My Stealth-ish Amp and Sub Install (2000 XLT)

[amarv12]

So I bought a 2000 Explorer XLT a few months back and have been lurking the forums ever since. One of the first things I set out to do was supplement my stock 4 speaker sound system with a sub and amp. After a bit of research i decided that I wanted to use a stock sub box and power it with an old amp that i had laying around.

So anyway, after quite a bit of brainstorming, I came up with what I believe was a pretty great location to mount the amp (not sure if this has been done already, may have been). Here it is:

View from the back:

View from the side:

View from the top:

Going:

Going:

Going:

Gone:

How it's mounted:

(I know, it's a crappy old amp, but it's been working flawlessly in numerous different cars since 2002 (knock on wood))


I was originally going to mount it forward of the stock sub box under the trim panel, but decided that this location would be easier to tune and access. I love that it takes up VERY little space with the seats up, and zero useable space with the seats down. If someone has a longer amp, they could even use the other partition on the rear seats, as that metal flap is longer.

And here is the sub, mounted it inverted to get some more volume out of the enclosure, then covered it with some stretchy fabric from jo-ann fabrics:

Lemme know what you folks think.

 

[sport97]

I like your amp mount. Cleaver. Keeps the ever wandering eyes of thieves from spotting it.

 

[amarv12]

Thanks man. You can see a tiny bit of the amp from outside of the vehicle, but nobody would know to look there unless they knew my specific install.

 

[jakemccarthy]

Looks great. In fact im probably going to steal the idea.

 

[amarv12]

Thanks.

Just a heads up, one of the important parts of the install was positioning the standoff bolts and the amp. The bolts need to be positioned low enough to drop into the recess when the seat is down, but high enough to clear the amp. Also, the amp has to be positioned carefully to avoid the seatbelt assembly. The wires to the amp should also have enough slack to bend through the range without stressing the screw terminals.

 

[jakemccarthy]

I figured. I have plenty of wire so it shouldnt be too hard. Ill post pics when its done

 

[Jason c]

That is pretty slick. On my last explorer, I hide my amp in the side panel next to the sub. There is surprisingly a lot of room back there.

 

[bilbo99]

Could you explain more about what you have going on in the subs enclosure. I have a 2000 Eddie Bauer and I got a Q-Logic stealth box for a 10" sub. This was 5 years ago. I spent 2 weeks looking for a good sub that would handle 500+ watts yet work in the .65CF space and that wasn't deeper that 5.75". It was very difficult but I ended up with a Elemental Designs E10.O. I had purchased my amps from them. At the time they were selling Avionixx amps. I believe the same little build house ended up modifying the Avionixx amps to produce their whole NINE series of amps. Anyway, both the 10" sub and two Avionixx amps were steals and they still get it on today.

I am curious about your sub setup because mine is coverless. Looks like you may only have an 8" sub but can you explain the process you went through in wrapping it? So well done. I am about to redo my entire system and would love to finish it off with a sub wrap like thiss

 

[amarv12]

For the sub cover that you see, I started with one of the stock speaker covers that i picked up at a junkyard (the flat perforated ones) and gutted out the center of the cover so that essentially all that was left was a frame with the tabs still intact. The fabric i used was some stretchy sheer fabric from "jo-ann fabrics" (or any other large fabric store should have something comparable) I think it was intended for dress making or something like that. Anyway, since the fabric was kind of see-through, I used two layers to help conceal the sub. I kind of roughly wrapped the fabric around the frame and mocked it up on the car, then when I was satisfied with how taut the fabric was , I wrapped it around the speaker cover frame, I cut several slits in the fabric where the plastic tabs snap into the side panel and slid the plastic tabs through the slits. Then to make sure that the cover was really nice and tight, I glued the fabric to the frame (on the back side) in select areas in between the plastic tabs.... made it nice and tight. I used a glue called "tacky glue" from the fabric store... it works well with fabric and plastic.

The hard part was getting the fabric tight... if it's too loose it looks like crap, and if its too tight, it wont snap on. The fabric was stretchy a little, which helps, but it only gave so much.

 

[Bruces expo]

Nice Install Looks Clean And Sure It Performs , What i was wondering was what Sub you used , not sure if you mentioned it and I Read Past it Or not

 

[amarv12]

Initially I used a cheapo sub from amazon, this guy. But since bass is kind of addictive, I eventually moved up to this one.

The original sub worked quite well, but the current one is fantastic. It sounds awesome for an 8"... it has surprised a lot of people. Adding an aftermarket head unit helped a ton as well. So much more bass from the dedicated amp channel on the aftermarket head unit versus using hi-level inputs with the stock head unit.

Edit: Oh, something to note... I mounted both of those subs inverted (magnet outside of the box) to get some more volume. I don't actually know if the mounting depth on either of those subwoofers would work if mounted conventionally.

 

[Crutchfield Vlad]

That is a really great way to mount the amp. I might have to steal that idea too. As for the sub that's a very interesting way to cover it. I would have never thought to use fabric to cover the subwoofer. You might want to be careful not to put a hard drive or anything that can be damage by a large magnet. haha.

 

[Jason c]

When I added a sub to my old 93, I used nylon screen material and then painted it to match the factory trim. I glued the edges of it onto the back of a thin sheet of plywood (about 3/16 I think) with holes cut out for the speaker opening. The frame around the storage box that used to be in there, works great to hide the edges of it and hold it all in.