On my new 07 scab, the front doors don't have a normal 'boot' for the routing of wiring.

One side is a boot fitting, but the other end leads to a HUGE plastic wiring harness fitting that plugs into a door frame area receptacle.

So, no running custom speaker wire into the front doors for me.

Which means, no upgrading to an amplifier to drive more watts.

I mean, I guess I could do a smaller amp, and drive like 50 or 60 watts through the factory speaker wiring in the factory harness... but if I ever pushed it all hard, I'd be concerned about a potential meltdown...

This kinda ruined my night.

I did a bunch of searching, and am surprised no one else has run into this here yet. I'm sure that this makes removal of the door entirely faster and easier.... but it sucks for any kind of wiring upgrades.

2007, FX4, Supercab. I have the optional Deluxe Mirror upgrade package that has driver and review auto dim with turn signals in the side view mirrors. (if that's a factor)

E.

 

Search around the forums a bit here and you will find your solution. If I understand you correctly I believe you have a plastic plug harness instead of the rubber booth to run your wires between doors. If that is the case, there is a place you can drill into that will not affect the harness and you can still run your wires between the door and the cab. If you can't find it, just go over to the speakers and subwoofer forum and post a thread alot of guys have done it.

 

Yea I believe its called a molex. It's basically a wire harness that plugs nto your door. Like Best said, just look for the empty pins that you can drill through to run your new wire.

 

Interesting. I searched like crazy and couldn't find crap. My search skills suck apparently.

So, in a nutshell, the solution is to drill out the plastic harness in emtpy holes, and run a speaker wire (+/-) through the hole? (which basically makes it 'non-detachable' anymore)

I'll try searching on the term molex and see what comes up.

E.

 

This may help, it shows how the person ran wires for power mirrors, but you can use the same method for the speaker wires.

https://www.f150online.com/forums/sh...ight=door+boot

 

Yeah, you (and me) are "lucky" enough to have trucks from the Deerborn plant. They have the plug-type of door/cab connector.

 

So I searched Molex.

and I searched on 'drill'.

Holy moly. What a PITA.

I mean really REALLY. DO I really need to upgrade wiring if I'm only planning on driving 60 Watts RMS to each speaker?

This seems like wicked overkill. But I don't want to run any risks of meltdown/fires because I used the factory wiring.

I saw some guy say he was using the factory wiring for 75W on a sx5750 amp or something. No idea if it's putting out a real 75W (I plan on a Fosgate, so it should be close to the spec'd 60W I think) but even still, he claimed no issues.

I just don't know. Risk of fire scares me, but going so overkill with drilling and removing parking brake lever and fuse block for access and crap seems like too much work....

What do you guys think?

E.

 

I drilled the plug on my 05 to run wire for power locks.It was a pain in the butt and if I run into another plug Im going to add a second boot.The stock wire should be able to take a fair bit of watts before you have any trouble.I ran 75watts thru stock wires in a 2001 ranger for 4 years and it was fine.

 

just adding my 2cents....but once you drill it out, use a spade connector at the factory connector, so you still can seperate the door if needed.

 

my '07 has the normal boots on all 4 doors so im confused. I ran all new speaker wire to every door since im running 100W RMS and it was no big deal.

 

How much power can the stock wire handle? My stereo shop told me my stock wire would be fine for jl A4300 like 75 watts RMS

 

No risk of fire by using factory speaker wire.

Its the amperage (amps) that must be controlled in order to protect the electrical lines from overheating or short-circuiting. Its the amps that can cause damage. Which is why fuses are rated by the amps they can handle, not watts or volts.

Brief explanation:
watts are a product of volts and ampere

(Watts = Volts x Ampere)

Amplifiers boost watts to your drivers (speakers) by increasing the volts not the dangerous amperage (amps). Which is why it is important to keep the supplied volts from the battery constant for optimum amplifier performance.

Make sure you use the right gauge wire to supply power to your amplifier. Skimping here will rob your amplifier of needed power and will result in poor performance. This power wire must be protected by the properly rated fuse. The fuse should match the maximum amperage that your amplifier draws. The fuse integrated in your amplifier is not enough. If you plan on running a massive amplifier or multiple amplifiers you might consider purchasing a capacitor. Capacitors (caps) work by storing up volts during low-draw passages, then sending it to the amp during loud musical hits. Caps keep the voltage level which is the most important part of keeping an amplifier performing optimality.

Aftermarket speaker wires uses higher quality connections and offers larger gauge sizes to deliver more unfettered signal to your drivers, resulting in cleaner sound and better speaker response. Also aftermarket wires use better insulation which prevent sound interference. Generally the farther the drivers (speakers) are away from the amplifier, the smaller gauge (thicker) wire you would want to use to prevent sound degradation.

 

extremeethan;

The "watts" that a stereo amp put out are not really the issue with speaker wire. The 16ga. wire in the harness is good for something like 156 amps @ 12 volts. Now, that is max calculations under lab conditions. The bigger concern at least as I see it is how will the thing sound?? 16ga. speaker wire will work (and I have used it in a pinch in my earlier life as a sound tech) for most and amp. I used it to run a set mains at a rock show that were driven by 500watt amps. Now.....the small wire will pass the electricity to run the speakers but you will lose a ton of the fidelity. Small wires cut off the bass signal like a knife. You will be much happier with the sound of your stereo if you find a way to run some big fat wire, monster cable, vampire wire or the like. At least 12 ga. Better even larger, like 10ga. My PA system had all speaker wires in 8ga. The sound improvement will astound you. Big fat wires pass all the detail of the music and let the limitations occur in the speakers.

All this aside, the wires that are in the harness will handle just about any reasonable amp you can toss at them, but will sound like crap at higher levels. I know that running big fat wires is a pain, but it really does work wonders. If you want to do and experiment, get a length of some nice fat speaker wire and hook it up without hiding it and give it a test. You will notice the difference i guarantee it.

Have a great weekend
BJ

 

if the wires are 16ga you'll be fine up to about 100 watts per door (little known fact, most car audio installers use 16 ga speaker wire)

 

The factory speaker wire is 18ga.
And I'd like to see 156 amps go through a 16ga. wire. 150 amps is what a normal starter motor would draw cranking a engine over.