Tacoma audio upgrade (8" mids!)

make sure you leave a little room if you want to be able to drop the rear seat backs down.. they way they articulate makes it tight at the bottom. I used spacers on the seat bolts to get extra room.

 

It’s a better box than I could build so you won’t hear any shit from me. I love the wiring and really all the aspects of stereo installs but unfortunately my woodwork skills are beginner at best.

 

def wont be able to put them flat with this still.. the bottom hits.. but it folds down past half way so thats good enough.. seats have to be out to install.. i removed the plastic on the back of the seats to and that made some free space.. top of the seat is getting raised to about 1.5 or 1.75.. "off the shelf box top width is 1.5" i went 5.5.. if i measured right this time the center seat mounts should fit in the cubbie at the bottom of the box and box top flush with seat angle.. the spacers is a good idea though.. i have some thick wall 5/8 tubing that would be perfect.. its what im using to space the upper seat latch

even though this new box is a smidge smaller then the first one.. its still bigger then the off the shelf box.. its about 5" longer, 1" taller, 3 1/4 wider at the base and 3.5" wider at the top.... i wanted to take up at much space as possible

 

thank you! this is def the biggest audio project ive done.. ive always had shops do it.. im a beginner woodworker myself.. i figure if youtube can do it i can do it lol... a lot of mess ups and cut and smashed fingers but its all coming together lol

 

Yeah dude it’s been fun following the build thanks for keeping thread up. I hope it gives you the sound your looking for.

 

well got a good portion of it put together.. trying to decide if i wanna get fancy with the router and do a internal brace/baffle.. on the last test it it was good.. gonna test it here in a bit when the rain stops and see how the seat bracket cutout fits... hoping i got some room to double it up.. might be able to stack some 1/2" on top if anything..

 

this one fits! lol.. i have a top piece cut out, the box is actually sitting on it in the picture but its just some wood rings that go around the speakers and connect in the middle.. and spray it with bed liner spray.. finally i can put my truck back together, give everything a good cleaning and hope to be done till the next one lol.. pain in the ass to seal the top from the inside.. it doesnt look pretty but theres def plenty of space! still way more then the off the shelf box even though this one is smaller then the first..

 

Good job!!

I may have missed it in the thread as I didnt read it all at once. I suggest ensolite, foam, carpet. Something to isolate the enclosure from the back wall. I had some nasty vibrations from not having it isolated and mounted firmly. May want to crank it up before installing the seat back.
I too removed the plastic off the back of the seat. Picked up some fabric and gently tacked it on using spray adhesive. Not that anyone will look back there but it does look a little nice than foam and metal bracing

 

and done! finally! lol.. speakers in.. everything fits, flipped the seat mounts and got more room.. gotta cut longer spacers for the top seat mount.. musta only measured once lol.. ran the new sub rcas just gotta run the 4 channel rcas and i can finally have my truck back lol.. cant wait to have it all clean and put back together inside..

 

well fixing and cleaning up everything as i go.. but ran in to a lil issue.. ill be driving and all of a sudden the bass cuts out of the subs.. and only door speakers are workin.. but the bass amp is still on with power.. ill turn off the head unit and turn it back on and it will come back on sometimes or after the trucks parked and i get back in like something resets or something idk.. just redid all my grounds.. finished the big 3.. so will see how it does on the way to orange county today.. dont mind the white wire.. still gotta tuck that and mount it to the terminal correctly .. its the ground coming off my head unit to batt neg to get rid of alt whine

 

My sister in law and her boyfriend had this problem after adding a second amp to her Mazda 3. I did a bit of research and some of the things I found to check was power and ground problems but sounds like you are already going over that. I also learned having your gains up to high can cause this and in there case it ended up being they were demanding more power then there alt. Was capable of producing. Does this only happen when your listening at high volume?

 

redoing all my grounds and doing the big 3 i think def helped a lil bit, on the way to OC yesterday it only messed up once but came right back without me doing anything.. im gonna take the subs put the box today maybe and double check their connections to make sure nothing loosened up when switching between these boxes.. the gain on the sub amp is a lil high but i can kick the volume all the way up and they stay true.. im thinking after everything it has to be a loose connection somewhere... if all else fails ill cut every wire outta the dash i dont need any more to narrow the playing field.. since im not using any stock speaker wire at all its just taking up space..

 

Are you using an idatalink maestro? Was talking to bro in law the other day, his system would cut out then reboot. After checking everything its believed to be a firmware update is needed for the idatalink.

 

i dont but i do want it... i know there is a update for my head unit.. i just havnt found my usb stick to download it.. i took out the speaker closest to the terminal.. the terminal connections wernt the tightest.. they wiggled so i took them off and pinched them tighter and stuck them back on.. so thats another check off the list.. ill have to go drive around and hit some bumps and see if it shuts off again