Alternate wiring for Kicker sub with Bose system. (DO THIS)

johnathanryan30 · March 24, 2022

6 hours ago, Mike Borowski said:

I want to install mine by tapping into the subwoofer line rather than the passenger speakers. Can you elaborate on that? You ran wires from under the passenger to where?

thanks!

Read my last quote. I connected them to a RCA line converter which I just put under the back of the seat and ran my RCA'S to my amp

Mike Borowski · March 24, 2022

9 hours ago, johnathanryan30 said:

I found an easier location to tap the sub wires actually. If you pull up the kick panel in the rear passenger door frame there's a small channel that the wires run through under a plastic cover. You just pop the cover off and find the blue and Grey wires and tap into them and you're set

Thanks! So the only long run is the power from the passenger side back?

johnathanryan30 · March 24, 2022

3 hours ago, Mike Borowski said:

Thanks! So the only long run is the power from the passenger side back?

Yep. There's the rubber Grommet on the driver's side fire wall that you can run through power through. Then just run it through the channel on the drivers side to the rear. Very easy. Find an open fuse in the fuse box on the drivers side dash and hook up the remote wire

Mike Borowski · March 24, 2022

2 minutes ago, johnathanryan30 said:

Yep. There's the rubber Grommet on the driver's side fire wall that you can run through power through. Then just run it through the channel on the drivers side to the rear. Very easy. Find an open fuse in the fuse box on the drivers side dash and hook up the remote wire

Awesome thank you!

johnathanryan30 · March 25, 2022

On 3/24/2022 at 9:57 AM, Mike Borowski said:

Awesome thank you!

No problem man. Feel free to ask any other questions you might have. I also installed a cheap bass control knob which IMO is a must with this setup unless the amp you have already has one

coonass · April 2, 2022

So guys, I just received my 2022 CC Chevy and I opted for the upgrade kicker amp and sub, "Audio Upgrade W\\\\/o Bose By Kicker - GM (19417165)". Didn't really want to install it myself but was not going to pay the dealer for 5 hours labor, especially when the kit says 1 hour. Anyone that can do it in an hour is really good I guess. So I have most of the kit installed but apparently they gave me the wrong power harness for the amp. Can anyone please tell me which wire is the positive for the amp, the brown or the green? Also, should I change anything from the installation instructions before I finish the install? Trying to follow what you guys have been changing but its a little much for an older rock lover! Thanks for your help.

johnathanryan30 · April 2, 2022

20 hours ago, coonass said:

So guys, I just received my 2022 CC Chevy and I opted for the upgrade kicker amp and sub, "Audio Upgrade W\\\\/o Bose By Kicker - GM (19417165)". Didn't really want to install it myself but was not going to pay the dealer for 5 hours labor, especially when the kit says 1 hour. Anyone that can do it in an hour is really good I guess. So I have most of the kit installed but apparently they gave me the wrong power harness for the amp. Can anyone please tell me which wire is the positive for the amp, the brown or the green? Also, should I change anything from the installation instructions before I finish the install? Trying to follow what you guys have been changing but its a little much for an older rock lover! Thanks for your help.

So your truck doesn't have the bose system?

coonass · April 2, 2022

It has the bose premium system. Reading about it more now but I think what they sold me may not be compatible with that system.

k9cinco · April 5, 2022

Hello all, finally arrived ( 2022 2500hd lt CC) but dealer messed up the radio order and don't have Bose, credited me but not sending the truck back or waiting another 4 months so, what can I do to help the infotainment plus non bose system....need more bass and nav

Ghost21Elevation · November 21, 2022

Hey guys. 2021 elevation with bose. I'm not finding the wires mentioned. I do have blue and grey twisted but not getting any audio off of them.

Edit: Mine do not take that path. Grabbed signal from door tray

Edited November 27, 2022 by Ghost21Elevation

Aircraft800 · February 28, 2023

I removed the Passenger seat (Tork 50) for better access to the sub wires.

