Replacing the in-dash radio in my Itasca Horizon 40AD

I recently cancelled my XM Radio subscription (terrible customer service and price increases).  I am wanting to replace my Magnadyne (?) radio with an upgraded version that will enable me to connect my iPod Touch and listen to my iTunes music.  I have several questions:

1.  Has anyone else done this and what was your experience?

2. Is there a radio than will slide into the oversize hole left by the old radio?

3.  If so, will the "white bar connector" on the rear of the radio be universal for connections to 12 volt and speakers?  And will it be compatible with the Winnebago installed sound system?  Hopefully I can find something that will just slide in and reconnect?

John, re-direct this post if necessary.  I felt it belonged here since I am asking about a the Winnebago installed radio.

I just replaced my radio on my 2004 Suncruiser. I bought the Sony radio at  Best Buy and had them install it. They charged $50. It took the technician about 45 minutes and it look perfect. He cut a little strip and placed it over the gap left by the smaller Sony. There are off the shelf adapters that have a small pocket shelf, but they were all too small to fit. All of the different speakers work as before. I have changed out the radio in an old VW, but this looked way beyond my capabilities. Best Buy will normally install a $100 and up radio for free, but charge the $50 for an RV. The technician stated that this system was strange and he had to adapt several things. It all works great. I love XM and there are $77 (half price) renewals out there. I just renewed with one myself.

Rex - I think our radios are an industry standard size - Double Din if I'm not mistaken.  Here's a little primer on the Din sizes.  A quick search turned up a few possibilities.  Perhaps stopping by an car stereo store and chatting with them for a few minutes would be most productive.

It has been a while since I have looked at the rear of my dash radio, but I think the outputs to the QSurround are just left and right phono plugs.  We have an IR receiver to the left of our tach that plugs into the receiver for remote control.  Not sure what the 'white bar' connector is  ???

It is a lot more convienent to get an in dash radio that takes an SD chip. You buy a 2 gig or 4 gig SD chip, fill it with your favorite music and plug it in. You don't have an iPod hanging from your dash and you have to recharge the iPod.

seilerbird said:

It is a lot more convienent to get an in dash radio that takes an SD chip. You buy a 2 gig or 4 gig SD chip, fill it with your favorite music and plug it in. You don't have an iPod hanging from your dash and you have to recharge the iPod.

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Tom - interesting idea!

Rex - our radio looks like a slightly older model of this one.  We are 1.5 Din so I was off by 0.5 Din 

Hi Rex,

I did pretty much the same thing you want to do (disconnected XM and attached Ipod) with existing radio. I has an Aux input going into the back of the radio and attached it with standard RCA cables to an Onkyo DS-A2X docking station. This one  http://xrl.in/2u6t

I use it at home when not in the coach and take it with me in the coach and attach it to the cables that I leave connected to the radio. I also made a permanent power connection to the coach so I don't have to worry about charging the Ipod. The Onkyo docking station comes with a remote and yo can also display the Ipod screen on a TV if you have an extra opening on the TV. I always say laziness brings out the best in me.

LK23 said:

I recently cancelled my XM Radio subscription (terrible customer service and price increases).  I am wanting to replace my Magnadyne (?) radio with an upgraded version that will enable me to connect my iPod Touch and listen to my iTunes music.  I have several questions:

1.  Has anyone else done this and what was your experience?

2. Is there a radio than will slide into the oversize hole left by the old radio?

3.  If so, will the "white bar connector" on the rear of the radio be universal for connections to 12 volt and speakers?  And will it be compatible with the Winnebago installed sound system?  Hopefully I can find something that will just slide in and reconnect?

John, re-direct this post if necessary.  I felt it belonged here since I am asking about a the Winnebago installed radio.

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ok first off, unless you replace it with a magnadyne radio you will have to wire in a new plug(cutting the old white molex connector off and splicing the new one on) you might have to do that with a new magnadyne if they have changed the plugs. that white connector is not a industry standard, they all take different ones.

there are no dash kits(adaptors) that are made for any MH. some of the older gm kits will work with alittle help.

that radio should be a din and a half, not double din well atleast my 06tour is a din and a half, doesn't look alot different, until you try to put the double din and a din and a half hole.

