Sub woofer installation?

Question

I got a 05 f150 supercrew (4 doors) and i have 2, 12" subs that i want to install, myself. Basically I want to know how do I start this project.

Okay, 12inch MTX Thunder 4500, T4512-04, 4 ohms, singe voice coil. The specs say to make a box that is 13.5 inches deep and tall. I guess that what im really asking is that how the hell will the box fit in the truck????

Answer 1

The specs should have given you a VOLUME on the speaker enclosure, not Length, Width, Height. Volume is what you need.

Convert their dims to a volume, and then design your box. My enclosure is so flat, it is barely taller than my sub. But it fits under the back seat of my extended cab pickup just fine and works great. As long as it is the correct volume, it will work (it is simply a spring to limit the travel of your woofer, plus it accomplishes the air pressure change need for bass by "growing" and "shrinking" as the sub moves in and out).

Answer 2

There are so many variables and things to consider....

Start with your speaker placement. Where are you going to locate them? The problem with 12 inch subs is the size of the box needed to get the most performance out of them.

Next, find out what kind of enclosure your speakers are desinged to work with. There are free air subs, band-pass subs, ported enclosure subs, and one or two others. Mis-matching subs with enclosures will cause poor performance.

Generally speaking, band-pass enclosures require less space, but the speaker performance is limited to a narrow frequency band. On the plus side, these speakers don't require quite as much power as others.

Free-air speakers offer a lot of flexibility in enclosure design because you really don't even need an enclosure, just a solid piece of wood and something to bolt it to, but speaker performance is not all that good, and require a high wattage amp to work well.

Sealed enclosures tend to be fairly big boxes, but can sound good if tuned with the right speaker.

Ported enclosures offer the best performance for the right speaker, but the boxes can be fairly large (even bigger than the sealed).

Next, make sure your amp is rated higher than your speakers. If your speaker's rated watts are 20 - 200 watts, don't get a 150 watt amp. Your speaker will try to draw more amperage out of the amp than the amp can handle, the speakers will start to distort at lower volumes, and you can damage the amp. Try to go 50% over your speakers rated wattage when selecting an amp. It's called 'headroom'. So, if your speakers are rated at 20 - 200 watts, get an amp rated at 300 watts for each channel.

Lastly, and maybe most importantly, to get good sound from your system, you need some strong mid-range drivers as well, like 4 six- or eight- inchers with bass-blockers. Some four-inchers will also fill out the upper mids, and like tweeters, don't require very much wattage. Use a powerful 4-channel amp for your mids and a moderate 4-channel for your uppers and tweeters. Since you'll most likely use the door-mounted speakers, try pasting some sound deadener on the inside of the door skin, like Dynamat. Believe it or not, the door cavity acts like an enclosure, like on your subs, so the interior door panel really affects sound performance. The factories have come a long way in designing door panels, so you may be okay. But be wary of rattles and buzzing. Sticky foam tape (mounting tape) can help dampen the vibrations.

Well, like I said, there are a lot of things to think about. Good luck!!

Answer 3

You should start by mapping out the spaces where you pan to install your subs (and hopefully your amp?) and figure how to run the appropriate wires (Power, ground, and remote) as well as how to hide them. Next, measure the spaces where your sub box will go and make sure that you have enough space.

Answer 4

First off what kind of subs are they? You need to find out how much air space each subwoofer needs. How many ohms are they are they dual ohms? How much wattage does each subwoofer take(check the rms wattage). We need more info than what you provided

Answer 5

http://spkrbox1.spaces.live.com