Trail Grid Pro Sony 8100 Bundle Head Unit

Hey everyone so I bought the Trial Grid Pro Sony 8100 kit and unfortunately received a 4Runner kit by accident. Wanted to come on here and give Trail Grid Pro some praise specifically Cliff who shot me a return label within minutes of speaking to him on the phone and he is over nighting my correct unit to me on their dime. Great customer service by them and if your looking for a killer deal on this set up give them a look. I will post tomorrow the installed photos and my initial thoughts on the unit.

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I'm watching this one just to see what it looks like installed and all the menus and such. Do you know if it retains all the vehicle setting functionality that the OEM unit handles? I ask because somebody bought an after market unit, and afterward they couldn't change certain vehicle features like how long the lights stayed on after turning off the truck, etc.

 

From what Ive researched the unit is a WIRED carplay unit and it retains all steering wheel buttons, back up camera and mirroring HDMI capability as well. Its not a extremely "techy" unit, the biggest changes are the upgrade in screen side and Carplay functions which were my two biggest requirements. I personally wanted a wireless carplay unit but was unwilling to pay almost 500-700 dollars more for that function or settle for a much smaller screen for it. I have a charging mount in my truck which I will connect to the unit for enable carplay. So it will connect to carplay whenever its on the mount which is anytime I am in the truck so I think its going to work out really well. I will definitely post my entire set up once its in hopefully by tomorrow night.

 

The functions and settings I'm talking about are native to the OEM unit. Some of the aftermarket items use their own systems and so those functions are lost because they aren't programmed into the aftermarket HUs. Settings for how long your truck waits before autolocking the doors if one isn't opened after the FOB is used to unlock it, how quickly the interior lights turn off after the door is closed, how long headlights stay on after exiting the truck, etc.

 

I actually didnt even know that was all head unit related. I will definitely let you know on all of that. As for auto locking I hate that feature as I am very good about locking my truck but there are times I unlock it and find myself racing to get to it before it auto locks and I am not too concerned with the headlights and interior lights timing but I will check and definitely let you know. Ill try and post a video for you.

 

Yeah, you can adjust that stuff somewhere in the HU. I would recommend setting them to your preferences before swapping the HU, that way if you do lose access to them you will at least have them set to your liking.

 

Please post some pics after install

 

Here are the photos of it installed. So the unit has one only issue for me. The sound quality of my voice when on phone calls whiled plugged into CarPlay is lesser quality m compared to stock. This is somewhat of a non issue though because when I make phone calls on the units Bluetooth non CarPlay side I sound great. So all I do if someone says they are struggling to hear me is unplug the CarPlay and it switches over automatically. The pros are huge for me with the unit. Larger screen, CarPlay navigation, Siri, stock speakers sound WAY better and it has HDMI mirroring so I can watch movies or football games on long road trips or in parking lots waiting for my kids school pick up. The only single con I have is the voice sound quality in phone calls which I have heard some phones are worse then others. I tested this with a co workers phone and it sounded much better. So maybe a update or two from now it will change and get better. Install was a breeze and I have all my factory steering functions and reverse camera in reverse or anytime.

 

Can you tilt it back for more of a flush look?

 

You could. It actually is really attractive how far out it sticks. I know a lot of guys use the pioneer NEX series radios to make them more flush but I wouldn’t want this one any closer then it already is. I love it’s look one of my many pros

 

It looks great, I just prefer a more flush look. Does this unit have AA, also? That's really the only feature that's a must have for me.

 

Ya I was okay with a more floating looking I am sure with some time you could modify this unit in the mount to make it flush. That was my biggest thing having carplay its what sold me on the unit

 

tbh wireless carplay and android auto are overrated. It consumes a ton of your phones battery life. I prefer the wired version for a charge while I'm in the car. Now if you have wireless AA or Carplay AND a wireless charger in the car, that's where it's at

 

I do have a wireless charging mount that my phone is on anytime i am in the car. Since i have a wired connection it doesn't really matter anyways. So far I am loving this unit and having Carplay. I travel for work and rent alot of cars and love having carplay in my rental cars. I am stoked to now have it in my truck.

 

Android Auto

 

I was gonna pull the trigger on this exact unit from the same vendor. I'm sure it's a sweet HU

 

Its awesome so far and Trail Grid is awesome as well! Highly recommend both.

 

Does this system work with a front and rear camera? I have a FRAC harness in my 2019 and the front camera is a must for me. I asked Trail Grid, but they couldn’t give me a definite yes or no.

 

From what I’ve seen on the unit it cannot. It only has one input for a backup camera.

 

I ordered mine on Friday! Hopefully there went be a hurricane delay on it getting here........