On 4/10/2008 8:09 AM craig cowan wrote:

> My biggest pet peve, is the fact that its so hard to find a stereo these
> days with a VOLUME KNOB. everyone has gone to buttons.

Yeah, and a poxy bunch of little buttons, to boot! Half the time I manage
to hit the "eject faceplate" button when all I want to do is press the
attenuate button. It's a little difficult to read 5 point Agate type while
driving, esp. when printed on a black face panel with gray ink.

What I'd really like is a radio with a volume knob, a tuner knob, five
programmable push buttons (those of you who drove cars in the 50's or 60's
see what I'm getting at) for my fave-o-rite stations, an iPod bay w/
remote, and that darn remote needs to have a power off button to shut the
stupid radio off once I'm in bed. Mine just has a standby button, the
front panel display stays lit and my house battery ammeter tells me that
the radio is drawing 1.5 amps. So, I climb out of bed, grumbling, reach up
to the dash to press the SOURCE button which also accesses the power off
function . . . and the faceplate ejects.

Wrong button again.

I second the recommendation for tiltable front panel.

One thing about wiring a radio into the Vanagon: dunno about yours, but my
Westy had three wires going to the two rear speakers, they shared a common
ground return wire. I had to run two pair of wire to the rear to
accommodate the radio's bridged outputs (two wires per speaker, all four
of them "hot", no common ground). You can't connect any of them together
w/o sparks. So keep that in mind when you are looking at the radio's right
rear positive, right rear negative, left rear positive, and left rear
negative wires in one hand and the van's right rear speaker hot, left rear
speaker hot, and common return in the other.

--
Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
71 Type 2: the Wonderbus
84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
74 Utility Trailer. Ladybug Trailer, Inc., San Juan Capistrano
KG6RCR