Subs in ex cab rear panels (1st gen)

I can't find where anyone has done this. In the spirit of keeping my truck as practical as possible, it seems like this location is an excellent place to mount a 8" sub in each panel without giving up any space at all. Space currently had 6.5 stockers. Would do a good bit of deadening on the rear like I did on the front doors(inside and out).

Truck is a 2000 Tacoma ex cab. Pioneer double din pushing Infinity Ref 6500 components now. Considering a pair of 6.5 or 8's subs with an Alpine mrv-f300 pushing all speakers.

Anyone else done something similar?

Here's pics of the rear panels with stock speakers. Also included pics of my front doors just for fun.

 

Thought about it yeah. Looked into it too. It'll be a project - that's for sure. Maybe no more than building a proper enclosure, but not easy. A peek inside my '03:








Seemed to me like if you built a baffle kinda flush with the panel you'd probably have a good cube to use in each side. The trick however would be sealing the hole & dealing with the massive hunk of sheet metal back there - which by my estimation is the one place in the cabin most likely to have resonance issues and by a good margin. Glassing this in seems like a good idea, but again much work.

 

Thanks for the response. I didn't really think about building an actual enclosure. I can get enough scraps of 3/8 lexan to build an enclosure and glue it together. Maybe do a few internal braces. I really appreciate the pictures. I'm assuming that my 00 looks similar/same as yours. I have not removed all of the interior panels to see exactly whats back there. I guess you have 6x8's instead of 6.5's in the rear, right? So maybe the thick plastic panel that the speaker mounts to is the only difference.

 

Oh I wasn't talking about building an enclosure in there unless it was fiberglass. That would be super difficult. Plus lexan flexes unless it's thick and no room for thick here. There's really no room for enclosure materials. But if you could firm up the surfaces that are in place - like with fiberglass, you could make a viable enclosure. Or just deaden the snot out of it and go infinite baffle...that would be the easiest. With the right sub and significant deadening effort it could be something nice.

Our panels are significantly different, but I believe the space back there is pretty similar.

I have 5x7 drivers back there now but I don't use them - front stage only for me. I do have a sub as well, but not back there. That's still a maybe somewhere down the road.

 

Oh, I see. Thabks for clarifying. I've never done any fiber glass but I suppose I could learn.

I built quite a few custom enclosures back in the 90's when I heavily into this stuff. I recall a friend that did some cool with his install with with fiberglass.

 

Honestly I'd try a pair of something in infinite baffle first. That will be super easy and might really deliver...maybe try the big project if that doesn't work. Since you'll need to make baffles you can use larger drivers. I mean if you really wanted there's probably room for a shallow 12, but then you have that panel with the itty bitty hole.

 

Cool. I may do that. I had a 98 Lexus ES300 that had one factory 8" sub that thrilled me. I'm thinking that an 8 or two in this truck should be plenty for my desires. Do you have a suggestion for a budget minded 8 or 10" sub?

 

I don't have any reason to use IB, so I'm typically not looking for IB subs. You want to look for something where Qts is loosely equal to Qtc. Qtc isn't given all the time, so this calculator can come in handy. For box size, just type in a bunch of 9s or something approaching infinity. Some light reading on the subject.

So something like the Dayton RSS210HO might do nicely & in this case as Qts & Qtc are identical. You can't go wrong with this sub, but lots to choose from out there. These perform well in enclosures too so if you wanna change the configuration down the road, there's that.

 

Thanks for the info man. I appreciate the explanation and suggestion. I'll look at the links and study this stuff when I get a chance. If I decide to go down this road, I'll certainly post it here.

 

Back when i had my 01 xcab i had a jl8w3 in each side in that exact location. It was a fiberglass enclouser except for the baffle being MDF. From what i remember i had somewhere around.25-.30ft^3 of air space on each side. And obviously they were sealed. Ill tell you they sounded nice and punchy and could hit all but the lowest notes. It struggled bad trying to dig down low. If i had to do it again id throw in a beefy 6.5inch sub like the Sundown or Jl6w3 and i bet it sound better. All in all i was satisfied since i saved what very little space you have in those 1st gens. Its worth it if you do the fab and instal yourself. If you pay someone to do it id probably go a diff route. Hope this helps

 

Awesome. Thanks for the response. Wow, those are some beefy looking subs. I've been out of the loop on car audio for 20 years. Back in the 90's I had (4) 10"s in the trunk of my '79 Buick and then later had (1) 10' behind the seat of my '86 S-10 regular cab.

 

Oh man are you in for a treat. So much cool stuff out there now compared to the 90s. And so much cheaper.