Stereo for my RV....

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caconcourse
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Joined: October 31st, 2014, 10:25 pm

Re: Stereo for my RV....

Post by caconcourse »

SMan wrote: Speaking of the old TV and VCR I have them loaded to take to our local electronics recycle facility. Man they are big compared to what I have now. :lol:
If you still have your old 12V VCR, I would love to have it for a backup to mine, which is flaky. We use it all the time. I would be happy to pay for shipping and your trouble. You can PM me if it is available.

Thanks,
Clay
Clay
2001 Concourse
Santa Barbara, CA
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SMan
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Location: 7 Lakes, WA

Re: Stereo for my RV....

Post by SMan »

caconcourse wrote:
SMan wrote: Speaking of the old TV and VCR I have them loaded to take to our local electronics recycle facility. Man they are big compared to what I have now. :lol:
If you still have your old 12V VCR, I would love to have it for a backup to mine, which is flaky. We use it all the time. I would be happy to pay for shipping and your trouble. You can PM me if it is available.

Thanks,
Clay
Hi Clay,
It's yours if you want it. I also have the remote. PM your address.

Steve
Steve aka SMan
2004 Premier V10
windswept
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Joined: October 26th, 2017, 5:50 pm
Location: Amish Country, Ohio.

Re: Stereo for my RV....

Post by windswept »

Has anyone hooked their cab stereo into the coach system?
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Blue~Go
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Re: Stereo for my RV....

Post by Blue~Go »

windswept wrote:Has anyone hooked their cab stereo into the coach system?
I don't know if anyone has done that on a Chinook, but I can give you some thoughts.

For starters, I thought about this long and hard, because two stereos in such a small space seems kind of silly. But... I had just that setup in a previous camper van (dash stereo serving both purposes): There was a complicated switch scheme to move the power draw to the house when camping, but as I remember it (sorry, it was complicated) some of the power still came from the start battery, so if you used it all weekend while camping you could still draw the start battery down.

Also, I think that many cab stereos can power the relatively few cab speakers, but likely want to add more power in order for it to power four house speakers (camper van was smaller, didn't have four house speakers).

So anyway, I thought about it, but then it seemed like well, if I have to add some kind of amp, plus then I have to reach into the cab to work the stereo (and I often have a curtain drawn there for privacy or temperature control), and maybe some way to shut off cab speakers.... then maybe I might as well just put another stereo in the house (as it was stock). They are so inexpensive nowadays (remember when they were super expensive?!).

I'm sure it can be done, but I think I've decided against it for the reasons listed above.

I DID change one part of the Chinook wiring scheme (got the idea from Bob Wells): As originally wired, the power to keep the pre-sets and that sort of thing came from the start battery. I don't want "hidden" draws coming from the start battery ever. So I moved things so that both power wires for the house stereo come from the house bank. Upside: No secret draws on the start battery. Potential downside: If you turn the house power off (like to store the rig), then you will lose your presets. For me that's not an issue because I rarely turn my house power off, plus if I'm traveling presets don't do me any good anyway.

Then the original house stereo died so I got to think about it all over again. Once again I went through my options:

1) Make dash stereo dual purpose, with some kind of power switching so as not to use dash power when camping, plus add amp so it can power more speakers (and maybe a switch to make it so cab speakers aren't on when listening in house?).

2) Forget a "real" stereo for the house and just use bluetooth speakers and ipod or smart phone.

3) Just buy a replacement "car stereo" for the house.

#1 sounds efficient, but turns out to be more complicated (I think).
#2 means I have speakers lying around, they don't typically sound as good, and plus I like to listen to FM radio.
#3 seems kind of silly (two stereos in 21' vehicle) but is actually probably the cheapest/simplest, sounds good, and has easy FM radio.

Presuming I stick with #3 (and I think I will), I will keep my wiring mod that powers the house stereo 100% from the house battery bank.
1999 Concourse
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kdarling
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Re: Stereo for my RV....

