Subs in rear hatch? Anyone tried it?

[Mat R]

Hello Everyone,
In my two years of posting on this board, I've never posted in the audio forum, because I've always had a pretty decent system. That is until my truck was broken into and eveything was stolen.

Well, now I'm back at square one, and while I have pretty much decided on a deck and sub amp, I'm undecided on what type of sub setup I want to do. Before I had built a custom box for one 12 that hugged the drivers side wheel well and worked like a dream. I'm not sure I want to build a box again, but I was thinking of setups I could try and aI recalled seeing 2 10s in the rear hatch of a Chevy Tahoe a while ago...

I was curious if anyone has tried this and ifso how they went about it? I know normally the rear hatch isn't necesarilly very strong, but I was thinking if I used some dynamat to reinforce it, and maybe port it, it might work well.

Can anyone help?

Thanks,
Mat

 

[Joe93]

I think this question has already been asked do a search and I'll bet you find something on it. It wasn't to long ago I saw it.

 

[mrsteve]

This question seems to be asked about once a month now. Basically what we have come up with is that it is possible to mount subs in the rear hatch, but it would require tons of custom work and wouldn't be cost effective. There are a few reasons why this would be hard to do.

1. The door is pretty shallow and most sub drivers wouldn't be able to fit very well. There is also an elastic rope that runs across the length of the hatch inside which releaces the latches to open the hatch. The rope would be in the way.

2. The added weight of a sub woofer would eventually damage the door.

3. Mounting the sub would be difficult becuase the plastic interior panel wouldn't hold the sub and it would also vibrate like crazy.

4. The door is not a sealed enclosure to the sub's performace would suffer even if you were to port the enclosure it would be hard to figure out what type of port (i.e.;length and diameter) to use due to the odd interior of the hatch.

There are many more reasons as to why it wouldn't work but I can't seem to remember them all now. There was a fairly long thread about this just last month. Try a search.

The enclosures you have seen in the back of Tahoes is a pre-fab enclosure made by Q-logic. I believe they hold 1 10" woofer on each door. They look good too but nothing like that is made for the Explorer. There are "stealth" boxes that go in the rear passenger compartment that will hold 1 10" or 1 8" but they are expensive usually, but if you are worried about space it might be a good choice.

Steve

 

[ACBlessing]

My 00 X came stock with an 8" sub in a factory sealed enclosure in the trunk...sounded okay but I just had it replaced with an RF Punch 8 and real amp. Really sounds nice!

Install was easy and cheap. Aftermarket box costs $400 and fits a 10 but my update cost $180 (sub and amp) and took an hour.

New amp mounted where stock amp mounted and new sub simply replaced stock sub. One concern: stock sub also bolted to the back of the stock sealed enclosure...took a minute to get out but any way you look at it, the whole quarter panel will have to come out. (which is easy too) I could've opted for a 10" sub but that would require modifying the heck out of the stock enclosure OR havine one custom built or aftermarket...significant cost for a little more thump.

Cost-to-thump ratio up to you...good luck.

-AC

 

[jimbo74]

ac, the original q was about the hatch..


as many others have stated it is a pain and not worth it...the hatch just makes it too difficult

 

[eguiyab]

i had this question to a little while ago, and MRSTEVE is right. when you take a good look at your tailgate it is pretty shallow and considering what kind of bass you will be putting through it, it may not sound so good.........like ACblessings said....if you want to save space go with a qlogic stealth box.....fits one 10 or 8 ... fits into the rear quarter panel where the storage net is. looks good to. but to save money best thing is to just go with a simple box until then.