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Subwoofer Box Problem Solved.

J

Jeff D

Full Member
Joined
Nov 14, 2003
Messages
10
Location
Olive Branch, MS
New member here.

I just completed my speaker box installation on my 2003 Av. I have read almost all of the posts on the topic of adding subs, and all of the existing solutions I have seen either force you to remove the box to use the midgate or they remove the midgate completely. I wanted a box that could stay in the truck with the seats up or down, and did not limit the function of the midgate. Now I have one.

I made two boxes each housing a single 8" sub. One box goes under each rear seat, and the amp mounts in the middle. The boxes do not have to be removed to operate the midgate and the midgate still folds flat like it should! The only drawback is that speaker selection is VERY limited. Actually, I only found one that would fit, and that had small enough airspace requirements. There may be more out there, but I couldn't find them.

This setup sounds very good, and has plenty of bass. Now I can actually hear ALL of the music.

Check out my site for more pictures.

Here is one with the the seats up.

Let me know what you all think.
 
i have to say i think that is the most functional setup i have seen yet. does not hinder any of the AV functions in any way. my only question is how do the 8's sound. i like deep bass. a sound that my current set-up is kinda lacking. i had a 8" Bazooka tube awhile back. it sound pretty good for a small speaker. btw, what are the measurements of the box? what are the dimensions inside in cubic inches?
i would like to add i thought the install looked very neat as well.
 
Jeff D,
First off, Welcome to the Family ;D
Next I would like to say.........You did great! (y)
I really like the look of your boxes and the install was professional. Wires all tucked as they should be and correct gauges used. Good Job!
Now..........would you be so kind as to give us a detailed illustration or diagram of what we would need to do to duplicate your efforts? >:D
You knew that was comming ;D
You have alot of inquireing minds here, and we need to know :love:

:B:Les :B:

Oh Yea, how do you keep your workbench so darn neat! It almost looks as if you staged the photo shoot >:D
 
What subs did you find to fit...mounting depth? Any interest in making a few of these for members? Looks great! Nice job...I feel some karma coming your way (y)
 
I have to agree with everyone else; you did a great job on these sub boxes and the wiring job looks great too. Do you have the dimensions?
 
thats really an awesome set up from the stand point of functionality. But to the guy who asked about deep bass, its probalby not going to be the deepest, I'm not saying that its not good for two 8's in tiny boxes, but its probably not what your looking for.
 
The Dude said:
thats really an awesome set up from the stand point of functionality. But to the guy who asked about deep bass, its probalby not going to be the deepest, I'm not saying that its not good for two 8's in tiny boxes, but its probably not what your looking for.
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i don't want ground-pounding bass that is heard blocks away. but i do want the deepest, clearest, and cleanest bass that an eight can offer. i also want all this without losing the complete functionality that the AV offers.
i think the 10" coustic sub i have under my rear seat is being smothered by the enclosure it's in now. i need an enclosure a little larger for it. but, will i be able to use the midgate with this larger 10" enclousre? probably not. i did have to do a "small" mod to get my seat to latch. however i can't fold the seat flat to operate the midgate the wat it was intended.
where is this guy? he needs to see that we love his creation.

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i think this is very nice. i want to replicate this setup. i do know of a local member who has 8's in his truck. i think i will give him a call to see just how they sound.
 

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WOW! What a response. Thanks guys for the warm welcome.

I hate to disapoint everyone, but I can not give the dimensions or design away :(. I invested way too much time and effort engineering these things. However, I would be open to selling them. They take a while to build since almost every piece is cut at an angle, and they would not be cheap. I'll have to calculate the time/material cost and see what I could sell them for.

To answer some of the questions above:

Bass is not earth shattering, but you can definately hear even the lowest notes. Bass is clean and accurate. Stuff that was inaudible before now rumbles pretty good. I get a some vibration in my rear view mirror. My last truck had two 15's in it. It was definitely earth shattering, but these 8's are very satisfying even for a reformed bass-head like me.

I have the Bose premium stereo with factory subwoofer and 6 disc in-dash changer. I left the entire system unchanged. I tapped into the wires coming out of the factory amp that feed the factory sub. I routed this to the speaker level inputs on my MTX amp.

Here are the specs I can give:

Subs: Fosgate Punch Z, 8", 4 ohm
Box Volume: .2 cubic ft (optimum for sub is .3, range is .1 to .5)
Box Type: Sealed
Amp: MTX Thunder 311D, Mono sub amp

Mounting depth depends on the magnet diameter since speaker is angled. Before I selected my sub, I got technical drawings from manufacturers showing exact dinemsions of magnet and basket. When that was not available, I would find a shop that carried a particular brand and go measure it myself. Most were eliminated early simply because of airspace requirements.

As I said before, I put many hours of R&D into this project. It has been ongoing for about 2 months now. Now I can relax and enjoy that sweet BASS!

carriles: My work bench does not stay clean like that trust me. I had to put all of my junk on the floor to take the pic.

smigdiggler: Holy Grail....come on. They are just speakers man.
 
I can not blame you for wanting to keep some information to yourself, you have been more than generous with the information you have shared. I thought my 03 Bose sounded good until I saw your post. congrats on a job very well done. What type of work do you do in the real world?
 
Jeff D said:
WOW! What a response. Thanks guys for the warm welcome.