If your magna dyne is like mine,(has aux button on the front of it?) you can remove it, and hook up a rca to mini jack plug that will run your Ipod. To use it you will simply put it on aux 1 or 2 and your done. the rca to mini can be picked up at radioshack.

if all you really want to do is hook up the Ipod that is the way I would go, I did this to mine(using just a mp3 player) worked great.

if you need more info on this let me know, I'm not just tryin to tell you everything, I do own a car audio shop, with that said, I don't know everything, but if I don't I find people who do. so seriously if you would like to do this instead let me know. kevin

kevin said:

ok first off, unless you replace it with a magnadyne radio you will have to wire in a new plug(cutting the old white molex connector off and splicing the new one on) you might have to do that with a new magnadyne if they have changed the plugs. that white connector is not a industry standard, they all take different ones.

there are no dash kits(adaptors) that are made for any MH. some of the older gm kits will work with alittle help.

that radio should be a din and a half, not double din well atleast my 06tour is a din and a half, doesn't look alot different, until you try to put the double din and a din and a half hole.

If your magna dyne is like mine,(has aux button on the front of it?) you can remove it, and hook up a rca to mini jack plug that will run your Ipod. To use it you will simply put it on aux 1 or 2 and your done. the rca to mini can be picked up at radioshack.

if all you really want to do is hook up the Ipod that is the way I would go, I did this to mine(using just a mp3 player) worked great.

if you need more info on this let me know, I'm not just tryin to tell you everything, I do own a car audio shop, with that said, I don't know everything, but if I don't I find people who do. so seriously if you would like to do this instead let me know. kevin

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I'd love to do the aux thing like you did, can you say more about the way to do it?  I don't have an ipod but I have a 4 Gb Mp3 player that I can load up with music or books or whatever.  The output is a a small connector with a notch in the end, like for stereo head phones.  I have not looked at the back of the MH radio.  Thanks for your help... if you are ever in Taos, the beer's on me.  Thanks, G.

John,

Thanks for the 1.5 DIN sizing.  I thought it was 2 DIN.

Kevin,

I tried the AUX inputs with my XM Radio using a Radio Shack connector.  I had a constant hum so I disconnected it.  With the iPod Touch, I would prefer a connection that would also keep the iPod charged.  A recent Crutchfield catalog shows several radios that connect by means of a USB connector.  That would keep the iPod Touch charged and put the selection options on the radio screen.  However, I don't see any radios that are 1.5 DIN so it may need an adapter kit to fit in the larger hole in the dash.

Question:  Does anyone know if I need take into consideration the radio output with regard to the Winnie sound system?  Or will any radio work?

Question:  Does anyone know if I need take into consideration the radio output with regard to the Winnie sound system?  Or will any radio work?

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Rex,

Any radio should work. The amplifier for the sound system uses the speaker output of our current radio as input to it. The amp also has an unused line level input but if you use that you may amplify possible hums that already can be a problem as you mentioned.

I had no ground loop problems with the now removed XM radio or the docking unit for the Ipod that I connected. The LCD TV that I installed last year however was another story.

I will try and reply with some help tonight, sorry but I'm late for work. kevin

ok I"ll try to answer what I have read above in one post, so bear with me.

There are very few manufactures making din/ 1/2 units now. You can buy a din unit, and some abs plastic and make a nice dash piece for it though, If you feel really lucky, you can try and shove a double din unit into that hole(I did this) it will take alot of work, and time, and movement of different equipment.

Any radio will work in the winnie MH. with that being said, it must have 4speaker output(yes some still don't)

If you have some whine or hum in your system there could be some problems here: bad or cheap MP3 or4player, cable, or you could've hook into the line out cables on the back of the radio(some models have these some don't)

there are some very nice units out there, good price too, that will use a USB port on the front that will not only control your Ipod(if that is what you use) but charge it too, JVC 600 comes to mind nice unit, but it is also a din size unit, alittle work to do.

last be not least. to use the aux in put either #1 or#2 you must first make sure your radio does indeed have a aux on it, some just have a mini jack plug on the front of the unit(looks like headphone jack) some will have RCA cables on the back(red and white). if you have one on the front, just get a Mini to Mini cable from radio shack and plug it in and your done.(check your mp3 or4 player to make sure it uses a mini, and not a super mini cable)

if you don't have a aux plug  on the front,but have a aux button you will have to remove the radio, and locate the red and white plugs on the back that are labeled aux in. you will need to get a RCA to Mini cable(one end will have Male rca, the other Male mini: or super mini) plug the cable into the back of the radio, and the other end into the mp3 player, make sure it works before re-installing the radio, if all goes well route cable into a safe spot, and you are done.  NOTE this will not charge the mp3 player, nor control the unit, you will still have to use the mp3 player controls.

