So….can I have a decent stereo and room for my clubs at the same time?

Gearbanger 101

Straight Outta Locash
Dirt-Old 20+Year Member
Aug 10, 2002
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Ontario, Canada
I saw a picture of Stangbears hatch in another post and although I think it’s a primo set up, it leaves me with a bit of a problem?!?
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Here’s the deal. I built up myself a decent sounding system a couple of years ago, which I’m pretty satisfied with. The problem area resides under my hatch. I’ve got two 10-inch sub woofers, 2 fairly decent sized amps and a big old box in there (not this pic, this is Stangbears), as well as my battery relocated to the trunk. The problem is that I’ve recently over the last couple of year have taken up golf and am getting sick of having to stuff my clubs into the back seat! I know there’s not a lot I can do about the battery, but have any of you successfully mounted your speakers in the spare tire carrier? How does it sound? Is there still enough air space for the sub woofer? Did you have to get rid of your spare/jack to do it? :shrug:

Post your pics if you got em…..
 
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It really depends on what subs you're using and what sort of sound you want out of it etc. For example, some subs will need a larger enclosure than others, so if you have those subs it will be harder to achieve your goal etc etc. Shouldn't be too hard for you to do though even if you do have subs which require a lotof space. You could always set it up like the pic above yet mount your amplifiers onto the rear of the box. A lot of poeple will tell you this will rattle the amps to pieces etc but i've seen it done plenty of times with no side effects. I do, however, think its a good idea to mount them with a layer of foam between them and the box. Or you could do yours like his, thenn mount the amplifiers in the tire well (fiberglass it or something then mount them, however its easier) then create a false floor over them and put the clubs on top. Just be careful to leave a passage for air flow or mount some fans. I believe doing either of those will leave room for clubs in the back. Good luck.
-E
 
there is a black GT with gold racing stripes and a juiced out interior on cardomain, i dont remeber what year it is but it has a polk momo 12" in the spare tire well. it looks pretty sweet, but if it were me i wouldnt even waste my time. you will not be happy w/ the sound cause it will not be loud at all. firing subs upward is not the right thing to do, you lose a crap load of bass. one of my friends had a kicker L5 15" in his truck facing up and it was loud but we built a new box and made it face toward the drivers seat and it was almost twice as loud as it was facing up. now we are building a box for 2, 15's with them downfiring (loudest and most bass you can get) but you have to be careful and get it atleast 3-4 inches off the floor or it will just drown out the bass. its all in reflecting the sound, the more reflections you get the louder it will be. i know im not an expert on this and dont know how everything works but i do know what is loud and what i will suck a root.
 
