2000 Explorer Cargo Space Speakers Mod

[anony]

I'm looking for pictures of ONLY 1995-2001 Ford Explorer's that have modified their cargo space with different speaker modifications on the side panels, lift gate or even on the corners of the headliner. I'm not concerned with subwoofer mods, Only door speaker type mods in the cargo space area only!
I have a 2000 Explorer XLT and I'm replacing the entire audio system. I'm removing the subwoofer in the passenger side cargo space panel because I'm not looking to have a lot of bass. I was thinking more on the lines of adding 1 or 2 sets of door speakers. My idea is to get rid of the stock hidden subwoofer box, other than replacing just the door speakers with new 6x8"s, but to add 2 speakers on the lift gate where those vent blanks are, like individual small speaker boxes screwed on the lift gate panel or put a speaker on both of the side panels, maybe do a cutout on the side panels and use speakers with grilles. Or an individual speaker box screwed onto the side panels right behind the back seat. I will be using amps on this, but I only want to see if anyone else has had my same idea and did something nice. I'm having trouble finding pictures of what I'm looking for on the internet.
Thank you for any pictures shared.

 

[Jason94sport]

No pics but what do you want to accomplish? Most of your imaging & sound comes from your front sound stage.
The lift-gate will vibrate like a freight train if you try to mount speakers on it. Screwing speaker boxes into the panel would also have to have some sort of support behind them.
Also don't limit your search to 95+ cause 91-94 uses the same panels & mouting. Sports up to 04 too.

 

[DAN 88]

I added an additional 6x8 to the rear doors of my 99ex. The door already had the hole and screw points. All I had to do was splice into the speaker wire for the additional new speaker and then create a grill in the carpeted area of the door panel. Pretty easy.

 

[anony]

No pics but what do you want to accomplish? Most of your imaging & sound comes from your front sound stage.
The lift-gate will vibrate like a freight train if you try to mount speakers on it. Screwing speaker boxes into the panel would also have to have some sort of support behind them.
Also don't limit your search to 95+ cause 91-94 uses the same panels & mouting. Sports up to 04 too.

Thanks for the feedback, I actually appreciate what you're saying. I wanted to at least put out there the ideas I was thinking about to see what someone with more knowledge of what I'm talking about would advise. I don't want to drop in an enclosure in the cargo space because I do use the back for loading up my tools for work or even when it was ok to go do things I would pile in all my camping gear. I want to see if someone has done anything to their cargo space that is out of the way for still loading stuff without compromising the use of not moving a box out of the way or losing load space because of how a box takes up so much room.

 

[Jason94sport]

I had a sub amp mounted behind the passenger cargo panel, & a JL stealthbox where the factory sub would be. It was all hidden & I had full use of the space.
Several people have mouted amps in these places. There is much room in the space just in front, & behind of the wheel well.

 

[CDW6212R]

I had a sub amp mounted behind the passenger cargo panel, & a JL stealthbox where the factory sub would be. It was all hidden & I had full use of the space.
Several people have mouted amps in these places. There is much room in the space just in front, & behind of the wheel well.

Interesting. I wonder how hot an amp would get behind that rear quarter trim. I have a Stealthbox to install in mine also, and I have a JL mono amp for it, which is about 8-10" square. I was planning to place amps under the rear seats, but the JL amp I don't anything about it or it's quality, or heat protection. My Nakamichi amps are very special and those need plenty of air to be sure they don't get hurt(they are 35 years old and obsolete ).

Space is precious, thanks for ideas to save some space.

 

[toypaseo]

I have my Alpine V12 MRV-100M under the rear seat, driver's side. I've had the seat down for days, and it has never shut off from heat. Granted, I don't have the stereo cranked for hours on end. Pry the longest time it's been constantly on, with the seat down, was between 2½-3½ hours.

 

[Jason94sport]

Nakamichi

They made great HU's back in the day. I had one in the 1st 94 X I had.
Heat seemed ok. I didn't really mointor it, but the amp never gave out on me.

 

[J_C]

There are several versions of the factory audio in these, some of which not entirely known/documented (like mine which has a rear amp but no subwoofer from the factory). In some cases you can't just delete the factory rear amp because it is the amp for all speakers. If your head unit doesn't drive them then a replacement amp you add will have to take over that duty, and you'll have to reroute the wiring to it if it's not mounted where the factory amp was, or of course you can go with an aftermarket head unit but then may need to rewire direct to the speakers its powering.

I do think the liftgate would rattle, and on the side panels you will want to fabricate a stiff bracket, not just try to mount to a cutout on the plastic trim, or instead use a box that fits behind the trim panel so more of a sculpted shell, might be as easy to make a foam form to test fitment and fiberglass build onto that.

 

[BruceExploder]

I deleted the factory amp in my 98. Was double amplifying the signal causing distortion. Sounds great now but I have a more powerful 4 channel running the doors

 

[J_C]

^ ?? The factory amp shouldn't have been double amplifying the signal, rather moving the gain stage of the signal from the head unit to the amp, so the input to the amp would have been a non-amplified, line level signal, unless you changed out the head unit to something without line level outs.