Diplodocus
SILVER Star
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- #21
Sights and Sounds
My container of goodies will hopefully be arriving within a month. In the meantime, I wanted to fill you in on another small project I completed a little while ago but haven't talked about yet.
As mentioned above, the radio that came with the truck might have been great for Tokyo, but since I don’t read Japanese and don’t need GPS navigation specific to Japan, it had to go.
In searching for a new head unit, I quickly came to find that the worldwide supply chain problems were also affecting aftermarket car stereos. I eventually decided to purchase a model that was a couple years old but hit all the right…buttons.
I was really enamored with the dual camera function and easy access to the “Cam” button on the right hand (my driver’s) side of the Kenwood DMX7706S.
Parking in tight spaces can be stressful enough, but once a big steel bumper with winch goes on, parallel parking in the city becomes a nerve-wracking game of chicken with other people’s trunk lids / bumpers / back windows. I liked the idea of a front camera taking the guesswork out of the equation. At the same time, accessing it through a series of menus was not going to work in a parking situation, it had to be an easily accessible physical button. The DMX7706S fit the bill perfectly.
I found one on Amazon for $600. It was the last one in stock (seemingly anywhere on the planet), so I purchased it. Unfortunately, around this time, our mail was incredibly messed up and I after months of waiting, it was clear I was never going to receive the package.
With Amazon now out of stock, I went searching elsewhere. I had never heard of buya.com before, but decided to take a chance. The website is an online marketplace for pawn shops to sell their goods. At less than half the cost of new, I went for a pawn-shop special. And you know what? It works just fine.
I feel incredibly lucky that the prior owner had already installed an aftermarket stereo. I found this gem (Beat Sonic SLA-100), which allows the signal from the aftermarket stereo to pass through the factory amp and subwoofer. A major win.
I still had to wire the connector on the receiver side of the SLA-100 manually, since the old stereo was a pioneer and the new a Kenwood, but the job was made much easier by the prior installer leaving the identifying tags on each wire. Even the aftermarket rear camera from the old stereo wired right up and worked beautifully.
I wired up the front camera and mounted it within the front bumper cover – it is everything I hoped for. Once the Dissent bumper is mounted I will need to figure something else out.
My wife uses the apple car play features including google maps for navigation around town, but when it comes to getting out into the bush, I still fire up my decade-old Garmin and load the latest tracks4africa map. There is no substitute for local mapmakers, and these are the absolute best maps for southern Africa. If you’re ever overlanding over here, their digital and/or print maps are required kit.
Speaking of overlanding around here, I’ll wrap up this post with a picture of a local's truck after a run in with a bull elephant. Notice the puncture wounds from the tusks in the front bumper (driver and elephant both walked away uninjured).
My container of goodies will hopefully be arriving within a month. In the meantime, I wanted to fill you in on another small project I completed a little while ago but haven't talked about yet.
As mentioned above, the radio that came with the truck might have been great for Tokyo, but since I don’t read Japanese and don’t need GPS navigation specific to Japan, it had to go.
In searching for a new head unit, I quickly came to find that the worldwide supply chain problems were also affecting aftermarket car stereos. I eventually decided to purchase a model that was a couple years old but hit all the right…buttons.
I was really enamored with the dual camera function and easy access to the “Cam” button on the right hand (my driver’s) side of the Kenwood DMX7706S.
Parking in tight spaces can be stressful enough, but once a big steel bumper with winch goes on, parallel parking in the city becomes a nerve-wracking game of chicken with other people’s trunk lids / bumpers / back windows. I liked the idea of a front camera taking the guesswork out of the equation. At the same time, accessing it through a series of menus was not going to work in a parking situation, it had to be an easily accessible physical button. The DMX7706S fit the bill perfectly.
I found one on Amazon for $600. It was the last one in stock (seemingly anywhere on the planet), so I purchased it. Unfortunately, around this time, our mail was incredibly messed up and I after months of waiting, it was clear I was never going to receive the package.
With Amazon now out of stock, I went searching elsewhere. I had never heard of buya.com before, but decided to take a chance. The website is an online marketplace for pawn shops to sell their goods. At less than half the cost of new, I went for a pawn-shop special. And you know what? It works just fine.
I feel incredibly lucky that the prior owner had already installed an aftermarket stereo. I found this gem (Beat Sonic SLA-100), which allows the signal from the aftermarket stereo to pass through the factory amp and subwoofer. A major win.
I still had to wire the connector on the receiver side of the SLA-100 manually, since the old stereo was a pioneer and the new a Kenwood, but the job was made much easier by the prior installer leaving the identifying tags on each wire. Even the aftermarket rear camera from the old stereo wired right up and worked beautifully.
I wired up the front camera and mounted it within the front bumper cover – it is everything I hoped for. Once the Dissent bumper is mounted I will need to figure something else out.
My wife uses the apple car play features including google maps for navigation around town, but when it comes to getting out into the bush, I still fire up my decade-old Garmin and load the latest tracks4africa map. There is no substitute for local mapmakers, and these are the absolute best maps for southern Africa. If you’re ever overlanding over here, their digital and/or print maps are required kit.
Speaking of overlanding around here, I’ll wrap up this post with a picture of a local's truck after a run in with a bull elephant. Notice the puncture wounds from the tusks in the front bumper (driver and elephant both walked away uninjured).