Heh! Didn't expect to see a pic of my car in here! Kinda embarrassing, my finish work sucked... total rush job. In retaliation to the "don't fire them strait up" comment, that is case specific and depends on the design of the subs, the style of enclosure, and how they are run. My system was laid out with help from Alpine themselves as to the cubic dimensions of my interior and what would be the best placement for my 12" R's based one right or wrong way for any given car, there are dozens of variables that determine what is right and what isn't.
Now, for gearbanger- how much do you want your back seat? I've built several trophy winning SPL competition systems, and a few SQ's- and found that it's all about what you're going to be happy with. Somewhere, there will have to be a compromise one way or the other. We did one where we pulled the back bench seat, and installed a bucket seat right in the middle of the backseat location and put a sub on each side of it. Can't have more than one person ride in back, but you've got most of your trunk. I could have done many things different to retain some trunk space: stacked my amps, or run them across the back, or down the sides, etc... and left plenty of room for a set of clubs even with my two big twelves right where they are. My amps were too big to mount on the sub boxes, but with todays technology in the amps vibration isn't much of a problem anymore. What is is heat- you don't want them mounted flat on anything if you can help it, and foam is no exception. Is your battery in the back? That makes a big difference for space too. I just didn't really care about losing my entire trunk, so that's how I laid it out. Just how good of sound will you be happy with? Just my mids and highs were well over $1000, and I'm not happy with them. Some friends of mine own a car audio store, we've spent hours tweeking it and I'm just not satisfied. The bass on the other hand, will blow my hatch open on command, any time, every time. I can hang an air freshener from my rearview mirror and the air the subs move will blow it right off. In my opinion, it was a huge overkill- I wish I had gone way less diesel on the bass, kept more use of my trunk, and spent more on my high end. Just me. You don't need a trunk like mine to have killer bass- but the other option is expensive. If you spend the big bucks on one well chosen 10" sub, a custom box and the appropriate amp, and run it right, it will blow your mind. I helped build one system that only had one 10" sub. It hit 147db at the port, 132 at the windshield. We won an outlaw soundoff with it against cars and suv's that had 2, 3, 5, and even 8 subs- ranging all the way up to multiple 15's. Now, That one little sub was over $500, and it's amp was about $900- that was back in '99. My subs were $200 a peice, and my amps together added up to around $1300. I have this huge system, but that one little 10" was way louder, and sounded better, and in the end cost less. It isn't how much you have or even how much you spend, it's how you set it up and what you want to do with it. If you want a competition quality system, get ready to pay. If all you're after is a good, clean, loud system that will thump you in the back, you can do it with one good quality 10"-12" sub in a good box, for a reasonable price. Having the right amp for the job, the right box for the sub, the right bridging on the amp and the sub. Bass is really a very minor component to a great sounding stereo- it's the highs that make it sound like crap or like a million bucks. It's all in knowing what you really want from it, how you look at what you're buying, and how crazy you are.
 
I run a single 12" sub in a 1.5 cu. ft. sealed box in the back. There is room in front of the sub, and the amp can be mounted to the side of the box depending on its size. I would say there is enough room to lay a set of golf clubs back there. It takes up half the trunk and if I fold a seat down I can fit 2 basses (in soft cases) across the back, and a 350watt/2-10" combo bass amp next to it all. For some reason the way its set up, or the way the sub is pointing, the bass really hurts your ears, so get a recommendation from a pro on which way to face the sub.
 
Go to:

http://www.partsexpress.com

Their house brand (Dayton Loudspeaker) has several quality woofers that fit in small boxes and give you high SPL's.

I would look at their Quadro 12" ($75), DVC 12" ($120) and Titanic Mk3 ($160). All of those are quality drivers that will work well in sealed boxes of 3/4-1 1/2 ft^3. If you have big enough amps, I think the DVC and Titanic will easily hit 115dB, the quatro might be a little less. That is very loud. Actually that is disturbing the peace loud.

Just avoid the temptation to vent your speakers. Venting will give you a few more dB, but your frequency response and sound quality can very easily go down the drain.

Sealed is simple and almost fool proof. Also, all cars will reinforce sounds below a certain frequency, this is called cabin gain. If you know that frequency (it's always in the neighborhood of 50hz), you can select your speakers and design your boxes so that the natural low frequency roll off of your sealed box will be negated by the cabin gain. The result is flat frequency response down in to the 10-20 hz range.

So look for a sealed box design that will roll off around 50 hz and you can't go wrong.

Take it from me, the Daytons are a really good deal, they just give you more performance and less bling than the standard overpriced car stereo shop junk.

They also offer Quadro kits with assembled boxes. They seem like a good deal and they are made with 1" MDF boxes. Part #260-581 would probably be a good choice for you.
 
Michael Yount said:
Just drop the drivetrain of your car in an old Volvo -- plenty of room in the trunk for mega audio equipment and golf clubs. :)
Good old Mike….trying to convert me to a grocery getter.

Maybe I should have elaborated a little. I’m already pretty satisfied with my current set up as far as sound quality. I mean, it’s not top of the line, but it’s a far cry better than factory. It’s an old Kenwood system….couldn’t tell you the model? CD player, 6”mid, 2”tweeter, 10-subs. And two old Kenwood Amps. I’m not concerned about having the badest system on the block. What I’m more concerned with is preserving what space I have and keeping the weight down. Hence my want to do away with a speaker box all together.

