Growing up doesn't have to suck

Disclaimer: Links on this page pointing to Amazon, eBay and other sites may include affiliate code. If you click them and make a purchase, we may earn a small commission.

OP
OP
iamdub

iamdub

Full Access Member
Joined
Apr 23, 2016
Posts
20,821
Reaction score
44,932
Location
Li'l Weezyana
i put some all terrains on it and went up a size, its beast now

I saw one with some BFG AT's about a year ago. I was still sitting in the van when the owner, a doctor, came out of the store. I commended him on his "proper" Subaru. I don't remember if it was an Outback or Forester. I think Outback.
 
OP
OP
iamdub

iamdub

Full Access Member
Joined
Apr 23, 2016
Posts
20,821
Reaction score
44,932
Location
Li'l Weezyana
After coffee yesterday morning, I went into the garage for something and completely forgot what it was. I opened a cabinet and saw a cheap Scosche car audio fuse holder sitting there. It had a 100A Maxí fuse in it. I immediately thought of the four 25A fuses on my Alpine sub amp. On the workbench was a box of a 50' roll of #4 welding lead. Good stuff- Radnor Flex-A-Prene, OFC, USA-made. I now had a mission.


I dug through my grommets and found one that was a snug fit on the cable. Mic'ed the OD and drilled an appropriate hole by the right front mounting bolt of the right rear passenger seat. I sprayed dark silver paint into a plastic cap and used a Q-tip to paint the bare metal. The cable needed a shot of B'Laster to slide through without pulling the grommet out:

IMG_5473.JPG


The amp is too wide to sit all the way down on the rails. I found that if it were about 1/2" higher, it'd fit perfectly. I checked my stock for 1/2" aluminum square tubing but struck out. Instead, I found some 1/2" x 2" rectangular tubing. As a cheesy bonus, it was chrome. I was in a hurry and didn't care, so it got just a quick wipe with a dirty shop rag. It's obviously reflective enough:

IMG_5476.JPG


Plenty of air space:

IMG_5477.JPG


While I was running RCAs, I ran the ones for the matching 4-channel amp that'll be under the other seat. I taped 'em down with the first roll of tape I grabbed off the shelf:

IMG_5479.JPG


While I had easy access, I wire-wheeled the coating off the stud and top and bottom of the nut and the paint off the seat bracket to ensure a good ground:

IMG_5480.JPG
 
OP
OP
iamdub

iamdub

Full Access Member
Joined
Apr 23, 2016
Posts
20,821
Reaction score
44,932
Location
Li'l Weezyana
Soldered and heat-shrinked a lug to make a ground. Had to drill it out to fit the seat stud:

IMG_E5481.JPG


Routed and terminated the power and ground cables:

IMG_5482.JPG


Soldered and crimped a lug with the hydraulic crimper for the power cable:

IMG_5484.JPG


Since it'll be under the hood, I applied the same mesh sleeving I used for the Big 5 cables and secured with heat shrink:

IMG_5485.JPG


Just a pic of the RCAs and where they penetrated the carpet:

QOJX1593.JPG



After this, I coiled a little extra slack in the power wire and secured it all by zip-tying to the cold/low pressure pipe of the rear A/C, tied every ~8-12". Only after reassembling the interior did I realize I forgot the damned remote wire. For testing purposes, I shoved a wire into the battery + wire on the seat harness. Like the amps, the sub is also a period-correct Alpine TypeR 10. It was still BNIB up until a couple weeks ago when I unboxed it to install into a ported enclosure to play on my house stereo (Alpine amp on 13.8 VDC power supply) to begin the break-in process. I set it on the floor in between the two seats and powered it up to begin the tweaking and testing.

At first, it was super weak. I saw the sub moving a lot but you could barely tell any difference over the factory Bose sub. Yes, I changed the phase. It was strange- the sub was maxing it's excursion but it's like I was watching a sub excursion video on mute. I drove over to Garrett's (Tahoe Twin) house for a second set of eyes as he has a similar Pioneer HU and two 12s that throw down in his Tahoe. We got it playing pretty hard but it still was not making much sound. It romped pretty good in my house- rattled kitchen cabinets, bumped a little in my chest when sitting on the couch, etc. Garrett flipped the box all around to fire up, back, forward then face-down on some 2x4s to make a downfire- still no improvement. Then he moved it to behind the right rear seat. NOW it was acting like it should! I knew placement had an effect but it went from damned-near Mute City to Pound Town. We learned a lot about the acoustics of a GMT900 Tahoe. We tried firing down, sideways and rearward and both agreed downfire was best. I'm pretty much gonna copy the setup he has, but with one 10 instead of two 12s. For now, I'll mod the ported box it's in. I'll build a spec box later to fit against the back of the seat and use factory attachment points to secure it. Oh, and run a remote wire. I'll probably mount that 4-channel amp so I can wire it up to be ready for the speakers to be installed at a much later date.
 
