Need help installing Kicker HS8 Hideaway Subwoofer! (Stuck)

[TedX]

Its been about a year since I installed Kicker front and rear speakers in my 25' Maverick Lobo and removed the factory ones. The front and rear speakers were pretty simple. I had to take apart the two front doors to access the speakers and did some simple wiring. The rear speakers were pretty troublesome due to taking apart several pieces above the rear passengers head. Even the Kicker tweeters I replaced at the dash was pretty simple.

Then I came upon my Kicker HS8 subwoofer install....

I tried wiring it into the front speakers initially and was able to get the Sub to power on (blue light). I purchased the Sub harness from Kicker directly and made all the right connections to each speaker. No sound.

I heard that some Maverick owners have used the Kicker KISL and Kicker KISLOC2 and made the connections behind the front A/C vent. I purchased all the items and went ahead and made all the right connections. I connected and I powered on the KISL and the Sub and still no sound at all. Not even static.

Essentially:

Sub -> Harness -> KISL -> 12 foot 2 Channel RCA Cable -> KISLOC2 -> Front Wiring connections.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Ive been stuck on this for quite some time.

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[Carlitos_92]

I am not positive you need any of those Kicker add-ons other than because of your choice of RCA back to the sub. The sub will take speaker-level inputs just fine (I wired mine with shielded 4-conductor speaker wire tied in to a PAC t-harness which split the rear head unit signals prior to a separate 4-channel amp...).

I am assuming you have tried setting the fader all the way to the front (if that is still what you tapped in to) just for troubleshooting.

The input level switch on your sub also needs to be set to "LOW" if you are using the LOC. It looks like it is set to HIGH in your pic. I don't think you can hurt the sub by getting that wrong, either. I literally have my input set to "LOW" even with speaker-level signals. (I think the t-harness is adding enough resistance with the split that "HIGH" wasn't really appropriate for me.)

FYI it also looks like your remote turn-on switch is set to "DC," but if you have a dedicated remote (aka blue) wire, you can set it to "+12V" and it may be more reliable. Since it is powering up, that shouldn't be related to your issue.

 

[BRAT]

Its been about a year since I installed Kicker front and rear speakers in my 25' Maverick Lobo and removed the factory ones. The front and rear speakers were pretty simple. I had to take apart the two front doors to access the speakers and did some simple wiring. The rear speakers were pretty troublesome due to taking apart several pieces above the rear passengers head. Even the Kicker tweeters I replaced at the dash was pretty simple.

Then I came upon my Kicker HS8 subwoofer install....

I tried wiring it into the front speakers initially and was able to get the Sub to power on (blue light). I purchased the Sub harness from Kicker directly and made all the right connections to each speaker. No sound.

I heard that some Maverick owners have used the Kicker KISL and Kicker KISLOC2 and made the connections behind the front A/C vent. I purchased all the items and went ahead and made all the right connections. I connected and I powered on the KISL and the Sub and still no sound at all. Not even static.

Essentially:

Sub -> Harness -> KISL -> 12 foot 2 Channel RCA Cable -> KISLOC2 -> Front Wiring connections.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Ive been stuck on this for quite some time.

Best practices. No scotch locks it's a bad point of failure over time. Pac audio lhfd31 t harness. Then run high level to the sub to make life easier. But since you already have a LOC keep rca.

 

[TedX]

I am not positive you need any of those Kicker add-ons other than because of your choice of RCA back to the sub. The sub will take speaker-level inputs just fine (I wired mine with shielded 4-conductor speaker wire tied in to a PAC t-harness which split the rear head unit signals prior to a separate 4-channel amp...).

I am assuming you have tried setting the fader all the way to the front (if that is still what you tapped in to) just for troubleshooting.

The input level switch on your sub also needs to be set to "LOW" if you are using the LOC. It looks like it is set to HIGH in your pic. I don't think you can hurt the sub by getting that wrong, either. I literally have my input set to "LOW" even with speaker-level signals. (I think the t-harness is adding enough resistance with the split that "HIGH" wasn't really appropriate for me.)

FYI it also looks like your remote turn-on switch is set to "DC," but if you have a dedicated remote (aka blue) wire, you can set it to "+12V" and it may be more reliable. Since it is powering up, that shouldn't be related to your issue.

Thanks I’m using the KISLOC2 because I chose to run RCA back to the sub rather than direct speaker wire the whole way.

I do have a dedicated blue remote turn-on wire, so I’ll switch the turn-on setting from DC to +12V. I’ll also change the input level from HIGH to LOW and test again with the fader all the way to the front since that’s what I tapped.

Right now the sub powers on, but I’m getting absolutely no output at all.

 

[TedX]

Best practices. No scotch locks it's a bad point of failure over time. Pac audio lhfd31 t harness. Then run high level to the sub to make life easier. But since you already have a LOC keep rca.

Appreciate it. That makes sense. I did use quick-tap style connectors, so I can see how that could be part of the problem.

