Source Unit

The following image is that of the original state of the vehicles dash.

The factory cassette unit was removed, and replaced by a Rockford Fosgate head unit.  In the location of the original radio controller unit, a pocket was installed.  This pocket may eventually house portions of the plow controls for the vehicle.

Below is the updated dash without the head unit installed.  The center cassette deck has been removed and a new dash kit installed to accept the new head unit.  The factory stereo controller is now gone, and a pocket is in its place.

A Rockford Fosgate RFX 8320 head unit was chosen for this installation.  The RFX8320 is a feature filled unit that retains a simple interface, with excellent signal quality and high voltage output.

To verify the output of the RFX8230, a Tektronix TDS3012 oscilloscope was used.  Shown below is the test setup that was used.

The results of the testing are shown below.

As you can see from the first image, this deck has no signal clipping at full output.  This will ensure the reliability of the speakers in the system, as clipping in the head unit will only be amplified further by the amplifier, and thereby destroy the speakers.  The second images is with the decks built in bass control at max setting.  As you can see, there is a substantial amount of clipping.  This is the reason that boosting the tone controls on a head unit damages speakers.

The output voltage of the RFX8230 was measured at 2.45 volts RMS. This voltage is right in line with the manufacturer specified voltage of 2.4 volts, and is more than enough to drive the system amplifier, while keeping system noise to a minimum.

The following is an image of the deck installed and ready to go.  Significant modification behind the deck was needed to allow for enough depth.