[RobDog]

My truck: 2005 Toyota Tundra SR5 Crew Cab - completely stock thus far.

I am completely new to Car Audio. I have searched these forums for days looking for completely noobie information on how exactly to do all this, but it seems the majority of folks here (if not all) know much more about Car Audio and use acronyms I don't understand. I apologize in advance if I missed the noobie post on exactly how to do this.

I've wired a 4 gauge (you never know ) from my + battery terminal, through the firewall, and eventually into my center console, where I have an amplifier mounted inside. I have not hooked anything up yet, just have it routed. I also attached a ground wire from the bracket mounting screws that attach the center of my conosle to the frame. (I attached the ground to the actual body of the truck between the bracket and the truck metal). I plan on hooking this up of couse to the ground on my amplifier.

I have an 8" sub under my back driver side seat (made my own Bazooka type VSE) that I plan on powering with my amplifier.

When I took apart my center console, I see what appears to be two wire harnesses that aren't connected to anything. These are wrapped up with the same wires that lead to my rear power outlet (center console).

So, this is where I stop and wonder what the heck I'm doing.

I want to use the amplifier for powering my subwoofer only and continue using my stock stereo to power the rest of my stock speakers (JBL system).

So here are my questions thus far:

1) Do I run like a simple 14 gauge wire from my amplifier remote turn on to some place in back of my stock stereo, or is there a remote turn-on wire of sorts that I can splice into that is part of the unconnected harnesses under my center console?

2) Do I simply hook up RCA cables from the back up my stock radio (head unit?) and route them to my amplifier low input jacks, and this is what sends the speaker signal to my sub once I hook that up?

3) Are there any parts I *should* and/or need to have in addition to what I'm doing?

4) If I have to use a wiring harness, do you think I can get one from say Circuit City?

I'm totally amp'ed about finding this site. There are a lot of cool posts, ideas, and trucks out there. I'm jealous and long to be part of the team I'll add my truck pics, details, signature, etc. later, assuming I don't get shot down in flames on my first post here

 

[mossman77]

If you have a multimeter, you could test those wires to see if one of them is +12V switched (which is likely), and tap into that. As far as connecting to the JBL stereo, I'm not sure there are RCA preouts on the back (maybe there is). If not, you'll need to buy a line-level converter which gets wired in parallel with the front or rear speaker channels, and converts the high-level speaker wire outputs to low-level RCA outputs that can be connected to your amp. Sounds like you already have everything else (power, ground, signal wires, and of course speaker wires). By the way, how are you going to connect a 4 AWG wire to your amp? Is the screw terminal that large? Let me know if you need any more help.

 

[RobDog]

Yes, the screws on the amp are that big . It's also a twisted 4 gauge, vs. a solid core, which makes bending it around easier.

I've been doing some more reading and it looks like the RCA is only needed if I want power my JBL speakers with the amp? Or are the RCA connectors the actual "speaker signals"? That's the part I don't get the most. I guess the RCA connections MUST be the speaker signals eh? And I see now why you suggest I need a LOC is it? It's all coming together now

Thanks!

Oh ps. - so you mean I didn't need to run my own battery power cable? I could've tapped into an existing one somewhere?

 

[Brandon1]

1) Do I run like a simple 14 gauge wire from my amplifier remote turn on to some place in back of my stock stereo, or is there a remote turn-on wire of sorts that I can splice into that is part of the unconnected harnesses under my center console?

2) Do I simply hook up RCA cables from the back up my stock radio (head unit?) and route them to my amplifier low input jacks, and this is what sends the speaker signal to my sub once I hook that up?

3) Are there any parts I *should* and/or need to have in addition to what I'm doing?

4) If I have to use a wiring harness, do you think I can get one from say Circuit City?

Ok, RCA's are what carries the signal from your source (in your case your headunit/LOC combo) to your amp. You have to have RCA's, and they wont plug into your stock radio.

1. You WILL need a LOC that converts your speaker wires into RCA wires. Tap into your right and left speaker wires (front or rear) to get signal, then run the RCA from the LOC to the amp. There is no remote turn on or RCA's for stock stereos. You can get a remote turn on by checking for a switched 12v power like the radio wire (check the wireing diagrams on this site).

2. Already explained

3. All you need is the LOC ($15), a amp wireing kit consisting of a power cable and fuse to run from the + on the batt to the + on your amp, a ground cable to run to a ground source, RCA's and a remote turn on wire. ($40). You HAVE to run a power wire from your battery when powering any amps.

4. Nah, all you need is what is listed above.

Most of these questions have already been asked, just search. Put JBL in the search title and search through "thread titles" and you will get alot of info on adding a sub to JBL tundra units

 

[RobDog]

So hey, I have two ports on my amplifier called High Input (as well as two that say low input). Does this mean that the High Input is actually a LOC in essence? Can I actually just splice my speaker wire(s) into the High input instead of using RCA's?

 

[BLOWN 86]

Hey Robdog isn't the VSE already powered with a 100 watt amp at least mine was and I'm pretty sure they all are and mine was only a 6" sub unless you placed a 8" sub then that would be pretty cool I wanted to do that but I sold my VSE instead and will be installing three Jl 8s this week

 

[RobDog]

Yeah, the VSE's are powered. I made my own "VSE" however, and just as you suggested, put in an 8"

I mounted the amp inside of my center console (fits perfectly) and drilled a hole up through the bottom where my power/speaker wires come in. I fished the "VSE" wire right under the middle of the carpet (had to take out back seat for that), sticking to the sides of the hump. Everything is completely invisible (which I love).

I just have the one last step of hooking it up to my stock radio, which I'm still slightly confused about. I understand that splicing my existinng JBL speaker wires and routing them to a LOC, then from the LOC to my amp is one way of doing it, but I'm not even sure if I have to do that. As I stated earlier, I have a high pass and a low pass connector on my Amp. I'm wondering if I were to route my speaker wires to the high pass connection on the amp if that is basically a converter in the amp.

If I understand it correctly, the speaker wire carries a high output connection vs. the RCA which is a low ouput. So if I plug the high ouput speaker wire(s) into my high pass on my amp, does my amp actually convert that signal for me and pass it along to my speaker out connection? (that being my home made vse)

And of course, instead of splicing my door speaker wires, I'd rather use the harness that are just sitting there under my center console (storage compartment thingy), if in fact they are speaker wire harnesses? I haven't gotten clarification on that yet.

Anyhoo! Once I get it al figured out and working, I'll post pics

Btw Blown, where are you putting those 3 8" JBL's?

 

[dsrtrcr01]

Yes you can run the speaker wire to the high pass of your amp. it is the same as running a LOC and rca's to the low pass inputs. I am not sure if there are any benefits of one way over the other.

In our Celica I just found the rear speaker wires Tapped into them and ran them to the high input of the amp. I also left them running to the rear speakers so they still worked. I just added a second wire to them to run to the amp. I ran a large cable to the battery for the positive with the fuse within a few inches of the battery so if there is a problem it only melts a few inches of wire instead of the whole thing. I also ran a Large cable for the ground to the body. Make sure you scrpe away the paint so the wire touches metal.

As for the wires under the center console I am not sure if they are speaker wires or not.

If you look you will see 3 inputs for power on your amp. One is for constant power from the battery. One is for a Ground and the 3rd is for switched power which turns the amp on and off with the stereo. You should pull the stereo and use a test light or multimeter to see which wire gets power when you turn the radio on and goes off when you turn it off. This should be used to run to the switched power side of your amp.