My new goods have arrived. Alpine 9851 and ipod controller. I got the alpine based solely on the numerous rave reviews of Alpine in general on this board. Hope everyone's right I'm stoked to be ditching the stock HU and getting back iPod control. I lost that when I got the S.

Anyways, I've been pouring over all of the HU install threads, and I've noticed a one universal comment -- everyone says that the space behind the head unit is very tight.

So, I'm sitting here looking at 12" leads coming out of the alpine harness, and another 5-6" length from the adapter harness, plus I've got wiring from Modrify's DCI, etc.

Before I start soldering in everything, do you think I should trim a bit off of the alpine wiring leads? 12" seems pretty long, and the less wiring I have to cram in back there the better.

If anyone has any other pitfalls or tips, not posted in the general install threads, please throw it my way!

 

it is a bit of a tight fit in there, but you are better off leaving as much wire as you can.

 

Actually the longer the wires are the easier it is to tuck them out of the way. There's actually more room behind there then most people think. If you leave them a little long you can tuck them to the sides of the HU. and the power box can be tucked under the HU to the left side.

 

Cool, thanks for the advice! I'll leave 'em full length.