[Andrewme]

I have an 11 Ram 2500 with the 6 speaker system. I have a Pioneer headunit. I'm getting ready to get the next set of components for my audio system. I'm getting a 5ch amp that supports 100W rms x 4 @ 4ohm. I dont think the stock speaker wires will be enough so I'm thinking about running new 14ga speaker wire from the amp to each of the door speakers. I've already looked at the door wire boots and they all look fairly easy to get the new wires through except the drivers side. Has anyone had any luck running a 14ga wire through that grommet? If so how did you do it? For speakers I already have pioneer 6.5 with a crossover and 1.5" tweeters in the front and some kenwood 6x9s in the rear. Both are rated to about 125W rms each. The front corner dash 3.5 speakers are still stock. Not sure if those are even worth upgrading. Eventually I'm going to build a box to go under the rear seat for a shallow 10 or 12" sub. I would get it now but with winter coming in I desperately need new tires on the rear. And my trailer needs a new axle and springs.

 

[Mseitz24]

If youre talking about the accordian looking thing just pop one side out,compress it together, run the wire through, decompress and pop it back in place.

 

[Mseitz24]

Full disclosure, i havent done this in a ram but assume they’re all the same.

 

[Andrewme]

Yes, the accordian boot that the wires run through. On the front doors if you pull the rubber piece back it reveals a white connector that attaches to the body, and the drivers side has 2 of the big connectors attached to that and theres not much room around it. The passenger side o ly has 1 connector running to it so it has a big open area to run the new wire.

 

[Andrewme]

Anyone? It looks like the wires go I to the body of the truck and cant seem to find where they exit the door jamb I side the truck. About about to the point of taking the door completely off the truck to make more room for me to see. And the parking brake is in the way but I dont think removing that would be a good idea. Every other door is easy but this drivers side door.

 

[Andrewme]

Picking up a boss cx1800w amp tomorrow. Supports 113w x4 the for the speakers and the sub is [email protected] or [email protected] Trying to decide what sub to run. I was planning on getting a box that fits under the rear seat. But can only find them for a 12" shallow sub. I do have my rear seat raised 1/2". Could get an adaptor and run a 10. What sub would y'all recomend? Listen to mostly country and classic rock. Don't want anything too over powering. And trying to stay under 150 for the sup.

 

[Andrewme]

I think I may have decided on dual 10s in a Q-power sealed box. Each enclosure has .63 cubic air space and a depth of 6". For the subs I'm looking at Polk audio db1040. Their SVC, 270rms @4ohm. Needs .63 air space and a tmd of 5 7/16"
I'll wire them to a 2ohm load on the amp so each speaker should see around 225rms. If I order by tomorrow everything should be here and ready by Friday.

 

[Andrewme]

After talking with a buddy that's done a good bit of audio installs i got a Audiopipe APMI55100 5ch amp, American bass DVC 900W 10" sub and a single 10" box. Hopefully everything gets here by next Friday so I can get it installed by the weekend.

 

[Andrewme]

The amp and the sub finally showed up yesterday. Spent the whole afternoon running new 14ga wire to the front doors. Got the amp mounted to the floor under the rear seat on the passenger side. Had to do alittle modification to the sub enclosure cutout to get the sub to fit. Ots a dual voice coil and the terminals were hitting the box. Used some 1/4x3/8 weather stripping under the mounting flange to get a good seal. Took it to a buddies shop to help me dial in the settings. For a 350W it sounds amazing. Can really boom if I turn it up. Also moved the tweeter that was in the 6x9 to 6.5 adapter to the upper part of the door panel. My new Rockford fosgate 6x9s showed up today. Didn't fit quite right. The opening for the speaker is sloped in and isn't allowing the speaker to mount flush. Had to take my dremal and sanding wheel to open it up a bit. The mids are more noticeable. The. Got to thinking. The stock speaker wiring is now unused and I have some spare 6.5" speakers. Theres a good spot on the door panel that it would fit in. But cutting on a $300 door panel has me a bit worried. Lol. And it's already plenty loud already. Only pictures I took

 

[Andrewme]

starting to plan the next stage of audio upgrades. Has anyone replaced the factory 3.5" speakers in the dash with some 4" speakers? Thinking about getting a second 4 ch amp. But the 3.5 speakers only go up to 30rms. I can get a 70rms speaker in a 4".
Saw the hifonics HFEQ line driver. It has 2 rca input pairs and 3 rca pairs out. And would take the 2v preamp signal from my Pioneer and boost it to 9v. Split it at the rear and run rca to each amp. Would then run wires to the dash speakers and add 2 more speakers somewhere. Still trying to figure out where.

