backintheday

I got one door playing on about 700 watts. It's nice to finally have some highs. Here is a video that i did this morning. I took some others, but the camera had image stabilization on which took out the vibration in the vids =( Now off to build another door panel for my side.

I just got the batteries and both colossus' hooked up and took it for a drive. It is sooooooooo loud!!! There is a ton of flex everywhere even with serveral layers of dynamat. I'll get some flex vids up this weekend.

The amp and battery area is starting to take shape. Not a lot of extra room back there now. Sorry I only seem to take pictures in the dark, once this is all done I'll get some in the daylight

Sorry the pics aren't that great, it's raining out today. I got all 8 subs in but still only running one Colossus at 4 ohms per channel so I'm still about 1/4 of my finished power. Even with low power it still causes pain in the ear and some serious van flex. The load boosting shocks and air bags are keeping things nice and level. I'll get more pics up after some progress on the door panels and the battery/amp area.

I found a home for the (7) 6.5s and the (7) tweeters in each door. (well almost, ones on the dash). I'm satisfied with this layout so it looks like I'm gonna have to buy a lot of fiberglass this week. I got the head unit in, the epicenter mounted and the 1/0 power and ground run from the front battery to the back. The batteries came in this week and they were not what I ordered so I sent them back, I hope to have the right ones next week. I am having trouble finding an alternator that fits this van that is over 200 amps, it looks like I may have to go with the PowerMaster 200. Several of the big alternator companies list ones for this application, but my stock alternator doubles as a power steering pump bracket and has an odd flange cast into it that none of the companies like DC or Mechman can provide. I've been running two of the fifteens for the past week on one of the Colossus' and it hits so hard. I can't wait for the other six subs to go in, it might be tomorrow.

Here is a good shot of the cross braces. There are 28 2X2 cross braces and almost all of the walls are two layers of 3/4 MDF. There shouldn't be a lot of box flex.

I made some progress on the enclosure over the holiday.

Well, I know that a week of vacation didn't help my build progress a lot, but it gave me a change to think through the system and the install. It also gave my van some time in the shop to get the new springs/struts, etc for the extra load. I decided that (8) 6.5's and (8) tweeters were not going to make me happy so I just ordered another (10) 6.5s and (10) more tweeters. I will use 16 of each in the install and have a full set as spares. I also ordered a second Hi-Fonics Zeus that is 4x170 at 2 ohms to run the additional highs. While ordering parts, I got 100 feet of 0 gauge, (4) 300 amp fuses, (40) 0 gauge eyelets, 250 feet of 12 gauge speaker wire, a bunch of RCA cables and another mega pack of Dynamat Extreme. I should be back to building tomorrow and will get pics up as often as I can. Thank you all for you support so far, this is going to be a fun build. To answer Denim above, the boxes are all the same volume +/- 1%, the top boxes seem smaller but actually extend down into the back top area of the lower box. You can kinda see it in the sketch above.

Here is a sketch of how the box will look when it is done.

I made a little progress this weekend. I gutted the interior and got a bunch of the Dynamat in. I also started to build up the enclosures. There will be three boxes just like this across the bottom and then a box on top all that for two more 15's and then there will be 6.5s and tweets on either side in the top subs. I am traveling out of the country all next week so there won't be much progress.

My UPS man is better than Santa Claus I have some sketches done and some calculations for the boxes. I am going to do 4 cubic feet per sub sealed. This should give me the low end I am looking for. I know you diehard SPL guys are going to flame me for giving up the db gain from a ported box, but I am building this to listen to, not for the meter. I really enjoy my 15-20Hz range and ported just won't cut if for me. I am also able to squeeze this into a wall behind the middle seat leaving me with a very large cabin that should play the low lows well without having to open up the windows. I'll keep posting pics as this progresses. I'm headed out now to upgrade the suspension.

Just south of State College.

It's in 1.35 sealed. I have two 600 watt mono amps on it and it sounds fantastic for a single 12. The box weighs over 140 pounds with the sub. I was seriously considering six HCCA 15's in my Windstar but finally decided to go with Kicker since that's what I had "back in the day".

The Dodge van is my wife's. She didn't even let me use up all the hatch space for her sub.