Chris: I am Chris Duke and this Truckblog.TV. These days, everyone has got a cellphone, an MP3 player, satellite radio and a portable GPS unit, but would it not be cool if someone would combine all this great technologies into one. Well, Alpine Electronics has done exactly that. It is called the Alpine IVA-W505 multimedia station. It allows your Blackbird GPS unit to be docked inside, as well as to connect your cellphone via Bluetooth. It also allows you to use satellite radio, play your MP3 player, your DVD movies and everything else. Today, on Truckblog.TV we are going to show how to install one of these bad boys and how it works with all of these great technologies.
As with any large wiring project, make sure to take your time, read the manual and figure everything out before you get started, which I did a couple of days ago and I laid everything out here on this table so I can show you how everything gets hooked up. We got our audio cables, but goes straight off to an amplifier, got some audio and video cables here if you want to hook some additional monitors. Of course, our series satellite radio equipment and antenna. Got a backup camera here or iPod and this adaptor that looks straight to that wiring harness on the back of the stereo, which will show you how that works next.
First, you need to remove the stock stereo. On this Ford, it is pretty easy. All you got to do is open the cup holder, put two fingers underneath this round and pull it up and it kind of pops up. Now, we need to disconnect all these climate control cables back here. Disconnect any cables, it is pretty easy, just push in on the tab or pull on the tab depending on which one and they easily pop out. Once all the cables are disconnected, I use the 7-mm socket to remove the four screws that hold the stock radio in place and there are two more that hold the tray in place. Now, once those screws have been removed, the stock radio slides right out and you can disconnect the antenna and the wiring harness. Then moving back up to the top of the dash, top tray easily pops out by just lifting up in the front and sliding forward. Now, after a couple of minutes and a few screws, your dash is completely open for a new head gear. Try doing that on a Honda.
Next, I connect the open cables that I had ready to go for the new Alpine head unit and mount it back into the same location as the stock radio using the same four screws. On the side mirror, I picked up the wiring harness adaptor and the dash kit from Crutchfield, which made the installation go a lot smoother. Now, you probably noticed that I use a lot of these wire knots initially on my installation and that was just a test to make sure that everything was connected properly, but once you have tested everything out, the best thing to do is to go back later and use this splice connectors or use the soldering gun, do it right because there is a lot of rattling underneath this dash and they will come loose eventually. And the final, I needed to find a place to mount the antenna for the Blackbird GPS navigation unit. I found a spot right in front of this tray right on top of the dash.
Now, a series satellite radio antenna is pretty easy to install. Once I figured that word install on the roof on my truck here. I used to solve that says back in, sticked it on and routed the wire on the top of the window seal down the A-pillar behind the weather stripping and then down here behind the front fender and back up on the back side of the A-pillar on inside the truck, and back over to the stereo. A series has a whole bunch of great installation videos on the website (Sirius Installation Help www.sirius.com vehicleinstallation) for your particular truck or vehicle so check out their website for more details.
Well, the other real cool thing is about the Alpine IVA-W505, is that you can hook up a rear back up camera. We picked up this one off at eBay for about 80 bucks and since the truck is lifted, we do not have a spare tire anymore. Now such, we do not need the spare tire lock anymore. So, it is perfect place for this camer
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