 

[Andrewme]

Ordered a Liumy LM2001 oscope from Amazon, and a Boss PV3700 5ch amp from Walmart. The Boss advertised 225w @4ohm and [email protected] for the sub channel. I'm going to use the oscope and test the Audiopipe amp before I remove it. Figure out about how much wattage I'm actually pushing to each channel. Then install the Boss and do the same. I'm going to remove the cardboard backing and cut a 23/32 plywood board to fit and cover it with carpet. And mount all of my stuff to that.

 

[nick00less]

Keep up the good work. I’ll be following your progress :grin2:

Kinda strange how audio threads don’t get much traction around here...

 

[Andrewme]

Well theres not much room to work with in these trucks. Especially on a crew cab. I used to have a 97 Jeep grand Cherokee. That thing was crazy. One of the vehicles I regret selling.

 

[nick00less]

I had a 08 Silverado Crew cab LTZ. It had a bed cut. I ran 4 kicker solo baric l7’s 12” in my truck bed. I had my back firewall cut out (a good portion of that wall was removed). I used an accordion boot to weather seal the bed and cab. I also had tons of kicker highs mids and lows in the doors and pillars. That was probably the loudest most ridiculous sound system I ever had in my life. Those subs moved more air than a 747 taking off on a runway. When my buddy finished installing it at his shop, we had it cranked to the max and everything on the walls inside the shop/customer area, started shaking!

I don’t miss that truck as much as I miss that sound system...

 

[Andrewme]

I pulled the rear seat out and got the cover off the back wall. The vents are massive. Their about 8"x8" and about 7" in from the corner. I think my best plan is to just cut the board to fit around the vents. I was thinking about cutting the carpet for the board to fit but after driving to work with the back uncovered its extremely loud inside the cab so I might just cover the board and the vents to help dampen the sound. I didnt get any pictures yet. Needs a good deep cleaning before I do anything else. The new amp got delayed do to weather. Wont be here until next Monday. While I had access to my current amp I wanted to see exactly what the ohms were to each speaker. The sub was at 1.8ohms. The front speakers were 5.2 ohms and the rear speakers were 3.6ohms. I picked up a cheap clamp amperage meter but it was only reading 2amps when connected to the sub speaker but was showing 29volts. Si it should be around 350watts right now

 

[Andrewme]

Well I messed up my calculations. I only got a 2x4' board but the back wall is 16x61" I cut the board I have down to 16" and just going to use that. There will just be alittle space on either side of it for now. I took a 1/2"x12" board I had in my scrap pile and cut 3 3" strips. I'm going mount the strips to the back wall to clear the vents and mount the board to those so I dont have to cut the recess for the vents and will give me more mounting area. I got the fabric cut and used spray adhesive to glue it to the board for a nicer look. Waiting on everything the dry before I can mount it in the truck.

 

[Andrewme]

I got a different clamp meter from home depot today. Tried it out and still only getting 2amps when connected to the sub power wire. I'm using a 50hz test tone though my phone on bluetooth. Not sure if that has something to do with it. But at 29V it should be around 10-11amps. I'm using Belva premium 14ga speaker wire if it makes any difference.

Also. I have a tuning question. Everywhere I see online says to turn the volume up to 75% to tune. I'll never listen to it that high. Why couldn't I tune it at 25-50% where I actually listen to it?

 

[gdub2]

Replace the head unit in my Tradesman after two months. Full Kenwood head unit with Android Auto, Kenwood sub behind the seat, not going to blow out windows but will get good sound, Kenwood 5 channel amp in a single cab!