Joshua Place · April 8, 2023

On 7/30/2021 at 10:30 AM, Tjeli said:

Hey Everyone,

I'm posting this in this forum because it is specific to T1 trucks but the same principle can be applied to other years.

First of all I do consider myself an audiophile. Not so much in vehicle systems but I don't want to add up how much time and money I have spent over the last 30 or so years searching for the perfect, limitless, balanced sound in my home systems. If you would like to know what I run at home you can PM me.

Now on to the point. I had some free GM accessory money to use up so I decided to give the Kicker sub upgrade a try. It sounded "ok" and did make quite a bit of bass. I would seem to get it dialed in for one type of music and then it would sound muddy and bloated on a different type. It was also very heavy in the upper mid bass. In case anyone was wondering what the DIP switches do for SURE on the Kicker amp here you go. (I measured them) Switch 1,2 and 3 are gain. There are 4 settings from all 3 down to all 3 up. Switch 4 is the remote turn on selection. Switch 5 turns the crossover on or off. Switch 6 adjusts the slope of the crossover from 24db (on) to 12db (off). I firmly believe that the way Kicker ships these is the proper setting for our trucks. (1,4,5 and 6 up and 2 and 3 down)

One thing that really bothered me about the install of the Kicker sub is that they are pulling their input signal from the right front speaker only. Does the Bose system have a high pass roll off programmed into that channel? What about music that has bass dedicated to the left channel only? What happens when you start to overdrive that channel in the Bose amp?

Say what you will about Bose but one thing they do well is "tuning" a system in a vehicle so that it sounds good at all volume levels to the majority of people. Read that sentence again. This is all done with a LOT of eq, monitoring the amp channels for compression and clipping and attenuating certain frequency ranges at higher volume levels. The result is a system that plays loud and sounds "decent" for the majority of consumers while staying within the budget given to them by the auto manufacturer.

Enough rambling. After a bunch of digging I found the wires that run to the factory Bose sub. I tapped these for the input to the Kicker amp. To my ears it sounds 100 times better. Much more balanced at all volume levels and with all types of music. It is cleaner and hits harder with less overhang. It also plays bass from both channels now. I really have to recommend this to anyone that has the Kicker sub upgrade. Hit me up if you have questions.

-Eli

I have a question… about to be adding a subwoofer to my 2023 Sierra. Are the wires you tapped into on the passenger side of the center console high level? Asking because I want to make sure I’m okay to add a line out converter when I tap these. Definitely thinking about tapping these as opposed to the yellow and yellow/black. I’m far from an expert but it seems like anyone with knowledge on this says to absolutely tap the factory Bose wires. Oddly enough Crutchfield said not to tap those because they’re crossed over and advised to tap into the front right door speaker (yellow and yellow/black).

Aircraft800 · April 8, 2023

8 minutes ago, Joshua Place said:

I have a question… about to be adding a subwoofer to my 2023 Sierra. Are the wires you tapped into on the passenger side of the center console high level? Asking because I want to make sure I’m okay to add a line out converter when I tap these. Definitely thinking about tapping these as opposed to the yellow and yellow/black. I’m far from an expert but it seems like anyone with knowledge on this says to absolutely tap the factory Bose wires. Oddly enough Crutchfield said not to tap those because they’re crossed over and advised to tap into the front right door speaker (yellow and yellow/black).

Yes, they are high level and they are crossed over, so there is only sub frequency not full range.

Joshua Place · April 8, 2023

9 hours ago, Aircraft800 said:

Yes, they are high level and they are crossed over, so there is only sub frequency not full range.

Thank you! I appreciate the help. Do you happen to know what gauge the Bose subwoofer wire is?

mdarcaro · April 15, 2023

Hoping this set up will work with the suggestions in this post… I have the 10” Kicker Hideaway sub which is powered. The wiring on the included harness is:

White: Left+

White/Black: Left-

Gray: Right+
Gray/Black: Right-

Wondering what the correct wiring is to connect with the Blue/Gray and Green/Black OEM subwoofer wires.