Subwoofer show and tell

[BigIron]

Today I fit the lid, wrapped in carpet and lined the inside of the box and underside of the lid with deadening mat and closed cell foam. Stealthbox who??

Tomorrow I'll do the simple wiring, screw in the sub to the lid, and attach the top/bottom to each other as well as attach into the truck itself.

I'm going to have a shop do the wiring job to the head unit, as they're also going to amp up my Powerbass door speakers to liven them up. Part of their quote is to use a JL Fix86 which essentially decentralizes the signals and reroutes them to the right spots. Similar to electronic crossovers if I'm correct. Then we're finally there!

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[BigIron]

Final update until the install! Push pins to hold it into the bin and speaker locked in the box. Time to have the shop do their part

 

[BigIron]

This community has helped me a ton in the past, I'm happy I was able to begin to pay it back!

Yeah, I looked into those and it would probably be the easiest fix.. but that's $100 that I have to take away from other mods like finally upgrading the leaf springs or switching to solid driveshaft. Suppose I could take it out of the "when the tranny grenades fund" ?

I found an easier fix... $5 night light in the 120 volt outlet in the back. Auto start stop disabled! Credit to some other threads on Ranger5G! Works like a charm

 

[BigIron]

Sub installed and power to the amps! Sounds AWESOME!!! I had a local shop do it and they did a great job. Aside from it sounding amazing, there's a couple quirks. Auto start stop never worked before, now it works every time. $5 night light fix for the solve, so no biggy there. And possibly a win for MPG. Chimes and beeps come through the dash rather than the speakers, my research shows this is quite common after amp install and can be corrected via forscan - Other than a couple of those things it's totally cohesive with the head unit, and with such an upgrade, a worthy trade. As for the sound and the quality, it's fantastic. @tcour definitely appreciate the ideas here. It's a great sounding system. I've had good sound in cars in the past, and in such a little cab/available space for the sub, I think this is as good as we can get in this truck!

 

[tcour]

Sub installed and power to the amps! Sounds AWESOME!!! I had a local shop do it and they did a great job. Aside from it sounding amazing, there's a couple quirks. Auto start stop never worked before, now it works every time. $5 night light fix for the solve, so no biggy there. And possibly a win for MPG. Chimes and beeps come through the dash rather than the speakers, my research shows this is quite common after amp install and can be corrected via forscan - Other than a couple of those things it's totally cohesive with the head unit, and with such an upgrade, a worthy trade. As for the sound and the quality, it's fantastic. @tcour definitely appreciate the ideas here. It's a great sounding system. I've had good sound in cars in the past, and in such a little cab/available space for the sub, I think this is as good as we can get in this truck!

I'm glad I was able to give some ideas and suggestions, your setup looks amazing! A much cleaner install than mine, I didn't even bother carpeting my own install lol. And I agree completely, I was very impressed and happy with the sound quality achieved in such a small cab. I was not expecting much in terms of quality or quantity but it really blew me away!

 

[kcollins]

Found some old photos, not the most detailed

tcour, I kept wondering why no one tried this until I saw your post. What diameter sub did you go with and did you have to recess it into the mdf for seat clearance? Thanks

 

[BigIron]

tcour, I kept wondering why no one tried this until I saw your post. What diameter sub did you go with and did you have to recess it into the mdf for seat clearance? Thanks

Butting in here - Recently did mine off of Tcour's design, and got up to a 10". As for the seat clearance, you'd need to offset it into the MDF in a perfect world. I have Katzkin covers on my seats so I was able to peel them back and bend some of the thin framing pieces away from the box to give it clearance, because yes, with contouring the tub for a lid, you'll run into clearance issues with .75" MDF.

 

[cfhgarza]

I got this box from AU. It's fine. I had shallow mount 10" kicker sub and this amp from my previous vehicle. It's not perfect and the sub barley fits in the box, it rubs on the inside. It's fine for a quick/cheap setup with stuff i already had laying around.

 

[tcour]

tcour, I kept wondering why no one tried this until I saw your post. What diameter sub did you go with and did you have to recess it into the mdf for seat clearance? Thanks

I'm really happy it's been helpful and others are getting inspired to do their own builds! It's a fun project and let's these Rangers thump!

I was given a free 8-inch Alpine Type S from a buddy, otherwise I would have gone with a 10 inch JL, and may upgrade to one sometime soon. That said, the little 8 gets down a lot better than I had anticipated.

Fitment was no problem I just toyed around with the exact location to make sure it wouldn't bottom out on anything hard. I did not recess the mount at all, it is mounted directly on top of 3/4 MDF. When I lift the seat up I can see a circular indentation in the loose fabric under the seat from the thick mounting ring, but even under full extension the sub itself does not protrude past that mounting ring so it doesn't affect the sub or the bass quality.

