piping in-dash radio through coach in motion

[AbsolutMac]

This may be a dumb question, but here it goes...while driving, the in-dash radio only plays through the front speakers. Was with friends on way to a football game and those travelling mid-cabin could not hear the game on the radio. I know that the surround sound picks up the radio through the CD player when parked...thanks in advance for any advice/modifications etc. Also considering a mod for outdoor speakers.

[Iggy]

Good idea and I have thought about it a little.
If you were able to get the 4 speaker out put from the dash radio and get it up to the cabinet above the passenger seat compartment you can install a multi speaker switch that you can interface with the speaker wiring from the back of the surround sound DVD player. The hard part would be to get the wiring from the dash radio up to the compartment.
OR
You can start your generator while driving and use the radio in the surround sound system..

Hope that is how your Georgetown is setup.
Good luck

[Networx]

Ours plays through all 4, have you checked the fade settings? We had the opposite problem, wanted to hear better up front, so I put a switch on the rear output and added speakers in the dash.

[Falcon35]

Originally Posted by Networx

Ours plays through all 4, have you checked the fade settings? We had the opposite problem, wanted to hear better up front, so I put a switch on the rear output and added speakers in the dash.

The up front speakers are way up high and are hard to hear.
I have been thinking about adding speakers in the dash area.
I was hoping to find some surface mount speakers and mount them on the side walls right below the dash. Where did you put your speakers what kind of speakers did you use?

[Networx]

I just bought some cheap walmart sony speakers and made a box for each. They sit on the dash pointed towards us. It made a HUGE difference. I bought a 4 pole double throw toggle switch, and cut these in with the rear speakers. Make sure you don't switch the toggle with the radio on!

[alparmer]

You should probably post which year and model you have. Our 2014 351DS plays through all four speakers. Like someone mentioned, check your fader settings which could be set to just the front speakers. The sound system in our coach is, for lack of better words, crap! Cheap speakers, cheap sub, cheap head unit, and cheap tiny amp fro the sub. Not sure why they installed such a cheap sound system, and a 3k dollar refrigerator. I guess the kitchen sells the house.

I'm going to upgrade it next season. I thought about 6x9 speakers down below, but I think I'll just upgrade the speakers in their current location. Get some higher quality tweeters on top, a couple of mid range speakers down below, upgrade the sub woofer, get a nicer head unit, and feed everything through a quality amp. We just listen to country music so it doesn't need to be that loud, but we do love our movies cranked up.

[Lostdog]

When we sold the stick n brick we had a pair of Bose 101 speakers left over from our house that I set on the floor in front of the passenger seat and along side the driver seat. Wired these to the "rear" speaker outputs that were not being utilized by the radio. Also upgraded the speakers that are up high with better quality speakers. We plug in the IPOD while going down the road and "rock out" with our country music. It sounds as good as any home unit now!

As for the "surround" system that came with the coach; Sold the crap RCA unit (the third one), removed the crap RCA subwoofer and tossed in the garbage and installed a Samsung sound bar below the TV with heavy duty Velcro and placed the wireless subwoofer behind the recliners. Also bought a Blu-ray DVD player and set it on top of the DIRECTV receiver located in the cabinet below the TV. Now have outstanding audio throughout the rig.

[AbsolutMac]

I should have added, we have a 2012 Georgetown 350XL. I can hear the front speakers ok (when turned up fairly high), however the folks traveling with me could not pick anything up from the mid-cabin speakers or the rear speakers in the bedroom. I am wondering if something was not hooked up correctly on the back of the in-dash radio. On the off chance that something was not done right from the factory, I may have to do some sort of modification. When we are parked and I am running the DVD/surround sound, everything is fine, the problem lies in when were are mobile.

[alparmer]

That is strange. Not familiar with your rig. Is yours like ours where everything is played through the in dash unit? Ours only has four speakers, nothing in the bedroom. If everything is through the in dash head unit, then there is probably a setting in the head unit or a switch box somewhere. On ours, while driving, you can't watch TV in the living area. Which reminds me that I need to try and find out how to bypass that. There must be a box somewhere that senses the rig is in drive and turns it off.

I don't think it's something that was hooked up wrong since you do get them to work while parked. Have you gone through all of the settings in your head unit? Maybe someone in this forum knows where the cutoff signal goes to. A while back I installed a Nav unit in my truck and it called for installing a wire to the shift so that you couldn't watch movies unless it was in park. I just grounded that wire and you could watch anything anytime. It has to be something similar with ours.

[Jim G]

I have a 2012 337 and the same is true. Apparently the rear speakers are used with the surround sound dvd player and that overrides the dash stereo. Iggy has the right idea, to put a bypass switch in the dvd compartment, if you can figure it out and the wires from the dash are in the compartment.
On mine, the rear speaker output on the cd player in the dash had no wires coming from it. I ran a set of wires from the cd player in the dash, through the firewall, along the frame, and came back up behind the bedroom sliding doors to the cieling and put two speakers in the hallway. The wires are hidden by the bedroom door and it works great. I then went under the RV and spliced another set of wires into the wires I ran under the frame and put exterior plugs so I can put a set of speakers outside. The whole thing cost very little and works great.