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- 2023 Maverick
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Perfect. That's what I was wondering. Thank you.
Great work. I am installing a sub in mine also but was wondering if anyone can tell me where they pulled the remote on wire from for the amp. I have not seen anyone mention this and I am running RCA and not speaker level to the amp. Thanks.
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- #35
Some amps have auto sensing from the speaker signal, including the one I bought, but I didn't use it. I did an add on fuse connected to #3bwith a regular remote signal wire. I'm pretty sure I mentioned this in the first post might be more info there.
Edited to reflect the fuse# I'm using now which is #3. Only 3 and 6 are switched.
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@colinl now that you had the sub installled for a couple months what are your thoughts? I finally just got my maverick last week so I’m going to start figuring out my sub. I talked to you before about my 10”’sundown and that looks like it’s out of the question so I’m thinking this 8” type R would work perfect for me.
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- #37
People have done 10" but I personally don't like the types of 10" that can work in the small volume available. I've even seen a pic of a kicker square 12.. If there's an 8 that works in less than .5 cu ft and outperforms the Alpine R2 I'm certainly not aware of it.
If I wanted more, and I don't, I would do two of them.
So on the Alpine sub did you have to buy the grille cover separately ? Did you have 2 speaker wire jacks or one installed on your box ? When you tapped into the B&O sub wire did you hardwire into it or did you buy a matching connector and plug into the existing wire ? Great job on the install. I’ll be building the same box and use the Alpine.EDIT: adding parts list to the original post so it's easy to find. The box dimensions are perfect *without the plastic insert*. If you want an 8" that fits inside the plastic insert check other threads. If you really want a 10" your best bet is fiberglass and you will want to watch the box volume carefully- I would put a high performance 8" against a shallow mount 10" any day. If I melt the voice coils on this sub I will buy a dual 4 ohm model to replace it, but so far it's working awesome with 500wrms at 1 ohm. I am honestly amazed by the sound quality and volume at this price point.
EDIT #2 11/29/22 ** I had to move to fuse #3. #3 and #6 are the only confirmed (at this point) switched in the cabin fuse panel. I was originally using #20 and my truck was fine a month, then started going into Deep Sleep almost immediately after the ignition was off. After switching fuses, I have only seen Deep Sleep twice and once was definitely after getting in/out of the truck a lot at a campout. **
You'll of course need a table saw, jigsaw, workbench, electrician pliers, double stick tape, spray glue, zip ties and other common tools.
(original post)
This is a work in progress, but someone asked me for dimensions so I decided to post now and update as I get it completed over the next 1-2 weeks. This is not a show truck. Let's just start with that, if you can do shop-quality work on your own you don't need this thread, and if you want a shop-quality finished product you should probably just have a shop build something custom for you.
Build components (added parts & pieces 10/11/22)
- Alpine R2-W8D2 8" sub $250
- Kicker Key 500.1 $270 (auto-gain and dsp at this price point blows my mind)
- Kicker CXARC remote bass level knob $40
- Metra Line-Out Converter and 1' RCA male-male cable $25
- Stinger dual 4/8 ga distribution with 8/10 ga output, - 1' Stinger red & black 8ga, local shop $50
- Scosche 4ga wiring kit w/60A blade fuse $25 (crazy good deal on Amazon)
- Stinger 10ga speaker wire already on hand but call it $15
- Recoil Add-on Fuse Holder 10A & 20A blades (I used 10a/10a in fuse #3) $10
- 4x8 sheet of 3/4" MDF $55 Lowes (this is enough to make 3-4 boxes at least)
- 40"x40" subwoofer carpet $15 (watch this video to install)
Honest total: $755
Quotes from shops ranged between $1800 and $3200, of course, their builds varied.
Time required: 16-20 hours (I'm a rookie, expert probably 4-6 hours)
I'm taking speaker-level input from the B&O 6x9, which I'll be disconnecting and removing. (EDIT 10/11/22 I disconnected it, but put it back because there's a big hole in the truck, see pic below.) The 6x9, bracket and plastic enclosure are considerably larger than the Kicker 500.1 so I'll be mounting the amp in that location. The amp does 150w @ 4ohm, 300w @ 2ohm, and 500w @ 1 ohm. Obviously, the sane thing to do would have been to buy the dual 4ohm sub and run it at 2ohm, but YOLO. If you don't have B&O the best way to interface is to get a harness adapter that taps into the ACM. And then you'll want a multi-channel amp but you could use another Kicker. The 200.4 and 500.1 together would be great and they're very small. If you don't have the B&O you may not realize how much depth is available at the bottom of the rear seatback. It's easily 4-5" deep.