I hate to disapoint everyone, but I can not give the dimensions or design away :(. I invested way too much time and effort engineering these things. However, I would be open to selling them. They take a while to build since almost every piece is cut at an angle, and they would not be cheap. I'll have to calculate the time/material cost and see what I could sell them for.

To answer some of the questions above:

Bass is not earth shattering, but you can definately hear even the lowest notes. Bass is clean and accurate. Stuff that was inaudible before now rumbles pretty good. I get a some vibration in my rear view mirror. My last truck had two 15's in it. It was definitely earth shattering, but these 8's are very satisfying even for a reformed bass-head like me.

I have the Bose premium stereo with factory subwoofer and 6 disc in-dash changer. I left the entire system unchanged. I tapped into the wires coming out of the factory amp that feed the factory sub. I routed this to the speaker level inputs on my MTX amp.

Here are the specs I can give:

Subs: Fosgate Punch Z, 8", 4 ohm
Box Volume: .2 cubic ft (optimum for sub is .3, range is .1 to .5)
Box Type: Sealed
Amp: MTX Thunder 311D, Mono sub amp

Mounting depth depends on the magnet diameter since speaker is angled. Before I selected my sub, I got technical drawings from manufacturers showing exact dinemsions of magnet and basket. When that was not available, I would find a shop that carried a particular brand and go measure it myself. Most were eliminated early simply because of airspace requirements.

As I said before, I put many hours of R&D into this project. It has been ongoing for about 2 months now. Now I can relax and enjoy that sweet BASS!

carriles: My work bench does not stay clean like that trust me. I had to put all of my junk on the floor to take the pic.

smigdiggler: Holy Grail....come on. They are just speakers man.
Click to expand...


:6: :E:
 
I tackled this problem immediately after buying my Av in Nov 01. My goal was to get two subs and two amps under the rear seat without impairing the function of the folding seat. I built two seperate boxes with 8" subs. I found that by firing down there was better bass. The 2 subs, 2 amps, and a Kenwood Music Keg MP3 player all fit smoothly under the seat and the seat works perfectly. Here are a couple of pics.
http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p=999&gid=3152569&uid=1573275
 
Just curious here.........If your boxes are .2Ft3 each, and you then account for the speaker's displacement, you'd be left with .1 Ft3, a nice midbass box. What is your -3dB point for the sub/enclosure system?
 
I thought I remembered some else building this box before, it was dstory90............and they gave you all specs as well!! His thread is ->here<-
All of the drawings for each side and dimensions of panels can be found in that post.
Where here are the plans, they are very rough but you can get the idea.

Here is some additional information on the box I thought about:

-Speaker grill will be pushed in a little from the seat latch, doesn't touch speaker even at full woofer excursion.
-Don't put carpet on bottom or back of box (need all space available)
-This is a 2002 Avalanche, the 2003 might be different
-Cut out the carpet padding under the carpet where the box is placed, gives an extra eighth of an inch
-Cannot use screws on most seams, use Heavy Duty Construction Grade Adhesive by Liquid nails, comes in a caulk tube and is available at Home Depot. Let glue cure a few days before putting the speaker in.
-1/4" closed cell weatherstripping for gasket around speaker works great.
-Approximate length of 4" PVC tube is 10", I could be wrong it was over a month ago when I built it.
-Use just the end piece of box to line up with assembled pipe and mark it, that's how I did it.
-When shaping plastic midgate cover, take off and heat back of it with heat gun, If you heat the front it will screw up texture and color will distort.
-When taking off midgate cover, the clips for the "turning window holding thingies" will get bent out of shape, go to O'Rielly's and get window crank clips, they work just fine.
-I didn't use caulk when sealing box, I used so much Liquid nails adhesive I didn't have to.
-The side pieces go on the end of the box, ie... not inside of it. Hard to explain. See rough sketch for idea.
-Do not get a speaker with a huge magnet, it will not work!! The JL Audio 8" 8W0 just barely fits because of the angle and the shape of the magnet. If in doubt and don't want a JL Audio, go with a cheaper woofer that has less than 4" mounting depth.
-None of the drawings are to scale or even proportionally right. Except for the Side Profile, it should be 1:1 scale. If you print it out at 100% it should be actual size. You'll probably have to print it out on Legal size paper 8 1/2" by 14". Check the measurements with the one's from the other pages with a ruler on the side profile to be sure.
Click to expand...

IMG_001.JPG


IMG_002.JPG


IMG_003.JPG


Side_Profile.jpg


img]
 
DS said:
I thought I remembered some else building this box before, it was dstory90............and they gave you all specs as well!! His thread is ->here<-
All of the drawings for each side and dimensions of panels can be found in that post.


IMG_001.JPG


IMG_002.JPG


IMG_003.JPG


Side_Profile.jpg


http://www.chevyavalanchefanclub.com/attachments/Side_A.jpg/img]




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this enclosure has less displacement than the one we have been talking about. i guess with all the other info you can fabricate that part on your own, huh?
Click to expand...
 
That sure is a cute little bugger! What da heck ya use it fer--a doorstop? Just kidding and no offense intended as Iam sure someone spent many hours working on this and it is a good solution for a tiny amount of base as .2 cubic feet is a tad on the small side. If you eolongated the side arm part you might get a little more room and it would sound a great deal better. Just my .01 :)
 
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