Last edited:

Tonyrodz

Resident Resident
Joined
Feb 16, 2012
Posts
31,586
Reaction score
47,043
Location
Central Jersey
Soldered a heat-shrinked a lug to make a ground. Had to drill it out to fit the seat stud:

View attachment 397617


Routed and terminated the power and ground cables:

View attachment 397616


Soldered and crimped a lug with the hydraulic crimper for the power cable:

View attachment 397618


Since it'll be under the hood, I applied the same mesh sleeving I used for the Big 5 cables and secured with heat shrink:

View attachment 397619


Just a pic of the RCAs and where they penetrated the carpet:

View attachment 397620



After this, I coiled a little extra slack in the power wire and secured it all by zip-tying to the cold/low pressure pipe of the rear A/C, tied every ~8-12". Only after reassembling the interior did I realize I forgot the damned remote wire. For testing purposes, I shoved a wire into the battery + wire on the seat harness. Like the amps, the sub is also a period-correct Alpine TypeR 10. It was still BNIB up until a couple weeks ago when I unboxed it to install into a ported enclosure to play on my house stereo (Alpine amp on 13.8 VDC power supply) to begin the break-in process. I set it on the floor in between the two seats and powered it up to begin the tweaking and testing.

At first, it was super weak. I saw the sub moving a lot but you could barely tell any difference over the factory Bose sub. Yes, I changed the phase. It was strange- the sub was maxing it's excursion but it's like I was watching a sub excursion video on mute. I drove over to Garrett's (Tahoe Twin) house for a second set of eyes as he has a similar Pioneer HU and two 12s that throw down in his Tahoe. We got it playing pretty hard but it still was not making much sound. It romped pretty good in my house- rattled kitchen cabinets, bumped a little in my chest when sitting on the couch, etc. Garrett flipped the box all around to fire up, back, forward then face-down on some 2x4s to make a downfire- still no improvement. Then he moved it to behind the right rear seat. NOW it was acting like it should! I knew placement had an effect but it went from damned-near Mute City to Pound Town. We learned a lot about the acoustics of a GMT900 Tahoe. We tried firing down, sideways and rearward and both agreed downfire was best. I'm pretty much gonna copy the setup he has, but with one 10 instead of two 12s. For now, I'll mod the ported box it's in. I'll build a spec box later to fit against the back of the seat and use factory attachment points to secure it. Oh, and run a remote wire. I'll probably mount that 4-channel amp so I can wire it up to be ready for the speakers to be installed at a much later date.
Did you do any tweaking to the amp itself to get the better bass? I have a similar amp that I haven't hooked up yet.
 

mattbta

Full Access Member
Joined
Jun 19, 2012
Posts
1,105
Reaction score
2,037
Location
Frisco, TX
I would drive to Louisiana for some custom made big threeve cables!

Nice work on the FF stuff. Are there PCM modifications needed to "enable" the new physical sensor? If so, how are you doing it? HP Tuners, PCM Hammer/TunerPro?

Edit: Never mind, saw what looked like HPT in another thread.

6lDZkU0.jpg
 
Last edited:

Sam Harris

Supporting Member
Joined
Sep 26, 2018
Posts
7,427
Reaction score
14,911
Location
Texas
I would drive to Louisiana for some custom made big threeve cables!

Nice work on the FF stuff. Are there PCM modifications needed to "enable" the new physical sensor? If so, how are you doing it? HP Tuners, PCM Hammer/TunerPro?

Edit: Never mind, saw what looked like HPT in another thread.

View attachment 397630
Hell yeah!! I would too! Make me some for my ‘03.. @iamdub !
 

Forum statistics

Threads
132,266
Posts
1,865,036
Members
96,829
Latest member
Stanlee83

Latest posts

Top