Truck Radios?

[Joe Wood]

My '95 Dodge Ram's been a great work truck and I'm keeping it for awhile longer, but it needs a new radio.

where do I look for a replacement? I don't need anything fancy as I mainly listen to AM. Appreciate any suggestions!

[Frederick Skelly]

Probably buy a used one at a junkyard or on ebay. But I went to Amazon and searched for > simple car radio < and several were available for under $50.

[Howard Garner]

Try Crutchfield. I got a replacement for my oloder VW from them. Great fit.
https://www.crutchfield.com/S-YUeDBokMy2p/car/carselector.aspx
Howard Garner

[Jim Jackson Wyoming]

I'm no expert, and I haven't even stayed at a Holiday Inn Express before, but my experience with any after market AM radio in a vehicle has been a disappointment. I'd look for an OEM radio from a wrecking yard if I wanted a good AM radio.
Edit..I have not tried Crutchfield.

[Frederick Skelly]

Wow. I didnt know Crutchfield was still in business. That's a great idea!

[Warren Lake]

ive left what mine came with, I hooked up home speakers to it one day and it sounded very good. Need an antenna though. Tried the cassette and it sounded good till it stopped, then removal was an adventure.

452780

[Jim Becker]

Crutchfield for sure...they have a handy utility that also helps you ascertain what will fit in and work with your particular vehicle and when required, they can provide the necessary doo-dads and adapters that permit retention of vehicle functions, such as controls on the steering wheel, etc.

[Warren Lake]

they have controls on the steering wheel? Whats next you are going to tell me there are windows that dont have crank handles to roll them up?

[Roger Feeley]

A REAL truck back in Kansas wouldn't even have window cranks. It would have vise grips. I've seen so many that I wondered if they come that way.

[John Stankus]

I was going to suggest some of the Mopar radio resellers (recyclers) but I looked at Crutchfield and they have an AM/FM CD receiver for your truck for $22.99 and have the installation kit discounted to FREE. A bit hard to beat if you are only trying to get AM radio.

[Warren Lake]

thanks Roger,

Bit hard on the threads but got a smile, my door panels are off from when I rust proofed, handles are in the glove box. Door panels will go back on, soon it will be spring again and my therapy on wheels will be on the road again. Antenna should get addressed this year as well but usually im pretty fine just to listen to the motor.

[Frank Pratt]

Crutchfield has an excellent utility for picking the right stereo for your vehicle & with the features you want. And they have very good phone support if you have additional questions.

[Bill Dufour]

AFIK truck radios are the same as most car radios. My wife's 1988 oldsmobile was a little odd it had a separate head and a main body buried deeper in the console. Not used in the identical buick version.
Bil lD

[Frank Pratt]

The CD changer/radio in my Sierra is toast & a factory replacement is extremely expensive. I used the Crutchfield site & found several head units that are in the $150 - $250 range that includes all the adapters, harnesses, etc. It connects to the existing power amps & speakers, works with the steering wheel controls, and most important to me, has bluetooth. About the only thing it doesn't do is play actual disks, but I haven't listened to a physical disk in years anyway. Install looks to be pretty easy.

[Warren Lake]

has it evolved to USB sticks? my view better than CD not skipping like the saturn does, Wave files on a stick that plugs in would be nice.

[Frank Pratt]

has it evolved to USB sticks? my view better than CD not skipping like the saturn does, Wave files on a stick that plugs in would be nice.

I think most have a USB port, but I don't know anyone that uses them. It's easier to just sync it with your phone.

[Warren Lake]

never had a cell, might if they put a phone in my panasonic camera.

[Curt Harms]

has it evolved to USB sticks? my view better than CD not skipping like the saturn does, Wave files on a stick that plugs in would be nice.

You'd want to check that the device you buy plays the file type you want. I tried transferring some mp3 files to a small USB drive, they played as expected. I'm not sure about .wav files, never tried it. I bought a discontinued 'radio' from Best Buy, paid <$50. Around here AM is just about useless, I guess due to old electrical infrastructure. I use an adapter bought from Amazon to connect an iPhone to the aux port. Works fine.

[Jim Becker]

Curt is correct that it's important to check specifications relative to supported media and file types if that's important to the buyer. There are many folks who have put their music library on USB or other media types as they moved on from CDs. But I'm yet another person who streams my personal media library from my iPhone while driving long distances and not streaming WXPN.org for some reason. I haven't used a CD or other discrete media in many, many years in a vehicle.

[Bill Dufour]

I used to have a old popular mechanics magazine from the late 1950's. It had a review of a car, maybe Dodge, that had a record player in the trunk. They said it was fine while parked but skipped around when drivng. I think it had special deep grove records.
Bill D

https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/obsolete-car-audio-part-2/

[Warren Lake]

wholly crap. Im old school but that is a bit too old for me.

[Gordon Eyre]

I bought a used factory replacement on Ebay for my Bose radio and when it came it didn't work either. After going through the hassle of getting my money back I went to Crutchfield and bought a new radio along with the wiring harness. It was a fairly quick install and it works great. Price was reasonable.

[Frank Pratt]

I bought a used factory replacement on Ebay for my Bose radio and when it came it didn't work either. After going through the hassle of getting my money back I went to Crutchfield and bought a new radio along with the wiring harness. It was a fairly quick install and it works great. Price was reasonable.

Hey Gordon, did you notice much of a difference between the sound of Bose & the replacement head unit? The system in my truck is Bose, and I'll get flamed by the audio purists for this, but it's the best audio system I've ever had. It's just that only the radio works & there is no simple way to connect an aux input.

[Jim Becker]

Frank, most often, the "name brand" on the vehicle entertainment systems apply mostly to the amp and speakers, at least on current generations of vehicles. With the level of vehicle integration for "non entertainment" things, a manufacturer is most likely going to use the same head unit regardless and the higher end audio starts at the back of that. The head units are contract manufactured to spec buy a number of companies, some with familiar names and some less known like Denso.

[Frank Pratt]

Frank, most often, the "name brand" on the vehicle entertainment systems apply mostly to the amp and speakers, at least on current generations of vehicles. With the level of vehicle integration for "non entertainment" things, a manufacturer is most likely going to use the same head unit regardless and the higher end audio starts at the back of that. The head units are contract manufactured to spec buy a number of companies, some with familiar names and some less known like Denso.

My Bose system consists of the head unit, power amps and speakers. I'm only going to change the head unit. But something Bose has always done is apply some pretty heavy correction curves to get the sound they want (sometimes with success, sometimes not so much). I'm wondering if that correction is applied in the heat unit or the amplifiers.