Ok, so finally time to have some fun with this car! My GF's brother is just graduated from USC and is going on a two month road trip to Alaska, then to Boston. He has a Tacoma with a Cab and a crazy tent that mounts on top of the Cab so he is set for the trip. Truck was packed to the gills, and was very heavy. To shave some weight and free up some room, he removed his sound system, and left it in my apartment for me!
I am now the owner of a Pioneer Premier ib-Flat 12" subwoofer in box, a 1200 watt Pioneer Premier two channel amplifier, and a 2 Farad SQ Power Cap Capacitor. A pretty sweet setup, and the best part is it was free!
I need to purchase all the wires however. I need get power to the amplifier (most likely trunk), need ground wire, and need all the wires to make the system work and tie in with the business CD player. I have yet to do any research, but will start after this post.
I am no electrical engineer or sound tech by any means, but I know my way around stereo equipment. My Volvo 850R wagon had two 12" square Kickers running 800 watts each. I built the boxes, amp & capacitor mount, and did all the wiring myself. I've installed several systems for friends, and have worked the sound board for a handful of high school / community theatre plays & shows.
Goal for now s to tie the system in with the stock head unit. I am still on a budget, and there are still maintenance tasks to complete. Future plans include a new head unit. Undecided at the moment and open to ideas. Would be cool to hav the nexus & tablet as a head unit, but have not researched this enough, and may be to costly.
Looks like there is a round about way that requires tapping into a wiring harness in the trunk and buying a special adapter. Really poor quality video on youtube with a fat redneck guy drinking beer. He does install a stereo, but the video sucks. If he can do it, I can. I'll make a video if I figure it out so there is a good example out there.
Well,
Dry fit the sub woofer in the trunk. The box is flat and very wide, but it fits against the back seat. I don't have the ski pass opening, so going to see if I can retro fit the pass through in, or see if I can open it up some other way.
Did some test fitting with all the components in my trunk. Came up with a few setup ideas that should work out well. There is a 3rd setup option not shown that would yield the most available trunk space, but it would require reinforcing behind the trunk carpet lining pieces to have a sturdy mount for the amp and capacitor. This would be the ideal setup, but requires most work. Would be the best looking because all the wires will be hidden behind the grey trunk lining. Maybe down the road if I decide to keep the setup in the car. The capacitor would be mounted on the little shelf on the passengers side to the upper right of the sub. The amp would be mounted between the side of the sub and below the capacitor. Would need very little wire as everything would be very compact.
If I didn't need my trunk space, I came up with a "show" setup. All the items would be visible and laid out in the trunk. Id drill holes in the trunk floor liner, so the wires would be tucked. This would be a cool setup, but I need my trunk.
The setup ill be doing for now, will have the amp and capacitor mounted close to the seat back. The subwoofer would be mounted face the trunk lid. The way the trunk is designed, the sub will wedge in place at the bottom, and Ill use some simple L brackets to attach the sub to the car.
Procurement & Install next weekend hopefully. Few pictures of the setup ideas in the mean time. If anyone has comments or suggestions please feel free to shout out. Have a whole week to brainstorm. Will post some dimensions later.