2011 Ford F250 Super Duty crew cab simple and fast build part 1

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

So my brother picked up this truck to tow his RV over to Vegas for the winter and started hauling other peoples' fifth wheels around the country for cash. Since he is doing a lot of driving in the truck now and making some money with it he decided he may as well have some audio.

We were up against a tight clock and cold Maine weather. I had little time to take pics and a lot of things turned into a huge PITA. For starters one of the rear seat bolts wasn't coming out and needed to be ground off. Next battery wires under the hood didn't have any slack so we had to modify (with an angle grinder and drill) the stock battery terminals into ring terminals. Metra wiring kit didn't have a working ACC 12V coming off of it so we needed to dig elsewhere to activate that and all around running all the wires through the dash was very tight.

We had the long cuts for the box done at Lowes and they were all wrong so I had to re-cut everything.... I was really hoping to save some time there, and one of the tubes of liquid nails blew out which was a colossal mess. We did not intend to carpet the box since he didn't have enough to finish it so he will do that when he gets home.

One priority was that he sleeps in the back seat on his trips so we needed to keep the top of the box in line with the seats so he could sack out on it which came out pretty well. He had the extra 12" Shocker Sig that didn't fit in his Civic and the JBL amp was pulled out of his Cadillac which is going in for hydraulics at some point so needed to be empty. The little PG amps we got from Stephen Mantz (who designed them) and they do a great job.

Door speakers were the JBL Stadium 6X8 components. They showed up with UPS after dark so didn't get to take pics of them but they're a nice set. Sounded good and fit perfectly in the factory hole flush mounting the tweeter up on the corner of the front door.

Head unit is Kenwood ddx9703s which is very nice. We did not manage to get the license plate camera functioning but I think it's an issue with the ground back by his trailer wire bundle.

Overall I think it sounded really good. I just guessed with the gains since we had to put the seats back before dark and we didn't have the fronts yet, but it should get him by until we get together again in Florida this winter. I also think we will scrap the back seats soon and build the whole area into a larger box and just throw a memory foam on top for him to sleep on. Thinking 2 15s.

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[wew lad 5,000+ posts]

interesting, is the enclosure intended to stay in full time or be removable? if its a full time deal for the foreseeable future and he needs more bass i wonder if removing the rear seat would be an option he'd consider. easily 5+ cubes of space at that point

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

interesting, is the enclosure intended to stay in full time or be removable? if its a full time deal for the foreseeable future and he needs more bass i wonder if removing the rear seat would be an option he'd consider. easily 5+ cubes of space at that point

He's already talking about walling so I doubt a single 12 will cut it for long. The box as it sits is 3 cube net and we didn't use 10" of width side to side in the truck so I think 8 or 10 cube is possible if we go a little big higher subs and port firing forward. Like I said the idea is he can sleep in the back seat when he is doing long trips and the box works well for that as it sits.

Either way the box/sub/port location isn't optimum for getting loud but we're working around his needs on this one.

 

[wew lad 5,000+ posts]

He's already talking about walling so I doubt a single 12 will cut it for long. The box as it sits is 3 cube net and we didn't use 10" of width side to side in the truck so I think 8 or 10 cube is possible if we go a little big higher subs and port firing forward. Like I said the idea is he can sleep in the back seat when he is doing long trips and the box works well for that as it sits.
Either way the box/sub/port location isn't optimum for getting loud but we're working around his needs on this one.

yeah no way if he gets addicted to the bass. i mean honestly 2 15s subs and port up would be ridiculous and below the window line at minimum.. and im sure you could figure something out that would cover the subs at night when he wants to sleep. either way im curious to see how it turns out

 

[Slo_Ride 5,000+ posts]

One thing that I've never thought about doing in a crew cab is putting a sub right there behind the seats where the b pillar is. One on each side, standing up, floor to ceiling, narrow leaving enough room for two passengers in the rear.

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

yeah no way if he gets addicted to the bass. i mean honestly 2 15s subs and port up would be ridiculous and below the window line at minimum.. and im sure you could figure something out that would cover the subs at night when he wants to sleep. either way im curious to see how it turns out

Like I said, he's doing a lot of long driving so he'll be throwing all kinds of crap behind him onto the back "seat" on the road. Up firing port would almost guaranteed end up collecting random stray objects. Port will go forward or to the side when and if we change things.

One thing that I've never thought about doing in a crew cab is putting a sub right there behind the seats where the b pillar is. One on each side, standing up, floor to ceiling, narrow leaving enough room for two passengers in the rear.

That was our original plan before I actually got to really take a look at it in person actually but we opted to keep it flush with the seat so he'd have a better place to sleep. He's too tall to sacrifice any space side to side and be able to lay out in the back. If he wasn't doing cross country drives it would be a wall build.

 

[moparnut]

Good idea on the design. Being that bass is addictive, he probably will want more. If it were me, I think I'd take out the back seat and make a sub enclosure that doubles as a platform for a bed. That would keep things usable and give space for bigger bass.