Since I already have the LOC/RCA setup installed, I’m going to first retest after changing the HS8 settings to LOW input and +12V remote turn-on.

If I still get zero output, I may need to redo the signal side with better connections or switch to a PAC T-harness and run high-level directly.

 

[Carlitos_92]

Thanks I’m using the KISLOC2 because I chose to run RCA back to the sub rather than direct speaker wire the whole way.

I do have a dedicated blue remote turn-on wire, so I’ll switch the turn-on setting from DC to +12V. I’ll also change the input level from HIGH to LOW and test again with the fader all the way to the front since that’s what I tapped.

Right now the sub powers on, but I’m getting absolutely no output at all.

Yeah, not sure I trust those wire taps. Another thing you can try is wiggling those while the stereo is on to see if the connection is intermittent.

I will say, the PAC harness is fairly foolproof and would allow for expansion in the future if you did decide to add another amp.

I’m local to you, but not sure I could help any better in person, other than just showing you what I did myself - but that would be a lot of rework on your part if you copied my setup.

 

[BRAT]

If anyone lives in sw Florida i can help. I have a shop at the house and have done stereos for years

 

[Ryom]

It'd be real nice if modern OEM stereo equipment came with line outs... it's not like people haven't been adding aftermarket amps and subs into vehicles for literally decades at this point. It'd be a nice selling point since it's no longer simple, or sometimes even possible, to swap out head units.

 

[TedX]

Quick update.

I replaced the original quick-tap signal taps with Posi-Tap style connectors at the dash and rechecked the rear splices. I also corrected the KISL/Hideaway channel mapping so it is:

White = Left +
White/Black = Left -
Gray = Right +
Gray/Black = Right -

For the truck wires behind the front vents / center dash, the wire colors Ivebeen working from are:

Blue = Left +
Gray/Brown = Left -
Yellow/Orange = Right +
Green/Brown = Right -

The HS8 powers on normally with the blue light, so it appears to be getting power/ground/remote. I also changed the HS8 settings appropriately during testing, including trying LOW input with the LOC/RCA setup and then doing a full direct speaker-level bypass test.

Most important part: I completely bypassed the KISLOC2 / RCA / KISL chain and ran a direct speaker-level test from the truck speaker taps straight into the HS8 input harness. Still got no sound.

At this point I think I’ve ruled out:
- original quick taps
- LOC/RCA/KISL signal chain
- rear splice method
- basic remote turn-on issue

So now I think the remaining possibilities are:
1. I am still somehow not on the correct truck speaker wires / correct tap point behind the front vents
2. the HS8 itself is bad internally (I bought it used on Facebook Marketplace)

Can anyone confirm for sure whether these are the correct 2025 Maverick Lobo front speaker wire colors behind the center dash:
Blue = Left +, Gray/Brown = Left -, Yellow/Orange = Right +, Green/Brown = Right - ?

And based on the failed direct speaker-level bypass test, does this sound more like wrong wires/tap point, or a bad HS8?

 

[BRAT]

I can verify tomorrow

 

[Carlitos_92]

Quick update.

I replaced the original quick-tap signal taps with Posi-Tap style connectors at the dash and rechecked the rear splices. I also corrected the KISL/Hideaway channel mapping so it is:

White = Left +
White/Black = Left -
Gray = Right +
Gray/Black = Right -

For the truck wires behind the front vents / center dash, the wire colors Ivebeen working from are:

Blue = Left +
Gray/Brown = Left -
Yellow/Orange = Right +
Green/Brown = Right -

The HS8 powers on normally with the blue light, so it appears to be getting power/ground/remote. I also changed the HS8 settings appropriately during testing, including trying LOW input with the LOC/RCA setup and then doing a full direct speaker-level bypass test.

Most important part: I completely bypassed the KISLOC2 / RCA / KISL chain and ran a direct speaker-level test from the truck speaker taps straight into the HS8 input harness. Still got no sound.

At this point I think I’ve ruled out:
- original quick taps
- LOC/RCA/KISL signal chain
- rear splice method
- basic remote turn-on issue

So now I think the remaining possibilities are:
1. I am still somehow not on the correct truck speaker wires / correct tap point behind the front vents
2. the HS8 itself is bad internally (I bought it used on Facebook Marketplace)

Can anyone confirm for sure whether these are the correct 2025 Maverick Lobo front speaker wire colors behind the center dash:
Blue = Left +, Gray/Brown = Left -, Yellow/Orange = Right +, Green/Brown = Right - ?

And based on the failed direct speaker-level bypass test, does this sound more like wrong wires/tap point, or a bad HS8?

Those colors are correct for a 2023 XLT but it’s possible they changed them for 2025.

At this point you could also try feeding a known good signal into the HS8 just to rule it out. Since you have the RCA adapters, you could run RCA from a home stereo or DVD player or whatever you have handy and can get near the truck.

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