I appreciate the ton of advice that’s been given…mostly (thanks anyway Mike;)), but it’s all pretty much overkill and to tell you the truth, for the most part, technically over my head. :D I was mainly just wondering if anyone had success mounting 2-10”(or 12”) woofers in their spare tire carrier and how it was designed.
 
you got it michael, to be technical, i would recommend the mtx tri-sub enclosure for it to fit perfectly inbetween the towers in the rear, also wedged, so the speakers aim right at the back window, making the bass bounce off for much lounder sound, all in a package for over 200 bucks i forget how much it was. but it first perfectly i wish i had a camera... better yet, i'll get a crappy quality picture for you in a few minutes...
 
let this be a testamony of how crappy my camera is, its a credit card camera, only one of the 3 that are working, hope this gives you an idea... both amps are underneight my rear seat, being cooled by muliple cooling fans. that is my battery in the trunk, not there on purpose, i have my engine out... i have more than half the trunk left. :rlaugh: and the last picture is of my engine bay i just painted and it doesnt do it justice at all. lol
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I built a sub box for my car in the spare tire well, it fits two 10" mtx 8000 series subs, they are relatively tall, but i only had to raise the floor about 3-4 inches and they have enough air space. The amp is mounted to the top of the box, I had mine set up like the picture above but the capet was wear out the surround on the subs and I didn't think the amp was getting sufficient cooling. Its kind of hard to understand without seeing it I will post pictures tomorrow.
 
ever concider 12 volt computer fans? secondly, i would like to say for all you spare tire compartment sub guys that i have an excelent idea, where your carpet covers up your sub, cut the section of it out that is either just above the sub, or in bowtiekillers instance, just above the half moon shape (the carpet), and replace that hole with clear plexiglass. now that would look cool :shrug: :nice:
 
I actually removed the rear carpet from the car and set it out in the sun so it would heat up the glue that was used to adhere the insulation to the carpet and i ripped it all out. then where the sub is i have some soft grill cloth over top of it so it doesn't rub the rubber surround.. 3 years and it still all looks like new.
 
BOWTIEKILLER said:
Why thanks for noticing
btw it is a 10,, a 12 was too tall but it sounds awesome
Hell yeah man i remeber the first time i saw that i about ****em but i always wondered how that sounded. I never figured it would be worth it to spend all the time fabbin and it not turn out worth a shat. That same kid that i said earlier is doin the 2, 15's had built a stealth enclosure for a polk momo 8" a few months ago, it looked good, but it had no bass at all. And ever since then i havnt been sold on em.

We just got done building my box and breakin in my new Kicker L5 12" (the square one) and omg it is insane. I still only have 8 gauge wire goin to the amp and jerry rig of a ground and my lights almost shut off when the bass hits. I love it, im gonna go deaf and this is only one with 600 watts. My friend is doin 2, 15" L5's w/ an Alpine M1000, w/ the subs downfiring. I am gonna die when we finally get it done.

I wish i had some pics to post up for you guys but i dont have a digital and i say f. that for taking old fashioned real ones and gettin em developed.

OH yeah and stangbear427 I didnt mean to diss on you or anything your setup looks like an asskicker man. You really sound like you know your stuff so I not even gonna try and agrue, but just to clarify what i said was just from experiances ive had (very few and far between). There has been some good info in this post i would say it is very worthy of tech.
 
Yeah, I think this TECHnically belongs in sound and shine, but we're all 5.0 guys here discussing some technical stuff, right? Isn't that what counts?

EVN- no worries, I wasn't feeling critisized, at least not directly. I only responded to it from an informational standpoint, not out of self defence. I hate how my system looks, it drives me nuts because I know what I'm capable of. You know how it goes, when your getting paid to do it you're the best in town but when it comes time to do your own stuff you just hack it together. Now I'm refinishing floors for a living, working for a second generation floor sander whose hardwood floors all look like crap. It's the "bodyman's car syndrome". I'm starting to get motivated about my tunes again, so maybe I'll redo it soon. Speaking of which- hey BOWTIEKILLER ! Not to go off topic, but where did you get your door trim for your separates? That's exactly what I'm looking for for my MB's, and I was hoping I wasn't going to have to make them up from scratch... also, I see you have your crossovers mounted in the factory rear pods. Are those for the front components, or do you have rear speakers somewhere else to?