 

[BigIron]

I'm really happy it's been helpful and others are getting inspired to do their own builds! It's a fun project and let's these Rangers thump!

I was given a free 8-inch Alpine Type S from a buddy, otherwise I would have gone with a 10 inch JL, and may upgrade to one sometime soon. That said, the little 8 gets down a lot better than I had anticipated.

Fitment was no problem I just toyed around with the exact location to make sure it wouldn't bottom out on anything hard. I did not recess the mount at all, it is mounted directly on top of 3/4 MDF. When I lift the seat up I can see a circular indentation in the loose fabric under the seat from the thick mounting ring, but even under full extension the sub itself does not protrude past that mounting ring so it doesn't affect the sub or the bass quality.

I prob made my lid a bit too wide then, just barely rubbed a bit on the very edge front and back. LOL

 

[kcollins]

I'm really happy it's been helpful and others are getting inspired to do their own builds! It's a fun project and let's these Rangers thump!

I was given a free 8-inch Alpine Type S from a buddy, otherwise I would have gone with a 10 inch JL, and may upgrade to one sometime soon. That said, the little 8 gets down a lot better than I had anticipated.

Fitment was no problem I just toyed around with the exact location to make sure it wouldn't bottom out on anything hard. I did not recess the mount at all, it is mounted directly on top of 3/4 MDF. When I lift the seat up I can see a circular indentation in the loose fabric under the seat from the thick mounting ring, but even under full extension the sub itself does not protrude past that mounting ring so it doesn't affect the sub or the bass quality.

Okay, you have inspired me. It should be a fun project! Maybe I post pictures of it when I get to that point.

 

[tcour]

I prob made my lid a bit too wide then, just barely rubbed a bit on the very edge front and back. LOL

Might be right there, if you look at my original post showing my set up you can see all the uneven ugly sanding/contouring I did. Its been a minute, but if I remember correctly that was a lot of trying to get the fit just right.

Your install looks so much cleaner than mine ? well done! For mine I figured if anyone ever sees it they're likely actively stealing it so what do I care what it looks like lol.

 

[BigIron]

Might be right there, if you look at my original post showing my set up you can see all the uneven ugly sanding/contouring I did. Its been a minute, but if I remember correctly that was a lot of trying to get the fit just right.

Your install looks so much cleaner than mine ? well done! For mine I figured if anyone ever sees it they're likely actively stealing it so what do I care what it looks like lol.

Thank you! No kidding, probably means we shouldn't be driving around with the rear seat flipped and left up for the extra thump. LOL

 

[kcollins]

Okay, you have inspired me. It should be a fun project! Maybe I post pictures of it when I get to that point.

I've attached a photo of what it turned out like. Not nearly as nice as others have done but it works fine. I was pretty concerned about clearance between the subwoofer and bottom of the seat, so I constructed the sealed enclosure plate as a flush mount design so the subwoofer sets flush with the top of the wood. What do you think of it? My setup is 2021 Ford Ranger XL, Pioneer AVH-1330NEX head unit, Alpine S2-A60M mono amp wired parellel, and this Kicker 48CWRT104 subwoofer, stock front and rear speakers. I've been messing around with the amp LPF settings, right now it sounds decent with gain set to normal, and LPF set at 50hz. It gets plenty loud for me and had pretty good punch, but I struggle with the variations in songs I play through Apple Music. One song will sound great. Others may have too much bass. I guess the next step is a bass adjuster knob for the amp. Hopefully I will be happy after the bass knob, haha....

 

[BigIron]

I've attached a photo of what it turned out like. Not nearly as nice as others have done but it works fine. I was pretty concerned about clearance between the subwoofer and bottom of the seat, so I constructed the sealed enclosure plate as a flush mount design so the subwoofer sets flush with the top of the wood. What do you think of it? My setup is 2021 Ford Ranger XL, Pioneer AVH-1330NEX head unit, Alpine S2-A60M mono amp wired parellel, and this Kicker 48CWRT104 subwoofer, stock front and rear speakers. I've been messing around with the amp LPF settings, right now it sounds decent with gain set to normal, and LPF set at 50hz. It gets plenty loud for me and had pretty good punch, but I struggle with the variations in songs I play through Apple Music. One song will sound great. Others may have too much bass. I guess the next step is a bass adjuster knob for the amp. Hopefully I will be happy after the bass knob, haha....

This looks fantastic!! Nice job offsetting the sub into the box. Did you do all the wiring yourself? The sound settings on the head unit help a lot, adjusting treble, bass, mids to find the best sound for each song but I know what you're talking about, some songs sound great and some the bass is really minimal unless it's loud, I'd imagine because the midi notes were never intended to be "bass" notes in older songs, I find newer songs the bass is much bigger. Glad you're happy with it!

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