Installing a Kenwood car stereo in a Jeep Wrangler

Our marketing team learns how to install a new car radio

by Crutchfield's Zak Billmeier

If they can do it, so can you. Crutchfield's Marketing team decided to give their outgoing manager a parting gift: a new sound system for his 1998 Jeep Wrangler. Only one thing stood in their way — this would be the first time they had installed audio gear in a car.

Undaunted, they decided to follow the same MasterSheet™ we send Crutchfield customers with every car audio purchase. Watch them install a receiver and two sets of speakers, proving once and for all that with Crutchfield's help, you CAN install it yourself — and save a lot of money in the process.

After watching this video, the next step is to find out what fit's YOUR car, then give us a call.

Read video transcript

Zach: So this is the Crutchfield Marketing Department installing what is for some of us our first car stereo. I figured it was good for us all to actually try that. We're working with one of our employees' Jeeps here, so with any luck we won't screw it up for them. Feel pretty good. We've got our MasterSheets, and we've got a few people around here to help us out if we get stuck.

Jamey: So far so good. It's been pretty easy. I think a Jeep's a pretty nice, easy vehicle to get into. So far, we've taken off the dash. We've pulled out the old stereo. We're also at the point now we're actually doing the connections, crimping wires, getting everything connected on the back end, so these sheets really do help. They're there for a reason. And so there's a lot of qualified people in this building to put a stereo in — and we're probably the least qualified — and we're doing well, so it's a good start.

Alyson: It's pretty simple. I thought it was going to be a lot more complicated, especially hooking up all the wires.

Jay: And everything looks good. We just hooked the battery back up, tested the radio out. Sounded great. So now we've unhooked it and now we're going to install some speakers.

Zach: I think everybody had a good time. Everything went in pretty smoothly, no extra screws, nothing like that. So I'd say if we can do it and have a good time, pretty much anybody can. Couldn't have done it without the MasterSheets. They ended up being very helpful. It's good to see exactly what a customer would be seeing. We followed those just like anyone would, getting it out of the box, and it ended up going well for us. Overall really good experience. We'd definitely do it again. We're already talking about coming back to add a powered sub, so I think that's the next project for Marketing.

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