Post by kdarling »

Some of us have satellite radio, and don't really want to have two antennas and pay for it twice.

So I've often thought about hooking the rear speakers into the dash radio.

Now, the good thing about modern dash radios, is that many of them come with remote controls these days. That would allow controlling them from the rear living space. Or vice versa.

--

My big deal is the power. One advantage of the stock radio power setup is that when you turn off the engine and jump out, the radio is de-powered.

I really don't want to have to turn off the house power to make sure of that.

Need some clever idea that kind of combines the two.
1994 Concourse dinette, Ford 7.5L (460 V8)
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Blue~Go
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Re: Stereo for my RV....

Post by Blue~Go »

kdarling wrote:Some of us have satellite radio, and don't really want to have two antennas and pay for it twice.
I don't know the ins and outs of satellite radio, but I can say that in the stock setup, the house radio and the dash radio appear to use the same (Ford) antenna. Can you do the same with the satellite radio?

kdarling wrote:Now, the good thing about modern dash radios, is that many of them come with remote controls these days. That would allow controlling them from the rear living space. Or vice versa.
That was my thought too. Although, at least with some remotes, they are infrared and when they say "line of sight" them mean it. A friend has the same Blaupunkt I bought (but haven't put in yet) and you not only have to be in sight, but you have to be *straight* in front of it, and not too high or too low either, if you don't mind. I found it annoying (and he ended up just putting the radio where he can reach it from his most usual sitting spot). Funny thing is he had a cab radio that did double duty (other-brand RV) but changed to two. Mostly for the reasons of using a cab divider/insulator curtain, keeping the draw only on the house, etc. That's not to say it's the only way of course.

--
kdarling wrote:My big deal is the power. One advantage of the stock radio power setup is that when you turn off the engine and jump out, the radio is de-powered.I really don't want to have to turn off the house power to make sure of that.
I don't know if I see the difference - am I missing something? I thought they all have two power wires. One supplies the big "uumph" when you are listening, and the other provides background tiny power to keep the presets and etc. alive. Doesn't even a stock dash radio use a tiny-tiny amount of power (from the start battery) when off? (It must not be much as I have left my Chinook for up to three months and no issue.) So you'd only have that draw on the house battery if you hooked it up totally to that vs. the start battery. I think this is one reason why people pull the negative battery cable from the start battery if putting a vehicle in storage. It's a constant tiny draw. Of course on the start battery you don't typically notice this as most people don't park their cars for a week or more (and live in them all the while).

Of course that brings up the question of why the original Chinook house radio wiring seemed to be able to draw down the start battery. One wire was hooked to the start battery but I thought that was the tiny-tiny sense wire (to keep presets, etc.). I wonder if that wire does draw more *when the radio is on*?

I thought of a few clever ideas, but in the end two radios (at today's prices) kept coming up simpler (annoyingly because it doesn't "sound" simpler). But then I don't subscribe to any services, so that may change things if it causes you to pay twice. Also maybe more appealing to only have one if you never block off the cab (heat/cold/privacy). Seems RV manufacturers go back and forth too. My camper van had one radio (dash) for both, and it did have cool/special/mysterious switches, but it was pain because if you forgot to switch back to "cab source," you'd be driving along, go to turn on the radio and.... nope, have to pull over, dangit. Or if you forgot to switch to "house" and then camped for a weekend.... oopsie (this of course was not wired in with the separator). Friend's other-brand Class C had one radio for both with no mysterious switches, but it always drew from the start battery (bummer). Chinook put in two, one for each space.

BG

PS: Oh, I don't know if this is part of the reason why, but my Chinook is pre-wired for some kind of surround sound option. I would imagine there would have been some additional amp or something? And then maybe the sound would have worked with the TV too? That might have played in their decision to go with two radios (my rig doesn't have the option, but does have the two unused wires, one to each side of the overcab (handy for me for other purposes :D).
1999 Concourse
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