2000 Ram 3500 Diesel - I Want to Upgrade the Stereo System, need some Suggestions

My grandfather and I bought a 2000 Dodge 3500 about 1 1/2 years ago to be used for going on long trips finding and buying antique tractors and attending tractor shows. The truck is also used from time to time locally. The stereo is the factory tape deck unit and the truck is the BASE MODEL...rubber floors, manual everything, etc.

I have an aftermarket in-dash Nav/Stereo/Bluetooth touchscreen unit in my Truck (Ford F-150) and LOVE IT. We have decided that is what we want to put in the Dodge Dually since we travel so much and the Navigation being built in is a must! Something I don't like about my headunit/speakers in my truck is that the music sound quality simply sucks! Being that we both love to listen to some good country and bluegrass music on the road, we want something that is going to sound great and pump a good sound at a loud volume!.....especially since we have a 24 valve Cummins.

I just need some suggestions on the speakers, amp (If needed), subwoofer (if needed), wiring, mounting locations, etc. I already have a couple headunits in mind.

I don't have a lot of suggestions for a Nav enabled head unit, I don't think there is a lot of 1.5 DIN head units available these days.

A good set of 6x9's in the front doors / 6.5 (I think) in the rear you should be fine for country / blue grass.
I personally think a set of Alpine Type S speakers will serve you very well. They don't have a metal dome tweeter, which I find to be harsh.

WhiteExpress said:

I don't have a lot of suggestions for a Nav enabled head unit, I don't think there is a lot of 1.5 DIN head units available these days.

A good set of 6x9's in the front doors / 6.5 (I think) in the rear you should be fine for country / blue grass.
I personally think a set of Alpine Type S speakers will serve you very well. They don't have a metal dome tweeter, which I find to be harsh.

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Yeah, I'm going to use a 2 din, and have already gotten with someone on the forum about getting my (new) dash bezel cut properly. I already know about what headunit I am going to use.

I know that I used to have a car where I installed 2 sets of components, a set of 2 ways in the middle (back seat side panels) and had one 10" sub. I pushed the 2 sets of components with a 4 channel amp, and the sub with a mono amp. It made those highs and mids really stand out and the pickin and singin was REALLY CRISP and CLEAR. You could turn it up as loud as you wanted and it just sounded better. That is the way we like it to work. I just don't know if I want to get into all of that with this truck.

My current daily driver (Ford F150) that has the aftermarket nav headunit, and I have infinity 2 way speakers hooked to it but no amps or nothing. It sounds like crap!! Factory Sounds Better!! I can be driving down the highway with it turned up at about vol level 24 (normal at highway speeds for me). If I really like the music I will turn it to 28 (it maxes out at 30). If I drive say 100 miles, after about 40 miles, the speakers with start to play distorted and the volume will get quiter and quiter. I can let them rest by turning the volume down to about 10 for about 1 min, and then crank it back up and it will be fine for about 4 minutes and then it starts to quieten down a bit. I don't like that and don't want that to happen with the dodge.

Ya'll have any suggestions on why my current sound system in the Ford does such? I have tried Googling the problem for a while and have came up with nothing.

I'm thinking for the bass, we will go with the Pioneer TS-SWX251 sub and the Boss Audio R1100M. It shouldn't be too much but just enough balance for the bass. It should also save alot of space.

I haven't decided what to do about the regular speakers though because i want them to be clean and sound well, but I don't want what is happening in my truck to happen.