Hi everyone,

I just purchased a 2006 F150 Scab and there is something puzzling mounted to the inside roof. It is a set of silver rails abour 30" long that has a sliding section for storing sunglasses and such. It snaps on the rails and can be slid from the front to the back. There are dome lights on each end. There is a rectangular hole cut into the headliner and I suspect it was either for cables where the OEM unit was or it was for cabling a video entertinment system that is now removed. It has the basic 6disc cd am/fm in the dash. I am not sure if this was factory installed or aftermarket. I looked on ebay and Crutchfield for aftermarket roof mounted DVD players and didn't see any that mounted on rails like this.

I'm attaching pics but since this is my first post maybe I can't post pics yet.

Thanks in advance,
Mike

 

Factory, called "Rear Seat Entertainment" or RSE:

http://fordofkirkland-fordparts.com/...ainment+System

 

that hole is OEM. most likely to pass the cables to the enternainment system.
i also have the same hole in my lariat without the entertaninment system.
you can add more bins, i have 3 of those bins in the rail now.

and the bin is not a train, is suppose to be in top of the other. the front one. remove it pressing in the sides, then align the lip on top of the front one with the lights and then snap it in place.

you can see it better here:

 

$1200 for that DVD player that mounts on the rails! The aftermarket players of that screen size are going for about $200.

I wonder if any aftermarket players mount on these rails?

Where did you get your extra storage bins? In the for-sale section of the forums?

So was it common to have the rail system without the dvd player?

 

I don't think I've seen any that were specifically meant to mount on the rails. I'm sure you could fab something up, but it probably won't be near as stock looking.

You may want to keep an eye on forum classifieds and ebay and see if one pops up.

 

Not only that, but you need to make sure your radio (head unit) has the third wiring harness plug. This third plug is the wiring harness that would connect from the radio to that $1200.00 DVD screen.

I'm sure used ones are available now (both the three plug head unit and the DVD screen that attaches to the overhead rail) on Ebay.

A Pioneer radio can be had for much less that plays everything, but the kids in the back seat may not be abple to see the screen in the center dash, plus the driver is easily distracted (watching the video as they drive).

 

Thanks for the replies.

I plan to swap the basic cd changer head unit (only FM works) to a Pioneer or ?? NAV head unit. I really like those that will stream Pandora from my Android phone via Bluetooth. I really don't need/want DVD up front but I think it pretty much comes standard with the Navigation units that will play cd/mp3.

As far as the rear DVD on the rail system. I guess the OEM unit won't work with my plans to change the front out anyway. I think I could possibly get a aftermarket DVD system with wireless headphones and mount it to a OEM storage slider. I guess a little fiberglass and bondo can make it look OEM.

I want to listen to music over speakers while kids in back watch movies. I'm just going to have to work around those rails. I thought they would be an asset to have but now they are going to be hard to work around

 

RSE DVD interface for aftermarket head units: PIE FRD04-DVD

 

Thanks Gator.

So what does the PIE FRD04-DVD provide as far as signal goes? I think it will only need power since the RSE operates independently from the front audio/video system. I want the ability to have the rear playing dvds while I listen to music up front. Will the PIE device allow that?

 

I read the PIE website about the device. Since my truck probably never had the RSE system, none of the cabling will be in place and finding a working OEM RSE DVD system at a reasonable price will be slim to none. I think I'll post a wanted ad in the classifieds for a RSE storage bin and see if I can mount a aftermarket DVD on it.