Home stereo equipment

bassin39

Member
First let me preface by saying that I have been in the A/V business since 1979. That said, we are buying our first RV. Probably an Oakmont 390MBL fifth wheel. Has anyone ever ripped out the system in there and replaced with real home equipment. We will always be in a park with electricity so we don't need the 12 volt system. What gauge speaker wire is used? And what kind of coax, RG6 or 59? How hard is it to rewire an RV? I'm hoping its like a house. Thanks for any info.
 

MCTalley

Well-known member
I replaced the five ceiling mount plastic speakers and cheap passive sub with a Bose Acoustimass 6 system, then replaced the inexpensive Sony DVD/Home Theater receiver (which admittedly was kinda high-end considering what they typically install) with a Marantz low profile 5+1 receiver and a separate Sony Blu-Ray player.

I left the wiring. It was 18 gauge stranded. Considering in my unit the wiring for all the speakers runs down the wall of the slide, out the bottom with the other wires, into the frame, then back up somewhere in the trailer to spread out over the ceiling, I wasn't going to even attempt to pull new wiring. Plus, the Marantz only pushes 50 watts per channel, which I felt was plenty in a small space.

By the way, I did a similar switchover in our previous Big Country using a 5+1 receiver. Difference there was that there were only four ceiling speakers, so I had to add a center channel and a powered sub.

Here's a link with a few pictures.
 

Jim.Allison

Well-known member
I absolutely did. Bought a nice Yamaha 500 watt receiver system with speakers and a subwoofer. In my rig the existing speaker wires were more than adequate.

I left the OEM surround sound in place for aesthetics and abandoned them. I used the speakers in the kit that I bought from Best Buy and located them beside the TV and in a cabinet that is above the TV and added a dedicated blu ray player best thing I ever did.

In my rig, I could have easily done a sound system delete and told them to run all the cables to the TV. The rest of the wire I could have installed easily, in this manner I would not have any abandoned 3 ohm speakers on my ceiling.

Good luck on this mod, it is worthwhile IMHO.

First let me preface by saying that I have been in the A/V business since 1979. That said, we are buying our first RV. Probably an Oakmont 390MBL fifth wheel. Has anyone ever ripped out the system in there and replaced with real home equipment. We will always be in a park with electricity so we don't need the 12 volt system. What gauge speaker wire is used? And what kind of coax, RG6 or 59? How hard is it to rewire an RV? I'm hoping its like a house. Thanks for any info.
 

bassin39

Member
Thanks guys. Another question. If we are ordering the RV and it's being built for us can I have them run the wires any way I want?
 

JohnD

Moved on to the next thing...
In this day and age, I'm sure there are plenty of wireless (bluetooth) speaker setups out there that wouldn't require any speaker wire runs.
 

MCTalley

Well-known member
Thanks guys. Another question. If we are ordering the RV and it's being built for us can I have them run the wires any way I want?

I'm suspecting probably not. I know from a previous factory tour that they have pre-made wiring harnesses for each specific model. Not sure if that includes speaker wiring. You could probably call Heartland and find out for sure.
 

nonamer

Member
First let me preface by saying that I have been in the A/V business since 1979. That said, we are buying our first RV. Probably an Oakmont 390MBL fifth wheel. Has anyone ever ripped out the system in there and replaced with real home equipment. We will always be in a park with electricity so we don't need the 12 volt system. What gauge speaker wire is used? And what kind of coax, RG6 or 59? How hard is it to rewire an RV? I'm hoping its like a house. Thanks for any info.

We did this on a project RV. We hooked up a Bose home theater system. We just used a gauge 10 speaker wire and RG6 to the whole system. Rewiring is quite hard for you have to remove some of the panels and covers so that you could run through the wires and hide it clean.
 
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