Amp Rack That Extends From Console to to Back Seat

December 15, 2021 Post a Comment

well after a lot of thinking as much as i hate doing fiberglass the only way i can see to get 1 cu ft of airspace in the back seat of an access cab and cover up the holes left by the factory amp i came up with this enclosure. it looks a lot like the subx enclosures but is very different in many ways.
first of all after 20 years in the car audio industry and hundreds of sub enclosures later i just don't take the easy way out of anything! sealed enclosures are for ammatures! so i never build them anymore.. unless it's ported and tuned for the vehicle and the music that will be played on it i won't waste any of my time building it.

besides i can get easily the bass of a pair of 12's out of a single 10 if its designed correctly. so here is what i have so far. this is a custom made sub enclosure that will hold a Alpine PDX-5 amp in the top section. as you can see the subwoofer will be fireing into the back and floor of the cab. this is optimal because it totally eliminates phase cancellation. this is because the sound waves have to travel the entire length of the passenger compartment before folding back on itself at the dash.

any time you locate a sub forward of this position you will have a dead spot especially near the origination source. with this design its eliminated.
additionally you can't see the ports but on the pic of the underside there are going to be 2 2" ports that also fire into the same location as the sub. i had to use 2 smaller ports rather than a larger 3 inch because of limited space on the driver board.

in addition to this box when finished i plan to dynamat the entire rear wall of the cab behind the seats, i hear most of the road noise from back there and also plan to dynamat both inner and outer skin of the rear doors and front doors.
the alpine amp is a 5 channel unit that will fit perfectly in the top of my amp rack its about 8 inches tall, 10.5 inches wide and 2 inches thick it has 75x4 and 300 x 1 watts output its the only amp small enough to fit in this location. it also generates almost no heat so i dont need to worry about ventellation. also an added bonus is it has a blue light that will be approximatly in the same location as the stock sub had.

i also plan to make my own custom rear door speaker grills to accent the stock interior color. more on that later.
in the mean time here are some pics as to the progress i have made so far.
as for the sub i have my own subwoofers i had designed years ago when i invented a sub enclosure called a Power Mouse. these subs are rated for 650 watts RMS they have 3" diameter coils and 18 lb magnet's they have a 2" peak to peak cone travel and the tensil leads are woven into the spiders so they dont slap the cone, they have dual spiders and rubber surrounds. they are optimally configured for ported enclosures.
ok here are the final pics before it goes to be upholstered tomorrow
the square hole in the back is fo rthe alpine PDX-5 amp that runs the entire system.
miked1983 New Member

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TRD Supercharger, TRD 7th Injector kit, Walbro 190 Fuel Pump, TRD Boost Gauge, Lifted 2.5", Front Diff Spacers, Long-Travel Rear Bilstein Shocks, Longer SS Braided Rear Brake Line, Kenwood and Infinity Speakers, Pioneer Head Unit, Custom Sub Box, Optima Red Top,

Dude- U don't mess around!! That box looks awesome, and I bet it will sound even better. Keep us posted with the progress!
Great work!
-Mike D.
ok i got it covered now, just need to install it. i have to wait for the dynamat to come in before i can install in the truck. pics soon to follow
PatHLC128 College.

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subscribed...cant wait to see the finished product. i wish i had the know how to do this, i hate the stock sub in my 09.
higherlux Well-Known Member

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wait till i get the amp installed and the box in the truck!
Could ya post a pic of the stock sub.? Trying to figure out where the hell that would even be........
Kicker_Of_Elves If it bleeds we can kill it

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Looking good man, can't wait to see the finished look.
miked1983 New Member

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TRD Supercharger, TRD 7th Injector kit, Walbro 190 Fuel Pump, TRD Boost Gauge, Lifted 2.5", Front Diff Spacers, Long-Travel Rear Bilstein Shocks, Longer SS Braided Rear Brake Line, Kenwood and Infinity Speakers, Pioneer Head Unit, Custom Sub Box, Optima Red Top,

Is that vinal and suede?? You could easily put that in a $200,000 Bently and it would look like it came from the factory. I love the stiching!
ok, i couldnt stand it anymore so i went home and installed it in the truck. ill just have to pull the box out again to dynamat behind the plastic panel and run the wires behind the panel.
also somthing i was hoping for but did not plan, the screws that held the stock subwoofer to the wall will line up perfectly to bold the box to the back wall, no drilling required!
the box sounds AWESOME! i tuned to 38 hz and the f3 roll off is about 27 hz so this box plays all the way down to 27 hz CLEAN! it shakes the whole cab! it looks great sounds great and if you didnt know alpine amps werent factory equipment you would not know this box didnt come with the truck. the vinal was a dead on match and with the black floor mats perfect compliment to the stock interior.
Mike D yes it is suede in the center

and for thoes who dont know THIS IS NOT A SUBX ENCLOSURE!! this is my own fiberglass custom tuned for a taco and hand fabricated PORTED enclosure. a sealed box similar sized would only play to about 55 hz on a good day! i get about 2x the output in a ported box and the bass of a 15 as for how low it plays.

