Can I upgrade from stock to Alpine?

[Track Guy]

I just bought a 2018 Big Horn which has the stock base stereo. Not too bad. But I had test driven an Outdoorsman earlier that had the factory Alpine system and liked that much better than the one in my truck. Is it possible to upgrade to the Alpine system in my truck? Is my truck wired for both systems and all I need to do is procure the correct Alpine components? I appreciate whatever info you can give me.

 

[mtnrider]

To make it a true Alpine speaker system would be a LOT of work and $$. But anything is possible I guess? You are looking at adding the new head unit, amps, speakers, new headliner, sub woofer, and adding all the wiring. (it is not there). Plus programming the BCM to let your truck know you have that system

.

 

[Darth]

It would be cheaper and probably easier to upgrade the system with aftermarket components (speakers, amplifier, subwoofer etc). Not to mention you will get much better sound

 

[GordDavey]

It is possible to go from the 6 speaker to the full alpine system. I just did it. But it is quite a bit of work.
The only big wiring difference is in the instrument panel (dash) wiring and some new wires to go to the subwoofer. For the 6 speaker the wires come from the back of the radio and head straight to the dash speakers and to the connectors on either end of the dash harness that then go into the body harness and on to the doors and subwoofer, all the speaker wiring is 18ga no matter which system you have. The alpine setup has the radio speaker wires go to the amp and then back out to the speakers.
I got a dash harness from a wreck that had the alpine system along with the amp the speakers and the sub. Stripped out all the needed wires and turned it into a separate harness. Then ran that thru the dash and hooked it all up.
It is a fairly large job. But I got everything needed for next to nothing so for me it was just my time and effort and very little cost. The hardest part was dropping the headline to add in the roof speakers.
So it can be done but is only worth doing if you can get all the parts etc dirt cheap.

 

[duckman631]

I just bought a 2018 Big Horn which has the stock base stereo. Not too bad. But I had test driven an Outdoorsman earlier that had the factory Alpine system and liked that much better than the one in my truck. Is it possible to upgrade to the Alpine system in my truck? Is my truck wired for both systems and all I need to do is procure the correct Alpine components? I appreciate whatever info you can give me.

Replace all stock speakers with kickers and solder in the resistors in the dash speakers. The whole process is simple and can be found on here. Under $200 and takes about an hour. Super simple and really makes a huge difference. Just an exaggerated example..... the stock 6x9 weighs about a half pound and the replacement kicker brand weighs about 2 lbs. major difference. As a matter of fact after I did the swap I had someone ask me if I had a subwoofer in the truck just to show he bass difference between stock and the upgrade.

 

[PowrRam]

Replace all stock speakers with kickers and solder in the resistors in the dash speakers. The whole process is simple and can be found on here. Under $200 and takes about an hour. Super simple and really makes a huge difference. Just an exaggerated example..... the stock 6x9 weighs about a half pound and the replacement kicker brand weighs about 2 lbs. major difference. As a matter of fact after I did the swap I had someone ask me if I had a subwoofer in the truck just to show he bass difference between stock and the upgrade.

It would be cheaper and probably easier to upgrade the system with aftermarket components (speakers, amplifier, subwoofer etc). Not to mention you will get much better sound

^^ This right here. ^^

I had a 2015 Big Horn with the Alpine system and I now have a 2018 Big Horn with the stock 6 speaker system that I modified. My 2018 with different speakers and an underseat subwoofer sounds A LOT better than my Alpine system did. The 4 ohm resistors for the aftermarket dash speaker wiring was a key component. I did Pioneer 6X9's in the front doors and Polk 3.5" tweeters with the resistors in the dash. I left the stock speakers in the rear doors. I got a Rockville 8" powered sub and put it behind the back seat. Speaker and sub were about $180 and I did pay Best Buy $100 to install the subwoofer for me. But for under $300 I got a system that kicks @ss on the Alpine system.

 

[Track Guy]

Thanks for the information. It sounds like going with speaker upgrades and a powered sub might be the easier route, and might end up better than the stock Alpine.