Ok, here's the low-down. There a 3 rules to remember in car audio.
1. Size is nothing. Bigger is not nessicarly better. Rockford Fosgate is the Jensen of subwoofers.
2. Power isnt everything. Check RMS not Watts. RMS is the continous signal where-as Watts is the ABSOLUTE PEAK that the speaker will make, like if you ran straight 110 to it.
3. Buy now or PAY later. Buy quality not cheap. If you buy cheap, it WILL break. Quality parts will usually come with a wicked warrenty.
That said there are several options avaliable. The best option, in my opinion is to get a stealth box. Whats a stealth box? Glad you asked. A stealth box is one that installs without being in plain sight.
Now you have a couple of options here. JL Audio, MTX, Eclipse, and a few others make boxes that will mount in the rear right of the truck where the factory sub/storage compartment is (opposite the washer tank in the back). These boxes will be sealed and thus give a better, tighter sound. In addition the sub will be out of the way of the bed so you dont have to worry about tossing things back there.
Now what I did what buy the MTX box and install that in the back.
Dead Link Removed
I then replaced the MTX Blue Thunder sub it came with, with a much better Boston Accoustic Pro Series 10. That one ten will beat 2 Rockford 12"s easy. It's about magnets and stuff, you know. Dead Link Removed
The Boston sound's better, was cheaper, and uses 1/3 the power of the 2 Rockford Fosgates my friend has in his Cherokee. The MTX it comes with is great, for now I would keep it and use the rest of your money on an AMP.
You could also make a box for the back, for that I would talk to Kris Guilboux. The stealth is the way to ho IMHO.
Now on to AMPS. Heres the deal, Get either a mono or dual channel amp for the sub. If you get a dual channel you only need half the power of the mono, as you can "bridge" it. Bridging is the process of taking 2 channels and making it into one, thus doubling the power. I'm currently running a Crossfire 200 Watt dual channel amp bridged to 400X1. More power than I could ever need for that one sub. I mounted the amp in the right passanger area kick plate behind the seat belt. Since it's BEHIND the kickplate, there is no way to see it, and no way to damage it.
Also, it made running the wires to the sub a piece of cake.
Whew, there ya go. If you have any questions, e-mail me at skippman@swbell.net and I'll help you out the best I can. The whole deal should run you about $350 bucks. Remember, do you system is steps. I'm just now finishing mine, getting an Alpine CVA-1005. Also, plan ahead with you system. And lastly, SPECALITY SHOPS ARE IN BUSINESS FOR A REASON. The guys at Best Buy, Circut City, Audio Express, ect. know about as much as you do because they were hired to work for the store, not in car audio. Talk to a local shop, there more that helpful.
Justin "Skipp" Hoyer
givin props to
Sound Central - Lindberg, MO
Hi-Fi Fo-Fum - St. Louis, MO
&
Boston Accoustic The BEST car audio speaker around.
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93' Mazda Navajo
BF-Goodrich Trail T/A's