Gearbanger- how often do you drive your car? I'm sure everyone doesn't have the same luck as me, but I've actually needed my spare tire twice in the last three years, and been pretty happy I still have it. I don't ever recommend putting anything else, stereo or otherwise, in the spare tire well. I've found AAA to be just a slow PIA, by the time they show up I can have it all changed out already and not have to get towed. Just my $.02- but with a little injenuity you can probably streamline what you have quite a bit if you like how it sounds. You still haven't posted any pics of what you have or said what subs you have- there's a good possibility you can have as much bass or more, as good or better than what you have, out of one 10" for a couple hundred bucks if it's done right. There is only one 10" in my wife's LX, and one big amp driving everything, and she still has room for five grocery bags, shoeboxes, and all kinds of other crap back there. Eventually we'll put the sub on its own amp, but it won't take much to drive that sub, and it should be small enough to bolt it to the box without taking up any more space. OK, maybe that was $.03...
 
stangbear427 said:
BOWTIEKILLER ! Not to go off topic, but where did you get your door trim for your separates? That's exactly what I'm looking for for my MB's, and I was hoping I wasn't going to have to make them up from scratch... also, I see you have your crossovers mounted in the factory rear pods. Are those for the front components, or do you have rear speakers somewhere else to?

.

Hey bud hows it going... well I built the doorpanel pods for my componenets. I have been asked a million times to build some for people. So if you don't think you could tackle it let me know. The crossovers are for my fronts as well. I remade the rear grills out of abs, fit the crossovers in there and painted them "new ford gray" which matches perfect. I decided not to use rears because the imaging was perfect without a rear stage and no one is ever in the rear to need rear fill..

And as said above about Dayton loud speaker.. their stuff is nice and priced cheaper because they aren't big names with big advertising. I worked at parts express for nearly 4.5 years. i have messed with many speaker combos and built my entire home surround system from there including all crossovers. My previous system had 2 12" HiVI research F12's which were amazing. but after a while I decided that the enclosure was too big and I wanted something smaller or nothing at all. so after i changed jobs to circuitcity i learned how to fiberglass my own parts.. and i am very happy with the outcome
 
BOWTIEKILLER said:
Hey bud hows it going... well I built the doorpanel pods for my componenets. I have been asked a million times to build some for people. So if you don't think you could tackle it let me know.
A million times? Sounds like you could have something pretty lucrative waiting to happen there. Add me to the list! Did you finish them off with vinyl? What size are your mids? I'm sure I couldn't tackle it, I don't have access to the fiberglass tools anymore, and it's just been too many years. I was talking about some ideas for them with AlanW6, but he's swamped trying to get his gauge pod business off the ground I think. We were talking about flushing the crossovers in there too. I have another set of separates in my rear factory spots, so they aren't available (I do have passengers frequently); I have my front crossovers mounted to the tranny hump under the dash right now :notnice: . So whaddaya think? I think they'd look pretty sweet integrated a few inches away from the mids in the panel you already have there, not to mention how many miles of wire I'd eliminate. How much $ do you need to make it worth your while to crank out a set? I am definately interested! The only other option available is the kick panel ones, and I know they'd get beat to death in no time. I like'em better in the doors, safer- besides the superior imaging there. I have to do something, I can't leave them the way they are and yours are the best looking I've seen. I was also toying with the idea of adding another set of mids to the doors, so it would be one tweet between two 6.5's in each door. I just can't seem to get my guitars to really slam, and my tweets are turned all the way down now so I know they could handle the extra mids- but I don't know yet if I can't tweek these in enough to like them as they are. I only have about six hours in tweeking, after all :rolleyes: I really don't want to buy another set of these, even if these days they are about half what I paid for them. How much do you want? Not so much so I can decide if I want yours, more so I'll know how long it will (or won't?) take me to save up for them :)