Ok I have seen what others have done and while those worked out for them I had some requirements that required I do my own thing. 1st- I could not have any enclosures taking up floor space; 2nd- The speaker must be protected from carelessly thrown camping gear or tools; and finally I wanted to retain the side cubby and DS jack storage areas for future projects.
In order to achieve my goals I decided that I needed to mount the upgrade in the factory mounting location. This limits the speaker options but I found a reasonable solution. Pioneer has a new line of thin subwoofers in 8'', 10'' and 12''. After measuring I decided on the 8''. Here it is on the left compared to a typical 8'' sub
I removed the original sub and amp and decided the factory bracket could be used to help locate the new sub behind the factory grill. I used a 1/4 particleboard and cut it to fit the area. Here is the factory mount and the board. (I got ahead of myself and had to photoshop back in the areas of the bracket I had to remove )
After measuring the speaker and cutting the opening in the board I removed the excess material from the factory bracket. I used an inexpensive 150 watt amp that mounts below the sub. Here it is test fit in place prior to installing the sub
With the sub installed
I cut a port behind the factory vent. I also used a 2'' strip of foam to seal the speaker to the side panel and the grill opening (rushing again and forgot a pic :whoops: )
Here is the final install, it looks factory, protects the speaker and lets me keep the other spaces available. It is far superior to the factory system and while adequate for me for someone who wants to shake their fillings it certainly isn't on par with a good 10'' or 12'' system.
In order to achieve my goals I decided that I needed to mount the upgrade in the factory mounting location. This limits the speaker options but I found a reasonable solution. Pioneer has a new line of thin subwoofers in 8'', 10'' and 12''. After measuring I decided on the 8''. Here it is on the left compared to a typical 8'' sub
I removed the original sub and amp and decided the factory bracket could be used to help locate the new sub behind the factory grill. I used a 1/4 particleboard and cut it to fit the area. Here is the factory mount and the board. (I got ahead of myself and had to photoshop back in the areas of the bracket I had to remove )
After measuring the speaker and cutting the opening in the board I removed the excess material from the factory bracket. I used an inexpensive 150 watt amp that mounts below the sub. Here it is test fit in place prior to installing the sub
With the sub installed
I cut a port behind the factory vent. I also used a 2'' strip of foam to seal the speaker to the side panel and the grill opening (rushing again and forgot a pic :whoops: )
Here is the final install, it looks factory, protects the speaker and lets me keep the other spaces available. It is far superior to the factory system and while adequate for me for someone who wants to shake their fillings it certainly isn't on par with a good 10'' or 12'' system.