I’ll give the TL;DR first and then explain the full story afterwards:
The plan is to hook everything up using RCA to the amp, speedwire to the head unit harness (keeping the factory wiring intact with an adapter), and using 18ga factory wiring to all 4 speakers with the factory harness.
Biggest question is, will my factory wiring handle this or is it a bad idea? I know it’s not ideal but I’m looking for a clear, rich sound for my daily driver without too much hassle. I already broke a few brittle pieces when installing the speakers, so I really don’t want to pull the door panels again. I got into this whole setup out of necessity, which I’ll explain more at the end.
Vehicle: 1999 Ram 1500 (4 speaker model, no amp/tweeters)
New gear:
JBL GTO 939 6x9 speakers (already mounted in front doors), 3 ohm (some places say 2, 3 is odd) 100RMS/300max
Rear speakers: Pioneer TS-F1634R (I know they’re mismatched, but I had them laying around and haven’t installed them yet.)
Amp: Morel MPD 4.100 (115x4 at 4ohm, still not purchased but heavily leaning toward this)
Now, for the rant… this has consumed my life for the past 7-9 days.
Head unit (already purchased, don’t judge) – Joying 7" touchscreen. I didn’t buy it because of the price, but because it was a single-din, non-floating touchscreen with CarPlay and a modern look. After struggling to find one that fit my truck and needs, I’m hoping it works out. But I know I’ll probably end up switching it back to the factory one in a couple of years.
Here’s the story:
Bought this truck earlier this year because I missed 4x4 for winter, and it’s almost identical to my old one from high school. I’ve had a lot of compliments on it, people calling it “cherry,” and I’m pretty proud of it. It’s my daily and I drive 100 miles a day for work, which isn’t ideal but I like it.
The truck had an issue with the passenger speakers being out when I got it. After a week, I figured it was a wiring issue. It was weird because the truck is completely unmolested, but I suspected the right output channel of the factory head unit had died. I decided to deal with it later.
I went ahead and bought a cheap Amazon head unit based on its features and look. My plan was to replace the head unit, keep the factory speakers, and call it a day. But as I tried to remove the dash bezel, I ended up breaking it, which was frustrating.
There are a lot of cheap head units out there, but I had high hopes for this one (spoiler: all three I tried were terrible).
The first one arrived missing parts. The second one worked, but the right-side speakers still weren’t working. So I bought new JBL speakers and installed them. But then there was a weird ground hum from the speakers that I couldn’t get rid of, even after rewiring everything. I spent hours troubleshooting but couldn’t fix it.
By Monday, I figured out that the speakers needed external amplification. But the more I ran the system, the hotter it got, and the worse the sound quality became. By the end of the drive, the sound faded out completely. After trying the third unit, I realized I was done with this cheap stuff.
So here I am, not planning on making this a big system, but now I’m looking at new speakers, a head unit, and an amp. I’ve learned a lot but I’m starting to feel stuck with the door panels. If I could get them off without breaking anything else, I’d run new wire myself. But I’m worried about damaging more clips.
So my question is, can my factory wiring handle the load from the amp, or do I need to run new wires? I’m not installing anything crazy, just trying to get this truck sounding decent again.