Just Bought a 3520 Cab - Radio Help

[Ramairfreak98ss]

There is also a lot of heat in dahshboards/instrument panels too, but probably not as much as one would get in the configuration we are dealing with. You could use some foil scrim as a heat barrier and that would help.

Yeah, there always is. But to have the "hot" engine coolant air from the heater circulate at 40mph+ back there past the entire surround of the cd player cant be good, hot + hot =hottest! lol Maybe for the low end units its ok, and taking into consideration most high end 40x4 -60x4 cd players arnt going to work much powering those two little 4x6s in the headliner, maybe itll be ok.

 

[nmu98]

i got my head unit wired up. .. How do you "mount" it in the hole? gotta take down the head liner? it doesnt stay in place at all?

And how do you get the cover to stay on? it clips to nothing, certainly cant just glue it on right

The headliner is held in place by a few items. You need to remove the interior cab light, AC controls, and sunvisor. Thats going from memory, so there might be more items. Then the headliner will pull down. It is tucked into place around the trim in the cab.

You need to read the directions in the kit.

But, the radio mouont has tabs that push into your radio. And some have holes you can put in a few small screws to hold it. Then the radio is held in by the mounting bracket in the kit.

If you do a search, there are a ton of pictures of it.

 

[Nuru]

Yeah, there always is. But to have the "hot" engine coolant air from the heater circulate at 40mph+ back there past the entire surround of the cd player cant be good, hot + hot =hottest! lol Maybe for the low end units its ok, and taking into consideration most high end 40x4 -60x4 cd players arnt going to work much powering those two little 4x6s in the headliner, maybe itll be ok.

Hmmm, good points.

 

[Spudland_Dave]

Yeah, there always is. But to have the "hot" engine coolant air from the heater circulate at 40mph+ back there past the entire surround of the cd player cant be good, hot + hot =hottest! lol Maybe for the low end units its ok, and taking into consideration most high end 40x4 -60x4 cd players arnt going to work much powering those two little 4x6s in the headliner, maybe itll be ok.

Good point....
BUT, dont you think when its -30 out, (heater weather)....warming up & keeping the electronics warm is a GOOD thing...in the summer months (A/C Weather) you're actually keeping the unit cooler with the nice cool air blowing on it.
Long story short, for me, I'm keeping it as Momma Deere designed it, their engineering staff had to have looked at that...if the unit dies, no biggie, I'll go back down to Best Buy and buy whatever they have on clearance at the time for 90.00. Still cheaper then a Trans oil change...

 

[Nuru]

and buying the Deere unit!

 

[Karl2]

Long story short, for me, I'm keeping it as Momma Deere designed it, their engineering staff had to have looked at that...

I'm not so sure, my Deere factory radio (actually a cheap Delco) used to get mighty hot and past a certain temp the display and controls would stop working even though the unit was still operating. Two days ago it finally died for good. I think those radios simply can't cope with the level of heat generated by the heater in cold climes. Anyway it gives me an excuse to buy a better one.

 

[Nuru]

At least you know your seals in the top are working real well

 

[Karl2]

At least you know your seals in the top are working real well

Indeed

Now I punched that radio this morning and it began working again

 

[Nuru]

Good for you, glad everything is fine now.

 

[Karl2]

Good for you, glad everything is fine now.

I just found that the reason the radio keeps failing is because the screws that hold the removable front plate in place keep falling due to vibrations, and the plate disconnects. I guess it's Loctite time. Removable plate is an anti-theft feature but I don't know what sort of freakazoid would want to steal a Delco

Also I noticed that the actual radio behind the plate has a CD player and tone control rods but the front plate is that of the most basic of Delco radios: no CD, no tone controls, just a display with time and station frequency and the few buttons required to operate a basic radio. Weird.