Any experience running a 3.5mm jack to the driver's side?

[luckee37]

I have a 2005 SANTE 210 and currently have the stock tuner unit in the glovebox with the aux jack built into the bottom right of the glovebox. I'd like to run a cable under the floorboards to the driver's side so I can play music from my iphone without having to keep the phone over by the glovebox. I am thinking of use a suction mount on the windshield to hold the phone.

Has anyone done anything similar? It would seem to be pretty straightforward, but I figure I would throw it out there to see if there are any "gotchas."

Thanks!

[Quinner]

You could get a long cable to go from the glove compartment to the helm, not the best option if you have people traffic running between bow and cockpit area they would need to step over the cable. You could do the same thing concealed, you should be able to follow the RCA jacks going to the helm stereo remote or use them to fish a line to pull the new cable. If you were planning on using the (2) RCA into a headphone input you may want to consider a powered outlet that goes into the dock connector instead, supposedly will give you better sound output + will also charge the device. The very best option is dump that old deck and get something more modern you can control the I-device with, biggest problem there however is the remote will also need to be changed.

[shawndoggy]

I have one of those suction mounts and it's awesome, except the phone will overheat in it after not too long. Like 30-60 minutes (and then at least 15 to cool down) on a hot day. Which is a bummer because it's absolutely the best place for the phone.

[perry386]

If you have a USB port on your stereo it would be much better to just buy a bluetooth adapter and sync your phone with it. I might do this with my boat but I am debating how much I would actually use it because I just installed XM radio.

[Prairiedawg]

Just finished doing this! It's amazing how archaic a 2008 stereo seems in my 2008 sante, I also wanted to use my iphone or iPod from the drivers seat, and I found this aux input/USB input on nautiqueparts.com for under 30.00 or so. I just got up the nerve, and cut a hole in the dash with a 1 1/4" hole saw. I do have a warning! The dash padding is about 1/2" thick, which skews where the hole in the fibreglass gets cut, check out my pics. Looking at the outside and looking under the dash, I honestly didn't think it would be this far out. I just centred the outlet where I wanted it and cut the hole. The problem was that the hole saw didnt cut the flat part of the fibreglass, it started to cut the horizontal section of the glass. Luckily for me it was only borderline screwed up, I did a little filing and it fit like a glove. The factory nut did not fit on the outlet when I was done, but the 1.25" hole in the foam is tight enough to hold the outlet very snugly, and I used a couple of Ty-raps on the back of the plug to keep it from pulling thru. I routed the wires under the floor to the back of the stereo and tested it out, works great! The only thing I will do is get an RCA splitter(2 into 1) that will allow me to use either the new plug or the original glovebox plug. Hope this helps.

[Mikeski]

One of the first things I did on my 2005 signature edition was to run the aux input wires over to the driver's side (to a suction cup ipod/iphone holder), right after that I added a display remote in a custom key plate since the SE boats have no way to control the stereo without opening the glove box. After the test drive I knew that was not even safe if I were planning to use the stereo while pulling riders/skiers.