Hey Mike D how about you share your impression of ported boxes? tell the guys what you got going on..
miked1983 New Member

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TRD Supercharger, TRD 7th Injector kit, Walbro 190 Fuel Pump, TRD Boost Gauge, Lifted 2.5", Front Diff Spacers, Long-Travel Rear Bilstein Shocks, Longer SS Braided Rear Brake Line, Kenwood and Infinity Speakers, Pioneer Head Unit, Custom Sub Box, Optima Red Top,

I can personally vouch for Kevin's work, as he tuned and designed a ported box to be mounted under the rear seat of my new GMC Sierra Crew Cab. He suggested I use (4) 6.5" JL Subs, fire the subs and the ports into the floor, and amp them with a JL 500/1 V2 Monoblock sub amp.
He sent me the plans over email and I fabricated the box out of 3/4" MDF and used 3" PVC pipe and elbows to make 2 ports.

I never would have thought (4) 6.5" subs could hit this hard. It doesn't matter what kind of music I listed to, from Madonna to Metallica; IT ALL SOUNDS AWESOME!! The kick drums literally kick you in the ass and the bass guitars will hit any note you give it. He tuned the Fb to 38 Hz and the F3 is 22.15 Hz. It hits hard, low, and loud!

Everyone who rides in my truck, is either super impressed or super jealous.

There's no doubt, this guy knows his stuff! Thanks again Kevin!
nad mmmm tacos!

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Would someone be able to send me some dimensions to make a ten inch down firing box for my 05 access cab?? that would be fucking awesome as it will cost an arm and a leg to buy a custom box
ItalynStylion Sounds Gooooood

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I did the same in my IS300 except with 4 Tang Band 6.5" subs. No one could believe it.
Kevin, is that a MagV3? My friend has one in his Accord and it's beautiful.
cotruckin Well-Known Member

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Great work, that looks super clean!! I wish the seats were split like that in the 60, seems to make for a much cleaner install and still have access to the storage compartment.
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hey, great box, looks like it came with the car. I would love to hear that thing. I just picked up a '09 Access Cab and looking at doing an audio install. I have never worked with fiberglass, but am now thinking i might give it a try
magv3? whats that? you mean the sub? thats my own sub. i used to build my own patented sub boxed and i had custom made subwoofers built to my spec. that 10 is a 650 watt RMS sub dual spider. my companay was RMS caraudio (rocky mountain subwoofer) you wont find this sub anywhere i have the last remaining 10 known to exist in my basement unless i opt to have more built
ItalynStylion Sounds Gooooood

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Oh cool. Looks like they are based on the same motor/basket design.
from the looks of that sub i can say that whoever makes this sub doesnt actually make it, it was made in the same location as mine at TC sounds in sandiego california by a man named Thilo Stompler he is the GOD when it comes to subwoofer design he hold world records and has patents on his designs that nobody has!
check it out at www.tcsounds.com he doesnt build for oem anymore i dont think. he used to make eclipse, lightning audio and quite a few others about 6 years ago but now just makes his own. if you want a subwoofer, a real subwoofer somthing that can out perform 2 subs with only one, dont waste your money with JL, MTX, rockford or any of the wussy subs made by these companies.
go to TC sounds and get a real sub, some of his designs have a 4" peak to peak cone travel.
grab a ruler and hold it next to your sub and imagine the cone extending 2 inches rearwards and 2 inches forwards from rest and ask yourself if you think that would make a ton of bass or not. also with his linear drive coil imagine a sub that has zero distortion at these levels.
ive seen one like i describe playing a 20 hz tone in free air on a bench and despite the sub having a 30 lb magnet, the whole thing jumping off the bench!

here is a teaser to get the juices flowin,
ItalynStylion Sounds Gooooood

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Oh well what do you know. TC sounds is back. I know they filed for bankruptcy a year or so ago. I had no idea they were back. I thought those Audiopulse subs in the partsexpress catalog looked familiar. I agree they make pretty good stuff. Their basket technology is really where it's at. Dan Wiggens XBL^2 technology is something that will change the industry though.

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