IXL XLT

[zacjones99 0]

Check out this recipe:

1 jigsaw

1 18.4 left over from an abandoned IB HT project

1 Crappy old '93 F150 4x4 standard cab haulin' truck

various stereo parts, amplifiers, puny speakers, wires, nuts and bolts

Cut bigass hole in the back of the pickup, behind the bench seat.

Mount bigass speaker to the hole.

Hookup and play!

[lithium 358]

pics or your lying!!!

[zacjones99 0]

So any ideas on how to really make this happen? I'm at work tonight but I'll try to put up some pics tomorrow of the truck.

I've got six of these beasts leftover from an IB project that never happened.

Unfortunately, there's no room for any 3.6cf sealed enclosure in my truck unless I want to make a bench seat out of the enclosure, but that would ge a really rough ride.

I have an armrest that folds down from the back of the bench seat. Removing the armrest should allow the magnet to poke through to the seating area between the driver and passenger.

I'll have to figure out a way to divert waterflow around the driver, but my neighbor works at a body shop and I think we'll be able to come up with something.

I'm also going to have to figure out a way to construct a rigid baffle the width of the truck up almost to the window and decouple it from the rear wall, while at the same time mounting the driver as close to the rear wall as possible, and sealing the elements outside the cabin.

Will a few layers of sound dampening and a few layers of closed cell foam decouple the baffle from the back wall good enough?

The bolts to mount the driver would be inserted from the outside of the truck and go through several layers on its way to the hurricane nuts in the baffle in the following order:

(1) the back wall of the truck.

(2) through a thin rubber ring gasket the size of the speaker mounting ring (to decouple the driver from the rear wall of the truck)

(3) through the speaker mounting ring holes

(4) through the double or triple baffle layers

(5) and into the hurricane nuts.

Can anyone offer any alternative materials or better ideas on how to get this done?

BTW the system is basically:

Clarion DXZ785USB active HU

DLS Iridium 6.2 set in the kicks

Blade SE6100 amplifier (4x100 bridged to the 6.5" mids and 2x100 to the 1" tweeters)

Peerless SLS 8 midbass (8" 8ohm) in the doors with a similarly constructed full door baffle. Door trim panels in a landfill somewhere.

Blade Grenade G5 amplifier (2 x 275 at 4ohm) to power the mibasses

IXL 18.4

Blade Grenade G5 amplifier bridged to the IXL 18.4

Audiocontrol DXS for the component set if I need to free up some time alignment processing capability to the sub. I only have 3-way time alignment in the HU.

Audiocontrol DQT if needed, along with the built in parametric EQ in HU and G5's.

And that will be the IXL XLT ('93 F150 XLT)

I'm no pro at car audio by any stretch so any input is greatly appreciated. Maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree but I'm ready to do this if the people who know say it can be done.

Thanks. Zac.

[zacjones99 0]

Mark this install will be fully covered under warranty won't it?

[lithium 358]

it sounds like your looking to do a blow thru. give that a search online. my friend was thinking bout doin one in an s10. this is a GOOD example on how to cut the hole but the guy DID NOT construct the box correctly.... id recommend u do some research before you start cutting.

edit: you didn't mention it so, will the sub be in a box or ib???

Edited September 7, 2009 by lithium

[zacjones99 0]

No box for me. IB all the way, mounted inside the truck facing out. So it's not exactly a blow-through, but I could sure learn something by reading through some of those installs. I'll search around for those. thanks.

[zacjones99 0]

Gotta head home. Until tomorrow then. Thanks. Zac.

