How Do I Make My RV's TV Sound Come Through My RV's Radio Speakers?

by Dana
(NM, USA)

When playing the radio in the RV, the sound coming out of the speakers in the back bedroom is very soft. How do I adjust the volume of these speakers? There must be a control somewhere.
And is it possible to make the TV audio go through the RV speakers?

It's a 97 Pace Arrow that I recently bought.
Thanks so much!

ANSWER Greetings Dana thanks for submitting your question on our Ask An RV Question Page.

First let's talk about getting your RV’s TV sound to come through the speakers on your radio and then we will work on fixing the speakers in the rear of your RV. There are two ways you can get the TV sound to come out of your RV's radio speakers. You first have to determine if your radio has an auxiliary input on it.

Look at the front of your radio and you should see source buttons marked "AM" "FM" and "CD" (if your radio has a CD player in it). You are looking for a source button marked "AUX" which stands for auxiliary input. If your radio does not have an "AUX" source button then it means that there are no Auxiliary Inputs on your radio.

Below you will find two sets of instructions; the first is for radios with auxiliary connections and the second is for radios without auxiliary connections.

Radio With Auxiliary Connection

1. First you have to find the Auxiliary input ports on your radio; these are usually two female RCA Jacks that are color coded White is for the left side input and red is for the right side input. You may have to remove the radio to find those jacks. If you are lucky, your radio has the RCA patch cords dangling from the back so that they are accessible from under the dash without pulling the radio out.

2. Find the audio out port/s on your TV. If you have a stereo TV there will be two audio out ports, one for the left sound output and one for the right sound output. If your TV is not a Stereo TV there will be only one sound out port.

These ports can either be on the front or the back of the TV and not all TVs have them. Once you have located the ports you will need a 2 RCA Male to 2 RCA Male Patch Cord 12 ft long enough to reach from the TV to the Radio. If you only have one sound out port on the TV you will need a 1 RCA Plug to 2 RCA Jacks Y-Adapter. If you do not have audio out RCA ports on your TV, but you do have a headphone jack, you can use a Mini Plug to 2 RCA Jacks Y Adapter to connect the patch cords to the TV.

You’re on your own as far as how you are going to run the wires through your RV. This may require drilling holes in your cabinets etc. Once you have everything hooked up turn your TV on and turn your radio on put it on auxiliary and the sound should come through your RV's speakers. This is not surround sound. If you have a stereo TV the sound will be in stereo. If you have a monaural TV the monaural sound will come through all the speakers. The only downside to this is that you may have to adjust the TV sound with your stereo's sound knob and the sound adjustment on your TV's remote may not control the sound.

Radio With No Auxiliary Connections

(also known as the lazy persons way of getting TV sound to your radio)

In order for this system to work your TV must have a headphone jack or sound out RCA jack/s. If you have a TV with a headphone jack all you do is plug in a FM Transmitter to the headphone jack and tune your RV’s stereo to the FM Transmitter's preselected channel and the TV sound will come through your RV's radio speaker system. The FM Transmitter I highly recommend is the C. Crane FMT Digital FM Transmitter with AC Adapter. The C. Crane FM Transmitter comes with everything you need. It runs off of two AA batteries or an AC Power Adapter (which is included). If your TV does not have a headphone jack, but has RCA sound out jacks the C. Crane FM Transmitter also comes with the adapter cord to convert the RCA jacks to a headphone jack.

OK now that we have got that resolved; let's move on to answering your question about getting your RV's rear speakers working properly.

I am going to have to assume that you no longer have the Owner's Manual for the radio that came with your RV. Depending on what type of radio you have there are two possibilities of what you may have to do to adjust the front/rear speakers.

1. Somewhere on your radio is a button that is marked Front/Rear or Fade (FAD). This button may be all by itself or it could be a combo button. With a combo button you may have to gently push the button in or pull the button out to adjust the front and rear volumes.

2. For newer radios you may have to access the radios menu screen (just like you do on newer TVs). You will need to find a button marked "Menu" or "Setup" that you press to get into the radio's setup menu that will appear on the radio's LCD screen. You will then have to cycle through the menu items until you find one that is called "Fade" (FAD) or "front/rear" and do the adjustment.

Hopefully all of this information has been helpful to you. If any of our visitors have other suggestions for you they can add them to this page by clicking on the add a comment link located near the bottom of this page.

Happy RVing

RVing Al

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