turned it around, it worked fine. This picture was taken BEFORE I turned it around.



Metra makes a dash installation kit that is worth every penny you pay for it (It's not expensive anyway). It's a very easy install with it, and it looks great.



I installed my Kenwood Bluetooth unit behind the glovebox, on the mounting bracket that the Sirius receiver.

To make the steering wheel controls work, you have to get the SWI-JACK and the SWI-CAN2 adapters. The -CAN2 is for the 2008 Dodge, the 2006-2007 uses the -CAN, and is needed for the CAN bus system. Crutchfield doesn't even have the -CAN2 adapter yet, I've got mine ordered and on the way. Go to www.pac-audio.com to be sure what adapter you need. The 5120 does NOT come with a remote, it's optional.

All in all, I've got a great sounding system now; very clean, crisp sound, and the sub sounds great. I haven't been able to crank it all the way without hurting my ears, and I've got a very conservative system. I didn't want a huge thumping sub, just wanted more bass than I would get with the 6 1/2" speakers. The headunit install is very easy, I imagine it would work great even with the stock amp and speakers. If you do this, make sure you get the proper harness adapter cables so everything will run through the stock amp the way it should. Crutchfield will have what you need and provide very good support. I still plan on adding sound dampener to the doors, just didn't have time when I did the rest of it.

 

Great job! How much depth is there for the dash speakers, and what did you use for a crossover?

 

Plenty of depth for the dash speakers; I removed the stock 3 1/2" speakers. I installed Infinity Kappa 60.7cs 6 1/2" speakers. The woofers went into the door, and the tweeters up in the dash like the pictures show. I used the crossovers that came with them. I meant to add that detail to my first post. I used Velcro to mount the crossovers to the inside of the kick panels you remove to run your wires and cables to the rear. Use a good knife to shave off one of the ridges on the inside and you have plenty of room to mount your Velcro; I should have gotten a picture of that for the post.

 

What kind of after market trim kit did you use? I just bought a truck and the guys said for a replacement dash it would be about $285. Is there a kit that would be cheaper? Would there be anything else you need besides the wiring harness, antenna converter and then some sort of trim kit when converting from a factory stereo this particular model?

Thanks in advance!

 

Sweet, you gotta get a back up cam. They work awesome on here!

 

nice install.. and frog thats next on my list for mine.. saw my buddies and it was amazing

 

Yep, nice install. I love a DD HU. And a backup cam is still on my list too but man its a long list for sure.......LOL

 

looks great! how long did it take to install?

 

Say, I'm looking for advice from anyone who has installed the SWI-JACK in their Dodge RAM.

SWI-JACK wants you to open the steering column, and cut the wire inside. I've tried getting the column open to no avail. After talking to Cruchfield, they say I can use the GRAY/WHITE wire coming out from the bottom of the steering column. I'd sure like to hear what others have done with the SWI-JACK before I go a-cutting. I'm always worried the air-bag is going to go BANG!

Thanks in advance!

 

If I had an 08, I'd put the MyGig with all the bells and whistles in it. Some computer engineer on a Jeep forum figured out how to make a MyGig work in a 02-07 Liberty (uses the same electrical and stereo system 02-05 Rams use) and it works great!