2004-08 Ford F-150 Regular Cab

Ford must have had car audio fans in mind when they built this truck. The roomy interior offers plenty of space for new speakers, a stereo, and much more. The F-150’s remarkable popularity ensures that you’ll have plenty of options to choose from, and the modular design makes installation surprisingly easy.

2004 Ford F-150 Regular Cab (Crutchfield Research Photo)

Factory System

This Ford F-150 regular cab truck came with a couple of options, ranging from the standard AM/FM receiver to upgrades like a 6-disc in-dash changer and a factory sub.

Factory 6"x8" speaker (Crutchfield Research Photo)

Each of the four doors houses a 6"x8" speaker, and in some trucks you'll find an enclosure with a subwoofer and an amplifier behind the driver's side seat. It's really easy to get into the dash and speaker locations. You only have to remove one piece of trim to access the factory radio, and the speaker grilles pry off in the front doors. You'll have to remove the door panels to replace the rear door speakers, but it's not difficult.

Factory AM/FM radio (Crutchfield Research Photo)

Replacing the factory radio

There's plenty of room behind the dash, so you can install just about any car stereo in this truck, including single-DIN (2" tall) and double-DIN (4" tall) receivers. You'll need a mounting kit to trim out the new radio, along with a wiring harness that allows you to connect your new radio without having to cut the factory wiring (Crutchfield includes these installation parts free with most orders, along with our step-by-step instructions for your F-150). 

You'll have no problem fitting accessory items like satellite radio tuners, iPod adapters, navigation modules, or even small amps back behind your new stereo. Remove a couple of trim pieces, and you'll have all the access you need for the installation.

Tools Needed:

• To install a new stereo, you'll need a 7mm socket wrench and a panel tool.
• To replace the speakers, you'll need a panel tool, along with 5.5mm, 8mm, 10mm, 1/4", and 7/32" sockets.

Steering wheel audio controls
Two companies (PAC and Axxess) make adapters that allow you to connect your Ford steering wheel audio controls to a new car stereo. This Ford truck uses a single wire to send commands to the factory radio, so you can install either adapter without much trouble.

Replacing the factory speakers

This truck will accept several speaker sizes: 6"x8" speakers drop right in, most 5"x7"s will also fit, and 5-1/4" speakers will fit in with mounting brackets. It's a good idea to get speaker harnesses along with your new speakers. They'll allow you to attach the new speakers to the plugs that connect to the Ford factory speakers, and they make it easier to reinstall the factory speakers if you ever sell your truck (Crutchfield includes these brackets and speaker wiring harnesses free with every speaker order). And you'll find enough room in both locations so that you can almost always buy matching speakers for front and back.

Ford front door panel (Crutchfield Research Photo)

Front doors
You don't have to pry off the entire door panel, because there's a pop-out panel that covers the speaker location. A wide selection of 6"x8" or 5-1/4" speakers will fit in this location. You can also install kick panel enclosures that hold 6-1/2" speakers and tweeters in this truck if you prefer that option.

Rear doors 
You will have to remove the rear door panels to access the speakers. Again, there's plenty of room for most 6"x8" speakers, or you can also use 5-1/4" speakers in brackets.

Ford rear door panel (Crutchfield Research Photo)

Bass in your F-150

MTX custom subwoofer enclosure (Courtesy of MTX)

If you don't have the Ford factory sub (or if you want to replace yours), you'll find a bunch of subwoofer options available. Your best bet would be a vehicle-specific enclosure from MTX, available in unloaded, loaded, and amplified versions. They'll give you powerful bass without wasting much (if any) space. There's also room behind the seat for a compact Class D amp that will deliver some serious bass power.

Other options

iPod®
iPod users, you'll find a great spot for an iPod connection next to the 12-volt port that's situated low in your console, and the pocket just below that port is a great place to stash your player.

Security and remote start
If you have thought about adding security or remote start to your F-150, you'll have ample room to mount the security system of your choice, and all models that we carry would be a great fit for this truck. All the connections you'll need to make are in convenient locations, and you won't have to break your back in the process. If you have heated seats and you plan to add remote start, we can help you turn these on when you start your truck remotely. When you come out to your F-150 on a cold winter day, the seats will be nice and warm.

You'll need a few extra parts to install your security system in the F-150. Four Diodes will be needed for door trigger isolation on your Regular Cab truck. You'll also need one E5000 relay if you plan on having the dome light supervision option — this feature turns on the dome light for 30 seconds upon disarming the system. If you are adding a system that has the remote start option, you will need a module to bypass factory transponder system. We suggest the FLCAN interface. Flashlogic has done extensive testing on the Ford platform, and have developed a bulletproof algorithm for bypassing the Ford P.A.T.S. transponder system. We also carry the XK05 by Xpresskit that will perform the same bypass as well.