Stereo/woofer box questions

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beatdown83fj60

beatdown83fj60

10 Year 15 Year
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Jul 30, 2006
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Evergreen, Colorado
Ok well I am doing some "fun work" to my truck right now, as it will probably be recieving a new motor in the next month or so and I want it to have my creature comforts. I have a box with three 10" fozgates, for 6x9's, two 6 1/2's, a 4 channel amp, a 2 channel amp, head unit/wiring for all etc. etc.

The sub box is as wide as the 4runner interior (barely fits lol) and about 14x14 roughly. I have had this box for years and years and one of the subs is pretty much toast, plus I'm tired of it taking up so much space. I am going to build my own sub boxes to put the two good subs somewhere around the rear wheel well or so. Here is the dilemma, I am a terrible carpenter and don't have many carpentry tools, but I work in a welding shop with a TON of equpment etc. Has anyone welded up speaker boxes out of metal? I am a sound welder but I'm worried about what type of dampening effect the boxes would have (sound like s*** etc.) if they were made out of 1/8 plate or so. I was planning on coating them with bedliner after I made them but if anyone has tried it and had ill effects I'd like to know before I build them.
 
This is the sub I had in the back of my old '92 4Runner (gad I miss that truck sometimes):

RearSub.jpg


Single 10" JL, driven by about 100 watts. It was plenty of bass for me, and it was easy to remove if I needed the cargo room.

I would NOT make a sub box out of metal. It really needs to be very rigid, and steel plate will flex like crazy, I also think it will rattle and not absorb/reflect the sound properly. It needs to be 3/4" MDF (NOT plywood!), glued and screwed, and lots of bracing. If you don't have access to the tools to do it, buy a pre-built box or have it made.
 
Make the box/boxes out of wood. Point the sub down and put feet on the box so it is 2" off the floor. The bass sound will fill the interior well.
 
i think 1/8 in will flex to much to get good sound. you will only gain an inch h/w/l in extra space. you can build a sealed box out of 3/4in mdf for best sound. seald boxes don't need neer the space as a ported or bandpass. not as loud but i think it sounds way better. alot tighter sounding
 
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I'd rip off the interior panels on both sides in the rear. Put a piece of sheet metal where they were. Cut your hole for the sub, and make a box behind the hole. Just make sure to leave .25-.5" between the box and the inner fender well. When your done with that, fiberglass the inside of the box. If you search, there are some of the subs made for small spaces. I used ones from JBL about 8 years ago that were perfect for this application.

With that setup, you shouldn't loose any interior space, and have heavier duty interior panels to boot.
 
Metal box is a bad idea. To start with the box wont vibrate like it should to creat decent sounds, and I would be willing to bet that all the metal surrounding the speaker would interfear with the magnet on the back of the speaker. Not saying it wouldn't work, just would work at its full potential. Wal-mart used to sell pre-fab'd boxes for about 25 bucks. Dont know if they do or not still but it might be worth looking into.
 
The metal box shouldn't vibrate if it is properly secured and fiberglassed.

Anyway... I just finished making new interior panels out of 1/2" plywood for my 4Runner, and built a box into the passenger side. The sub is free-air, and while I'm sure there are better ways to do it (like using MDF... but plywood will last longer when I get it wet), this works for me since it only takes up an additional 2".
smallnowm1.webp
 
All of the reading I did said you should NEVER use plywood for a sub box. It vibrates and resonates like crazy internally, and is not acoustically "inert". You might not hear it vibrate, but it is sucking power from the amp.

If you really must use plywood, you can use a good micro-lam Baltic Birch. But, it's really expensive. MDF is the material of choice, much cheaper.
 
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