My design goal was to not modify any metal and if I'm honest, I'm not an awesome carpenter so instead of building a trapezoid like Ken did over here I wanted to make it a very easy rectangle. There are numerous 10" woofer builds out there and if you look at them and make some of your own measurements you'll see that it's very, very tight trying to fit a 10" sub and grille even if you remove the plastic tray insert. There are a lot of high performance 8" available, I chose this one because of specs vs cost. Ideal sealed enclosure is only 0.3ft3 (gross excluding woofer volume), I'm actually slightly larger than that around .35.
There's 4 parts of the underseat inserts and you will want the outer pieces because otherwise it's very ugly and you would have a hole under the seat edge. But... do you really need the center piece? I built several cardboard mockups to find out what's workable.
With the tray (Ken's box and my mockup agrees) the bottom is only 7" wide because of the FITS inserts and the tapered trapezoid shape. If you pull the insert you can fit 10.5" wide at the bottom. In order to get it in there without cutting metal, I chose to make the box only 6.5" deep (tall). You could make it less than 10.5" wide and deeper, but I want the largest possible surface on the top side so that the woofer is not near the edge of the box. I noted that Ken's box is 16" long but due to the width of mine at the bottom (10.5 vs his 7) I shortened mine to 15".
More to come...
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- #39
1. Yep grille is separate. Not sure if it would hit the seat bottom without.
2. Yep, it's just a cheap speaker jack kit from Amazon. There are more costly ones with bigger terminals but this is working fine.
3. I bought a plug in adapter but it was very slow to ship and they didn't respond in time to cancel my order. I spliced into it and left the green factory plug in case I ever went back to stock. I do still have the adapter if you or anyone else wants it, just message me here.
4. Good luck and that's why I posted the dimensions. Totally use this box and sub, it's been awesome.
Colin I went with the Alpine woofer you did and found a deal I had to take a chance on. It was a bundle from Amazon for the Alpine woofer with a Harmony 400 watt 1 ohm stable amp with sub remote for the price of the Alpine woofer by itself $249. Check it out. Alpine / Amp combo . The worst that can happen is the amp is crap and I’m not out any additional money. Here is the amp info by itself. Harmony mono amp
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- #41
Sounds like a good deal as long as the amp is decent. I see them for about 100-110 separate and honestly I wouldn't expect much of a $100 amp.
The kicker key I used has a DSP integrated so it is equalizing the bass response. I believe there's a bandpass filter on the B&O sub, probably 30-200hz or something near that.
Several shops I went to mentioned a 30hz filter when using line out converter from a Ford B&O sub, I'm sure they have seen a bunch of F150 which is a 8" instead of 6x9.
I’ll let everybody know once I get it hooked up. I won't go cheap on the main amp. I normally use JL amps. I don’t need the digital processing of the Key amps because I will tune it to my ears. Key 4 channel amps are sold out right now everywhere except maybe eBay.
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- #43
big *nod* on the Key 200.4, they have been sold out since October or November, everywhere.
I was looking daily and scored one in December to install a system in my son's SUV. Just waiting on decent weather to do the work.
The Key 500.1 I used for my Maverick sub doesn't have a separate mic but it must have one integrated to the amp in order to set the gain and dsp.
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Hey @colinl great thread, I'd love to hear more on how you did your wiring. You mention swapping fuses-- why? (Sorry if a stupid question.)
Basically just looking for the simplest way to get a little more out of my system, and your method (replace the door speakers, add a small sealed sub) seems to be right about there.
PS what's the part with the round bit and green clip mounted to the back wall, on the other side of your key amp from the stock amp? Sorry for another stupid question...
Basically just looking for the simplest way to get a little more out of my system, and your method (replace the door speakers, add a small sealed sub) seems to be right about there.
PS what's the part with the round bit and green clip mounted to the back wall, on the other side of your key amp from the stock amp? Sorry for another stupid question...
