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It's Christmas time for the Avalanche!

Just4Kixx

Full Member
Joined
Jun 19, 2013
Messages
135
Location
Nova Scotia, Canada
The Avalanche must have been a very good little truck this year, because Santa was very nice to it.

I've been wanting to upgrade the stereo in the Av for a long time. It sounds like poo (No Highs, No Lows, Gotta Be Bose!"), and is lacking in functionality (CD players are so 2004). I wanted to upgrade to something with Bluetooth, Nav, backup camera, and means of playing media other than CD's. I don't want to turn it into a sound-off competition vehicle, but I want it to sound better than the stock non-premium Bose unit. I asked, and Santa delivered.

Sitting in my garage right now, next to a partially disassembled Avalanche, is a box of goodies that include a No-Name (Oaku. Really.) Chinese double-din head unit with 7" touchscreen, GPS Nav, backup cam, Bluetooth, DVD, ipod integration, AUX inputs, micro SD card slot, and USB. WIRED FOR THE FUTURE! Well, the present anyway. Of course I'm not going to install a new head unit (no matter how Chinese) to play through that crappy Bose amp, so I bought a new Boss 100WX4 amp, four new Boss 6.5" speakers, and an interface kit that will allow me to keep the chimes while ditching the Bose setup. Bringing up the bottom end are a Kicker 500 watt amp, Kicker 12" sub in enclosure, and a Stinger 1-farad capacitor.

Yes, it's all cheap. It's all Chinese. But it's all new and will sound much better than the Bose system while adding much needed functionality.

But it doesn't end there. Santa knows that I plow my driveway with this truck, so he brought me the stuff to do some electrical upgrades. Today I made up a second battery box and cables, and installed a second battery. This should help keep the voltage up when running my electric/hydraulic plow, and the shiny new 165 amp alternator hanging off that little LM7 should keep the batteries happy. I was also never happy with having to plug my revolving light into the cigarette lighter and running the wire up over the mirror, over the sun visor, and out through the door to the roof. To fix this kludgy situation I ran a power wire up the a-pillar, installed some switches in the overhead console and put the wires out through the roof where the clearance light wires come through (don't ask me why a 1500 has clearance lights, it just does). While I was there I also ran the wire for the GPS antenna.

Pics will follow when the project is complete...
 
I'm not much for taking pics when I'm working - I usually have my phone connected to the stereo in the garage, blasting cheesy 80's hair metal the whole time (if the siding on the garage isn't rattling, the Judas Priest isn't on loud enough). I'll try to get some "progress so far" pics tomorrow before I dig in for the day. I'm suffering a bit of a cold, so I'm just kind of puttering my way through the install. I'm really fussy when it comes to stereo installs: I wouldn't be able to sleep at night if a wire was visible, so this is taking quite a long time (just running the backup camera wiring while trying to both hide it and keep it weatherproof took quite a bit of time today). Also, I want to keep my favourite feature of this truck usable - the midgate, so I can haul 4X8 sheets of stuff, so the amps will be hidden and the sub box will have a quick disconnect coupler so I can remove it when I need the room.

I do have one I snapped of the batteries installed. The Big Three mod is not done yet, but the alternator power wire will be done when the  amps are connected. The grounds aren't so much of an issue for me right now, because the main reason for the dual batteries, the snow plow, is connected directly to the battery (the top posts in the "near" battery in the pic), and the amps will be connected directly to the other battery, so the factory body & engine grounds should be good for now.

 

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