I hope this helps everyone, if ya got anymore questions let me know. Kevin

kevin said:

I hope this helps everyone, if ya got anymore questions let me know. Kevin

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Good post - thanks Kevin!

I have spoken with sales reps at Crutchfield.  They some very nice radios at a reasonable price that will connect to the iPod Touch and have a remote control.  It appears that all the iPod functions can be controlled with the remote.  And the iPod will charge while plugged into the radio. The biggest issue seems to be fitting the single DIN radio into a 1.5 DIN hole in the dash.  They offer some installation kits which may help.  Here is one of the radios I am considering:

Alpine Radio

nice looking unit, if I read it right it looks like it comes with the usb cable,which is a plus, and it also means that the cable comes from the back of the unit not the front.

Ok for the fun part, you might look for a GM kit maybe a metra 99-4455 I think? something that will convert that 1-1/2 hole down to din. Most Gm radios...from say95 and up are 1 1/2 size, their kits will usually fill the hole, I would find one that is not flush but comes out oh say 1/4-1/2 that will kinda seal up the hole. It's gonna be trail and error from here out,If you can leave the factory radio cage(what the radio slides into to lock it in place) and mount one of those GM kits to it and Iso din the radio in(that just means screw the radio to a fixed mounting part, instead of just sliding it into the cage and pinning it) you might make short time of it. I will try and look tomorrow at my kits and see which one might work for you.

If you don't feel ok doing it you might look around your neighborhood for a local shop, Not to bash best buy, but they don't seem to take as much pride in there work, well around here atleast. We get alot of Re-Work from them, so they are'nt all bad ;D

if your dash is like mine you will have to remove the top of it first, then the back up cam monitor to get to the radio, not sure if it is or not(06 tour) the color of the factory wires will most likely cross over to the alpine,
yellow=constant12volt
red= switched 12volt
black=ground
white=lt ft spk pos
white/black=lt ft spk neg
grey=rt ft spk pos
grey/black=rt ft spk neg
green=lt rr spk pos
green/black=lt rr spk neg
purple=rt rr spk pos
purple/black rt rr spk neg
you may have orange=illumination or dimmer
blue=power turn on(amp) or power ant
and maybe a black/white= amp ground    I'll try and be back on tomorrow night with the kit models if possible, I'll try. kevin

Kevin,

Thanks for the feedback.  That is a great idea to use the GM kit.  Please advise which you think will work the best.

Rex

Kevin,

Crutchfield says the Ford kit will work with the Magnadyne radio.  The Magnadyne web site shows an adapter kit and states:  Ford F-Series trucks and vans 1995 and newer.  Here's the link:

Magnadyne adapter kit for Ford

The picture of this kit is similar to the kit offered by Crutchfield.

thanks Kevin, thanks a lot actually!!!  It's working great.

LK23 said:

Kevin,

Crutchfield says the Ford kit will work with the Magnadyne radio.  The Magnadyne web site shows an adapter kit and states:  Ford F-Series trucks and vans 1995 and newer.  Here's the link:

Magnadyne adapter kit for Ford

The picture of this kit is similar to the kit offered by Crutchfield.

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I will check and see if that ford kit will work, the ford kits usually all snap in, which would make it alot easier,but you would have to support the back of the radio, and I believe that most of their kits are alot bigger than your din and half hole. What I mean is the ford still takes a din and half radio, but when you remove the dash usually the kits have a bigger "complete" hole to cover up, I will check though. kevin

ok here is what I've got, In Metra brand kits, a GM kit #99-4544, and three ford kits all 99-  5600,5200,5800
I tried to measure but I have cut mine out and shoved a double din unit in it now, so It's kinda hard to tell. The gm kit will need to be constructed, and Iso din mounted. the fords will(If they work) snap in, but will need to have a bracket on the back for the "just in case problems of the road"(ROUGH that is). If you use the ford kit, mount it upside down, with the pocket on the top. It sounds crazy, but if you look at most ford kits the sides are very thin, if you mount it upside down the radio won't have any leaverage to break the kit in half. This is a lesson learned the hard way. hope this helps, let me know, kevin