[lithium 358]

No box for me. IB all the way, mounted inside the truck facing out. So it's not exactly a blow-through, but I could sure learn something by reading through some of those installs. I'll search around for those. thanks.

ib FTW haha. i got a mj18 going in my car ib soon. i guess you would only have to cut the hole in the back of the cab.. but keeping rain off the sub will be tricky.. ive seen a product people you to protect speakers mounted in doors. its a open celled foam product i believe...

you will want to check if the sub has any motor noise aswell since it will be in the cab with u haha

Edited September 7, 2009 by lithium

[zacjones99 0]

Are you talking about those "speaker baffles" that crutchfield sells? Let me give them a call and order the 18" version. HA! Not a bad idea though, just let a little neoprene sock flap around back there. Probably not the end solution though.

[mrogowski 6]

Mark this install will be fully covered under warranty won't it?

Sure, warranty will exist until the day it rains!

[zacjones99 0]

Thinking a little more on this today... maybe a polyproplene cone with a butyl surround is going to be a better choice for this application. Even if I am somehow able to divert direct rain from flowing over the woofer, it'll be next to impossible to completely protect it. The foam surround and paper cone of the IXL probably won't hold up to very many torrential downpours or any freeway driving in the rain. I'll have to poke around then to see what kind of weatherproof drivers I can come up with, and hopefully trade for. Thanks. Zac.

[zacjones99 0]

Yep looks like the RL-p18 or even an RL-p15 would be the ticket. Unfortunately none of those lying around in the closet. Oh well this one goes on the back burner then. Bummer.

[DIYiT 0]

I've read about people using accordion style rubber boots for campers (not sure where they are used on a camper, nor do I know what they look like) to create the seal they need between the cab and the bed. Since you want to do a true IB, how about a chest style tool box where you could cut the sides of the chest out (this would leave the sides of the box somewhat protected by the bed rails and from the natural flow of air over the truck when driving). What I envision is a vent that works much like the A/C vents in a vehicle only electrically controlled. When the truck is off, the vents could be closed with a slope downward so that rain and the elements don't get into the box, but with a small motor, the vents could open up allowing air to freely move in and out of the box. This way the sub would be totally protected except when the truck is on and running (and you could even put a bypass switch on so that you could choose IB or sealed depending on weather).

[zacjones99 0]

That's a fantastic idea considering the alternative -- going out and buying an rl-p18 and leaving it exposed to the weather. I briefly considered a using truck box before, but dismissed it without really giving it too much thought. Mostly I had considered mounting the sub in the truck box, but I really wanted to keep everything in the cab. If I went ahead with this I'd just pick up the ugliest plastic truck box I could off craigslist. Keep thieves as far away as I can.

So that means cutting an additional hole -- in the back of the pickup bed --- and running a 3" accordion vent from the bed to the cab. I don't think that a sealed configuration would work very well if it involved any kind of an accordion vent, but that's Ok -- I would just run it IB. I would probably keep it real simple and just cut out the back and the bottom of the toolbox. I think if done right that would offer enough environmental protection for the woofer. Maybe even mount an 18" grill cover over the hole on the inside the truck bed to keep out rats and random splashes. Acoustically, would this be an acceptable plenum for IB -- running through an accordion vent and downfiring out of the toolbox? I'm not even sure if it would be considered a plenum -- more like a vent for an array IB if that sub is mounted on a baffle on the back of the cab.

Thoughts on this from people who know IB?

And a few reality checks... is this insane? An 18" IB in a standard cab pickup? The two shallow mount ten's I have in there now are not cutting it. I was thinking of going to shallow mount 12's, but that was going to be over $600. Then I started thinking about trying find a way to put the equipment I have to use. Going this route should cost under $100 for me, and give me more space to mount amps, eq's, and crossovers behind the seat.

I guess it's always nice to have headroom, and crossed over somewhere between 40-70hz I think it should be OK.

Another concern is rattles. Is an IB built into the back wall of the cab going to bring out more rattles in the truck than 2 x 12" Stereo Integrity BM's sealed behind the seat?

[zacjones99 0]

If I'm going to conect the cab to the bed via an accorion, an even better idea for me than the toolbox might be just to put a camper on the bed. I've even been thinking about doing that for camping trips anyway. $50-$150 on craigslist for a decent one. If the campers are just under 6 x 6.5 x 3' that would make it just under 117cf, or about 3000L, which is greater than 10x the Vas of the IXL18.4. However my cab is nowhere near that size on the other side.

