The rockford fosgate ones we carry are pretty decent...the dual shield ones are what I run in my truck.

 

Found my audio connector cabling - Belden 2 conductor, 16 awg, 100% shielded. $29 for 60' of cable, ends, and a stick of heat shrink. Plus, I can make it to length rather than trying to deal with a couple extra feet of unecessary cable. At 1/4" dia per cable will darn sure be easier to run and find space for than the thick-as-my-thumb premade stuff. More than likely better shielded, too.

Not as prettied up as the premade stuff but just as functional and waaaaaay cheaper. I'm not out to win any beauty contests, I just want good tunes. It will all be hidden under the carpet and behind the seat anyway.

Hopefully it will be nice out tomorrow.

Brad

 

Got the seat back off and the insulating mat cut for the amp. Question, though...

There's a nice, conspicuous stiffening rib running across the back about 2/3 the way to the top of the space. Obvious place for screwing the top of the mounting board to. Problem is there's nothing for screwing the bottom to except the cab itself. I intensely dislike poking extra holes in the cab, especially holes that go outside the cab. Could I cut the mounting board extra tall, setting it on the bottom of the cab (cushioned with foam) and screw the top to the horizontal rib for stabilization? Considering the amp is roughly 13x20 and weighs just short of 10 lbs, is this a workable solution or stupid thing to do?

Brad

 

You could do that. I believe the bottom is dual layered sheet metal...you could fab up L-shaped brackets to attach to the bottom of the board.

 

Hmm... There's a seat bracket bolt right below where I plan to mount the amp that, conveniently, has about a half inch of threads showing. It appears to be a metric 12. I could fab up some kind of bracket that would easily mount there and use it to stabilize the bottom of the mount board.

Thanks for the idea!

Brad

 

Got the amp mounted and the speaker and audio wires run. I'll get a few sneers from the audio snobs with my choice of cabling but I'm not it it to win any beauty contests.

I ended up not needing to brace the bottom of the mount board. 3/4" MDF mounted to the horizontal support with three heavy sheet metal bolts and pushed down hard against a strip of weatherstrip foam at the bottom. Rock solid.

Tomorrow it's running the power cable and ground, putting ends on the audio cables, mounting the head unit, and getting everything connected. Hopefully I'll have tunes tomorrow night!

*edit to add*

A heads up for someone who's never done an install. I got 15' of audio cable and it was barely enough. By 'barely' I mean mere inches. As in one or two. I ran all the audio and speaker cables across the back and down the drivers side wiring channels. I did that because the power cable will be running down the passenger side and the size limits the other cabling that will fit into that channel.

The amp is mounted on the passender side of the rear wall because of size limitations (sucker is long). Because of the mounting location, the amp size and configuration, and a need to maintain access to the adjustment controls, the audio inputs ended up about two feet offset from center to the passenger side. If the amp had been mounted on the driver's side, or flipped over so the controls and inputs were more towards the center of the cab, there wouldn't have been an issue. If I were to do it again I'd get 20' of cable just to have a little wiggle room.

Brad

 

wheres the peektures at man?

 

Pic.

Yes, the speaker wiring is plain old 16ga lamp cord. The big fancy blue cable you see is the audio cable left from the previous owner's install. The grey cables are Belden 16ga shielded audio cable. Note how short the audio cables are. I haven't trimmed them to length, that's how much I had left after getting everything run. 15' per cable was barely enough. See my post above for elaboration.

The board is held in place by three #14 sheet metal screws tapped into the horizontal brace. The bottom is resting on a piece of 3/8" weatherstripping foam which is compressed to about 1/8". No, I'm not going to paint or carpet it. Like I said, I'n not in it to win any beauty contests and it will be hidden behind the seat anyway.

Running out to get some cable tie-downs and then (hopefully) finishing up.

Brad

 

All the cabling and ends are done at the amp. Power cable turned out to be a bigger PITA than I anticipated, but it's done too. All that's left is the head unit. I'm hoping it will be mostly plug and play, the only actual working being soldering the ends on the audio cables. I suppose I'll find out in the morning!

Brad

 

It's official, I have tunes!

Not real thrilled about how snug the seat fits against the amp, but there's still enough room for air to circulate. I'm also a LOT dissapointed in the complexity of lack of intuitiveness in the Pioneer controls, but I suppose that's part and parcel with the gig. Finally, I'd mentioned earlier about 15' of audio cable being almost not enought. It ended up not being enough... by six inches. I had to make some extensions for everything to fit without being in a strain.

On the upside it sounds great! While not the thunderous monster my Crossfire P12 was, the Image Dynamics ID10 is plenty good and will do everything I ask of it. The Atrend box does a fine job, and at $55 shipped I sure can't gripe about the price! With everything together and some preliminary adjustments made the sound is clean, clear, and plentiful.

Now I have to find a sale on 32gb flash drives. After burning all my CD's to MP3's I have almost 29gb of music files. I want to load them all to a stick and utilize the USB interface so I don't have to cart around a couple of CD folders like I used to.

I have a lot of tuning to do, and fiddling in general. There's only about a gazillion settings on the Pioneer that I'll need to tweak.

Thanks to everyone for your help, and to the forum in general for being a TREMENDOUS resource. If it weren't for the info on this board I'd have spent two or three times longer trying to get everything up and running.

Brad

 

id recommend the ipod over the flash drive

 

Don't have an ipod. Don't intend to get one. I hate earbuds with a passion. To me they sound like crap, and I've never had a pair that didn't make my ears hurt. The flash drive will be fine, not to mention a teensy bit cheaper than an Ipod.

Brad

 

By the way, anyone know how to get the magnet cover off an Image Dynamics sub? I removed the five allen screws on the end only to find they are cosmetic. I want to remove the cap because it's buzzing a little at certain frequencies.

Brad

 

Contact ID. They'll know how to direct you.

http://www.imagedynamicsusa.com/

 

Figured it out. I was just being too nice, taking it easy and trying not to break anything. The cover is glued directly to the magnet assembly. With a larger screwdriver and plenty of twist it popped right off.

Brad