bigbluejk

I had linked to this before but of course it was deleted because it was in a "competing forum" or some B.S. Anyway I thought I would paste it in here and maybe it could help a couple people. I promise I did not see Rockford Fosgate, Kicker, Pioneer, or Crossfire as a blacklisted company so if any of these are then please PM me and I will edit that brand out of the post that way the whole post isn't deleted or whatever. thank you.

I posted this on another forum, and a lot of people seemed to be interested in it. So I thought I would just copy/paste it here. Some of you prolly have seen it:

This is my first write up, so I apologize if it sucks. I have been looking for the right subwoofer solution for me for a while. It seems like to get good sound you have to give up your cargo space. Well I refuse to compromise. I wanted to have cargo room, and still have the locking storage usable in the back. My jeep is a 2 door, but it should work on a unlim. too.

OK enough jibba-jabba. I bought a P3L-S12 by Rockford Fosgate at my local Best Buy. It is a loaded slim box with a 12" P3 woofer. This thing rocked loud wide open in the store and is less than 6" thick. I got the idea from a stealth pod to mount it to the tail gate. I am sure that another downfire setup would rock harder but I promise this smokes the factory sub, and the basslink etc. There isn't much to explain, so I will show you what I did.

I got some L-shape brackets from Lowe's and some body screws and attached them to the gate with foam behind them.

(they are level and straight. the angle is an illusion)

then I bolted the sub to them and attached the side brackets that came with the sub. ( i made some spacers out of plastic to fit better)


thats it. pretty easy. I had a hard time drilling the tail gate but I am so glad I did it looks and sounds great.

here you can see it installed:

the carpet isn't as dark as it looks in the pics

here are some day shots:








here it is before I plugged it in. notice that it clears the latch on the floor:

bigbluejk

Here are the finished locations of the amp and wiring:

I cut a piece of wood,carpeted it, and bent up some brackets so I could put the amp under the seat without it being on the floor. You can pull out all the carpet without removing any audio stuff. the amp is a 2 or 3 inches from the floor.


For the speaker wire I didn't want to have to plug something in every time I shut the door. I also didn't want to see wire everywhere. So I undid the zip ties that hold that nylon sleeve that the 3rd brake wires and stuff go through to the tailgate and ran the speaker wire through there. I don't know what you call that sleeve. I reclosed the factory zip tie retainers and this is what I got:


There was no way to hide all the wire, the place on the box that you plug it in is real visible. I took some of that plastic wire loom stuff,some zip ties, banana plugs and a little shrink wrap and came up with this:


I hope that all makes sense, If you have any questions or want photos of anything in particular let me know. Any comments/suggestions greatly welcomed.

bigbluejk

The soundbar speakers blow a donkey d**k so I put these in:

The speaker looks purple, but it isn't. Model is RS62. The dash is soon getting the component set by crossfire called X6. they require an adapter to mount them in that 3 prong chrysler opening. You can get them at the local audio hut, or best buy.


I had this old pioneer CD player in the closet but since it has HPF and Subwoofer controls along with decent EQ and other sound processing I swapped it in. It looks cheesy with the animation and stuff, but this old deck sounds awesome.


My friend Frank sent me a 6 disk factory DVD changer (he is f#$%ing awesome) so I am taking the pioneer out. If anyone wants a great older deck for cheap make me an offer. It has the factory remote and detatch. face case too.

Black Ruby

Looks good!
I hope you get enough air flow through the tail gate vent you left uncovered. It should be ok because the vent out the back is not too large. I would hate to see any problems to your hardtop like lifting or cracking around the bolts.

bigbluejk

I will def. consider that when I get a Hard top. The box only has maybe 3/8" from the gate.

DKJeep17

Man someone finally came up with an AWESOME idea! How is the extra weight on the door... any problems with the door pulling down at all? and what did you use for the side brackets?

Great job!

Brad2893

Nice setup! I like how the box keeps the storage cubby sealed when the tailgate is closed (security) but leaves it accessible when the gate is opened.

strike2dr

Why go to all this trouble when you could have just put this nice slim box behind the rear seat? Now with the sub mounted to the tail gate you run into a few issues. One: Anything you put in the trunk area is going to roll around and hit/ puncture your new sub. 2: all the vibrations made by the sub are now sent right through the tail gate... that thing must rattle like crazy!

I have a 10inch kicker cvx in there specially made truck box sitting right behind the rear seat on my 2 dr... nice thing about that is i can easily take it out when i need to ahul some thing and the sub is protected by the seat... also putting it right behind the seat ( i leave about 2 inches between seat and sub) creates some outside pressure on the sub creating better sound.

nice idea but I think you made it a lil too difficult lol

bigbluejk

Thanks man, I was really worried about extra weight on the door but this thing this loaded enclosure weighs almost 30 lbs i think. It is only 1/2" mdf so that cuts down on the weight. it is so close to the door that it doesn't have leverage like the extra weight of a larger spare tire would, IMO. I am planning to buy a swing away tire carrier when I can. The box weighs significantly less than the factory mounting plate and spare, so I will be in good shape I think. We will see. As of now, no issues after 4 months.

I was worried about rattles and after the install it did rattle where that little plastic tailgate vent is. I bought two packs of dynomat and I lined the inside of the gate as much as I could reach through that opening, and the vent itself. Now it has no rattles. I used some of the dynomat in my soundbar also. Those speakers made it buzz sometimes if you gave them any bass at all. dynomat fixed this.

On the sides of the box are the brackets that come with the enclosure. I had some plastic laying around that I made a spacer out of, put foam and dynomat on it. no rattles.

I was going to put the box up next to the seat but this posed a different set of problems: 1. You can see it from the back. It is real hard to see this one because it is so close to the gate, and when the top is down it is covered. 2. I really like to use the cubby hole under the box. I would have had to make some type of legs or something to lift the box up to clear the cubby door. 3. I go camping and take the seat out when I go to put gear in. With the box behind the seat I would have had to put make some quick release brackets or something to get it out when I put gear in. Then your music sounds like ass the whole way to the camping spot. which defeats the purpose.
I only lost about 5 1/4" of cargo space at its deepest spot 3 1/4 at the top. I am willing to give that room up, and I get full width in the back where my nice folding cot fits well.

I have a grill coming for the speaker since it didnt come with one, and the grills at your local audio-hut wont fit unless it is for a p3.

Strike I would like to see your install. sounds like a nice solution. It isn't a solution that would work for me but it is a nice one it seems. This def. is not a solution for everyone, and it is much more work than just throwing a sub in the back and calling it a day. I love the fact it never has to come out.

DKJeep17

Thats so awesome man - with your HU, did you have to put in an adapter? I have a stock HU right now, but want to add a sub and plan to do what you have, so I didnt know if the HU will need an adapter to do so