Hmmm, is the small cab size going to be a problem with an IB? The cab size is probably only 2-3x Vas.

Would a pretty old fiberglass camper like that rattle a lot? If the camper did rattle, opening the side windows of the camper would probably greatly reduce any rattles.

One more question... If I run into mounting depth / height issues I can't resolve with the 18 and the back of the seat, I might be able to find someone willing to trade me down to an IXL15, which would probably be a stealthier install as well. Would a single IB IXL 15 in a small pickup cab be worth the trouble? Would this be a downgrade from 2 of the new Stereo Integrity BM 12's in sealed enclosures behind the seat? How about an rl-p15 IB?

Lots of questions I know. Thanks for your patience, I'm just trying to figure out the best path to take. Thanks. Zac.

[///M5 2,833]

Worth the trouble if you are keeping the truck.

The toppers leak enough even with only 2-3x Vas you should be okay.

Will it rattle? Yep. Will you notice in the truck? Not if you setup everything well.

The only concern I'd have if I were you is what it did to the value of the truck. Not a concern if you'll keep it. If that is the case it seems like an ideal setup to me.

[Aaron Clinton 2,372]

Yep looks like the RL-p18 or even an RL-p15 would be the ticket. Unfortunately none of those lying around in the closet. Oh well this one goes on the back burner then. Bummer.

Those will rust with water on them.

[///M5 2,833]

Yep looks like the RL-p18 or even an RL-p15 would be the ticket. Unfortunately none of those lying around in the closet. Oh well this one goes on the back burner then. Bummer.

Those will rust with water on them.

And the anodizing comes off. Had a little leak and mine now has a nice ring as it held 4 oz of water for 2 days. Adds character though and makes it so I won't sell it anymore.

[DIYiT 0]

I suppose what I'm thinking about is how pesky snow can be. Do you live in an area prone to snow? I have an older plastic tool box on my truck, and over the years the plastic has warped just enough that it doesn't seal anymore. Now anytime there's blowing snow, I find drifts inside the toolbox. If you only have to worry about rain water, I think you can easily pull it off. My proposal focused more on trying to ensure snow couldn't find it's way to the driver either.

[///M5 2,833]

And with snow comes salt. Boo.

[zacjones99 0]

Yeah the truck's got 144k on it and not worth too much to start with, probably only $2500 or so, so I'm not too worried about devaluing the truck.

So now I'm thinking if I'm going to do the accordion boot to the bed, why would I reverse mount the driver into the truck? Might as well just mount the driver with the magnet sticking out through the boot and into the bed. No problems getting the 18 in that way

Any problems foreseen mounting amps to the baffle? I plan on making a large baffle for the sub that extends from about 4" be;pw the window to the floor, and all the way across the cab. Will there be excessive vibrations on the baffle, or is mounting amps, crossovers, and EQ's on it going to be OK? I'm thinking 3/4 ply + 3/4 MDF all the way across, with a couple layers of deadener on the back wall, and lots of closed cell foam between the baffle and the rear wall of the cab.

If a camper's going to rattle quite a bit driving down the road, even with the sliding side windows open, maybe I need to rethink that one. I think the truck box would rattle much less and be easier to manage. I really don't want to project rattling noises outside the vehicle if I can help it.

Thanks for the input so far everyone. Any more good ideas out there?

[zacjones99 0]

Don't have to worry too much about snow here. Occasional trips up to Tahoe could be prepared for easily enough though.

Yeah it would have been real tough to commit to something like this if it involved going out and buying a driver hoping that it would be mostly weatherproof. I don't think I would have gone through with that one.

Ambient moisture / humidity not so much a concern as long as I can keep direct water from getting on the driver? Remember this is the motor side of the driver that is in the accordion boot now.