'98 Explorer Sound

[wr_anders]

Screw the cameras, get those mouth braces in and turn the cab around

That still wouldn't help being able to see out the back. It's a cube, remember?

[wr_anders]

It will help it be louder and sound better tho... You can't see when your eyeballs are getting rattled out anyway so who needs a camera.

It already does that, so if turning it goes louder...I'm scared lol

We'll try it. We've got to do braces and run wire and such, so it'll be out anyways.

[wr_anders]

Alright, we've got the second amp in. Door speakers mounted and all the cable for them. Great.

But we ran into a major problem. The sub amp instantly goes into protect mode. I've tried everything to find the problem and still no luck.
Ran it with and without RCA and speaker wire, messed with the input sensitivity, redid the ground connection, stripped and redid the connections for the power, and still no luck.
One of the problems I can figure is under voltage, but even when nothing in the car is on, it still goes straight to protect and after a few seconds, makes this horrible screeching noise come out of the sub.
The next problem I was considering might be the issue is that the amp is too cold to run, as well as the battery, leading to under-voltage. We we're working on this whole thing in the driveway while this stinkin blizzard was going on.

Has anyone ran into issues with their equipment being too cold to run? That's the last idea I've got before I'm ready to call it dead.

[Drey Chennells]

What was going on the first time it went into protect?

[wr_anders]

What was going on the first time it went into protect?

I turned it on. That was it. I had it running when I was doing all the speaker wire for the doors, then I shut off the car to run the mains to the second amp, and when I turned the car back on, it always goes into protect.

I was thinking about getting a capacitor as I'm still fairly sure it could be under-voltage.

[Drey Chennells]

A cap doesnt regulate voltage beyond what the battery supplies. It only stores power available from your battery and discharges much quicker than the battery can. I installed a 1.5f cap on Friday in the shopbus to feed the amps, it's overkill but it had a voltmeter on it which is nice. The problem you describe does not sound like a lack of voltage to me. If you have your amps rca disconnected and you still get a ugly noise through your speaker you have an amp problem. Is it new or used?

[Mikey]

We we're working on this whole thing in the driveway while this stinkin blizzard was going on.

Flying snow ... snow melts and becomes water ... water and electronics don't mix. If your vehicle was warm enough to melt the snow, the water could seep-in and throw a monkey wrench in the works in any number of places which could affect your system.

[wr_anders]

A cap doesnt regulate voltage beyond what the battery supplies. It only stores power available from your battery and discharges much quicker than the battery can. I installed a 1.5f cap on Friday in the shopbus to feed the amps, it's overkill but it had a voltmeter on it which is nice. The problem you describe does not sound like a lack of voltage to me. If you have your amps rca disconnected and you still get a ugly noise through your speaker you have an amp problem. Is it new or used?

It's a new amp and yes, that noise still plays with the RCA disconnected. What I don't understand is that it was playing just moments before, then I hooked up the second amp and it does this and won't go back.

[Tom Smit]

What size is your power supply wire to each amp. Do the amps have the same main power cable, and if so, what size is it?
Same goes for the ground wires from the amps.

Cold temps are not a problem for amps, so maybe it's moisture as Mikey suggested.

Keep us updated.

[wr_anders]

I won't be able to update on the project for the next 2 months as I'm leaving for Basic Military Training today.
As soon as I get back, I'll update everything about the project, as I'm sure all the kinks would be worked out by then.

Take care everyone.

[Drey Chennells]

nice. train like your life depends on it man. good luck.

[BrentEvans]

I won't be able to update on the project for the next 2 months as I'm leaving for Basic Military Training today.
As soon as I get back, I'll update everything about the project, as I'm sure all the kinks would be worked out by then.

Take care everyone.

Kudos to you, thank you for serving.

[Deltantor]

Thought I would quickly update on this while W is gone. A few days before he had left for Basic we had done the mouth bracing and I just realized he never posted the pictures of it so I thought I'd do that now. We also took a couple of videos I thought I would share, sorry for how dark the videos are.
In other news, I am working on getting a replacement amplifier to run this monster, seeing if the site i had gotten the amp from will exchange it for a working one or do a refund.

And as WiSounds has mentioned, going to have the mouth pointing to the side of the car instead of the front like it has normally been...and especially instead of pointing it at the rear hatch. Having that much pressure pushing against the rear hatch just seems like it could go horribly wrong, even if W thinks it wouldn't really hurt the car...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2wgZE-i-_U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQRec8H92Wc

[wr_anders]

Sorry to necro a thread here, but I thought I'd fill in the final notes of this project.

When this beast was running, it was insane. It preformed flawless to and beyond stupid-loud levels. Even though it was a great success for us, I would NOT recommend anyone do this. It's an aural assault that you definitely don't need while driving. There were moments where we had to pull over, turn it down, and take a breath because it was exhausting us and screwing with our vision to the point that we couldn't read road signs. Cool, but stupid.

And to finalize what was going on with the amp, it was dead. Took it to a local audio shop to test it, and sure enough, done. So money was being saved up for a new one.
Then the dangers of living in a not so great area came forward to rear their ugly head. Someone smashed out a window in the Explorer and took the head unit (actually, the ENTIRE center piece, including A/C controls) and the amp for the door speakers.

So now the sub is chilling in Delt's appt. waiting for a new amp or a new home. I'm considering buying it off of him, but not sure yet.
Too bad this great design is being wasted at the moment, but thems the breaks.

Thanks for all the interest guys, it's all really appreciated!

Here soon, I'll be buying the CD and then more projects begin.

Now the hard choice: old T36, or new T60. And do I have enough pack space for 12.