Radio clarification

adurm said:

The ra3 and ra4 are 8.4 inch. The ra4 has nav. You sound like you have the ra2 aka uconnect 5.0. I believe you would need it programmed by someone but can't say for sure.

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Trekker said:

So, first off, this is my first time posting here. I'm picking up my first Ram sometime this week off of craigslist. The truck has what is called the RA3 (I think?). I want to upgrade to the larger 8.4 inch radio and have spend 3 days researching the topic but I can't seem to answer my question. If I were to buy a used one from a salvage lot, do I have to have it programmed? I see Infotainment sells a kit with the radio and bezel but it is quite expensive, but they do say it is programmed to your truck. I'm wondering if I just purchased the 7 speed dash upgrade, can I supply my own radio?

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Ricks Ram said:

Sorry I forgot to mention there are several places you can buy the radio on eBay or carpart.com and there's some for sale usually on the Forum. If you want the factory Nav the correct part number you want is VPNA. If you want the 8.4 radio that is not Nav you want the VP3NA. The 2015 radios have a few more options than the 2013 and 14 and the 2016 and 2017 radios have even more options than the 15 such as different screen themes and little things they do. Also you are going to want to get the radio from a Ram if possible or a Jeep Cherokee.

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Trekker said:

Perfect, exactly what I was looking for! I looked at car-parts and they can be had for 250 bucks if you search. I just couldn't understand whether they had to be programmed and if I could use a 2016-2017 radio. Only problem I'm having trouble finding is an hvac control that is single zone that will fit in the right bezel

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Ricks Ram said:

You need to be very careful if you buy a radio from car-part.com because they are very often listed incorrectly. I would not buy from them unless you have physically verified what the radio was and had them send you a picture front and back first so you can see the part number. There are several varieties of the 8.4 radio. When we first started doing this mod there were a lot of people that got the incorrect radios because they really weren't sure what they were buying . There are also several bezels listed on car-part.com and ebay what you want is the Single Zone 8.4 bezel for the 2013 to 2017 Ram. You can also find them on eBay. You can easily tell if it's the one you want or not if it does (NOT) have the Auto button on the fan speed control that is the one you want. Remember the website is called car-part.com not carparts.

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Trekker said:

Well generally on that site only pay attention to the ones that have a picture of the vehicle it comes from, most of them have 30+ pictures of the vehicle including the radio. Is there any way to actually tell which 8.4 it actually is from photos?

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Ricks Ram said:

Unless they have a picture of the back of the radio it's tough to tell. On car-part you need to be careful because a lot of Canadian junkyards list stuff there as well. If you get a radio from a Canadian vehicle they have less options than the U.S. version. For example there are different RA4 radios. The U.S. version of the RA4 will have the part# on the back that's VP4NA. The N.A. stands for North America. The Canadian version will say VP4CA. The CA stands for Canada. As far as the junkyards go they don't really notate the difference they just put it down as an RA4 which they both are but there are differences in the radio. What I have done on car-part is actually call them and verify that the back of the radio says VP4NA before I purchase it. This is a picture of the back of the U.S. version RA4 you can see the part# is VP4NA. I've seen a lot of guys find radios and jump at them because they're cheap price and they end up getting a Canadian version or other version radio instead of the US version . So long story short. If you do not care about having the Nav the radio you want is the RA3 part number VP3NA. If you want Nav it's an RA4 the part# is VP4NA. Most people opt for the VP4NA because it has other features such as HD Radio real-time traffic,Travel Link ect.

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