Customer Install: Craig's 2008 Electra Glide Standard

A Soundstream WHD.9813, a set of Hogtunes fronts and Alloy Art fairing supports — fitted at home, the day after he picked it up, on a bike old enough to vote.

Craig collected his head unit from us on the Friday afternoon. By Saturday it was in the bike, along with a set of new front speakers and the Alloy Art fairing supports, and he’d sent through photos of a 2008 Electra Glide running wireless Android Auto.

His verdict, in full: “All good installed and happy.”

That’s not much of a review. But it’s the right one, because the interesting thing about Craig’s build isn’t how hard it was — it’s how little it needed. There’s a persistent belief among riders on pre-2014 Touring bikes that they’ve been left behind, that CarPlay and Android Auto are things that happen to people with newer machines. Craig’s FLHT is the counter-argument. By the next day it was running wireless Android Auto, without an external amplifier anywhere on the bike.

The bike

A 2008 FLHT Electra Glide Standard — batwing fairing, factory radio, factory 5.25″ front speakers. The base model of the Touring range, and the sort of bike that gets ridden rather than polished.

Craig had already bought a set of Hogtunes 352F-AA front speakers from us some time back. When the head unit landed, he did the sensible thing and saved them for the same session.

What went in

• Soundstream WHD.9813 — 7.7″ widescreen head unit with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, fitting the 1998–2013 Touring fairing on factory hardware and using the OEM AM/FM antenna.
• Hogtunes 352F-AA — 5.25″ direct-fit 2Ω front speakers for the batwing fairing, in the factory locations.
• Alloy Art SAB-1 and SAB-11 — replacement inner fairing supports, in place of the eighteen-year-old factory items. Either works on its own; we generally recommend both, and that’s what Craig fitted. The orange parts in the photos.

The stock radio came out and didn’t go back in. No factory wiring was cut.

Behind the fairing

Two things are missing from that photo, and both of them are the story.

There’s no amplifier. The WHD.9813 has a 4-channel Class A/B amp built in, and it’s 2-ohm stable. The Hogtunes 352F-AA are 2Ω speakers, which makes them a particularly useful match here — the head unit’s amplifier is designed to run a 2Ω load, which lets it make better use of the power it has. For a straightforward two-speaker front upgrade like Craig’s, that’s enough on its own: no external amplifier, no power and ground run back to the battery, no amp rack to find space for. On a 1998–2013 batwing there isn’t much room behind that fairing, and this combination doesn’t ask for any.

A comparable 4Ω speaker presents an easier load but generally draws less power from the same amplifier. That doesn’t make 2Ω automatically better — it means the speaker, the amplifier and the job have to suit each other. In Craig’s system, they do.

If Craig wants more later, the WHD.9813 has 5V RCA outputs for front, rear and subwoofer sitting there unused. But he doesn’t need them to have a system that works.

There’s no separate interface module either. The WHD.9813 integrates the factory handlebar controls directly, so on Craig’s bike there’s no Maestro or steering-control interface to buy, configure, or find room for. For this particular 2008, the older platform makes the radio swap simpler rather than harder.

While the fairing is off

The brackets are worth a mention, because they’re the part nobody plans for.

Craig didn’t need new inner fairing supports to fit a head unit. He fitted them because the fairing was already off and the originals were eighteen years old. Same for the speakers — he’d had those sitting on a shelf and could have done them another weekend.

Pulling a batwing fairing isn’t difficult, but it isn’t something you want to do three times in three months. Everything that lives behind it — speakers, brackets, wiring, sound deadening — should go on one list and get done in one session. Craig’s one session covered three separate jobs. Doing them separately would have meant opening the same fairing three separate times.

If you’re planning a head unit on a pre-2014 bike, work out now what else is behind that fairing and order it at the same time.

The result

Wireless Android Auto, connecting on its own each time he rides. Google Maps, messages, music, calls — off the phone in his pocket, on a 7.7″ screen that’s considerably larger than what Harley put there in 2008, sitting in the factory aperture with the original gauges untouched either side.

Craig’s on Android; the unit runs wireless Apple CarPlay just as happily. It’s the same head unit either way.

If you’re on a pre-2014 bike

The 1998–2013 Touring platform is not a dead end. On a bike like Craig’s — standard radio, no factory amplifier, factory 5.25″ fronts — it’s a very straightforward platform to modernise. There’s no separate radio-interface module to configure, and the WHD.9813 handles the factory controls itself.

The part worth checking before you order is the factory amplifier. Most bikes from this era don’t have one. If yours is a CVO or an Ultra it might, and the brand matters: MTX amplifiers are retained by the WHD.9813, Harman/Kardon ones aren’t — though there’s now a retention path using the SG.V2 with a Maestro RR2 on supported 2009–2013 batwing bikes. That wouldn’t have applied to Craig’s 2008, but it might to yours. Send us a photo of the amp and we’ll tell you which you’ve got.

Thanks to Craig for the photos and for letting us publish the build.

Frequently Asked Questions

More reading: our 1998 to 2013 batwing Touring audio guide, and more completed systems in Harley Audio Builds.

Motorcycle Audio Australia. Sound That Rides.