BillFitzmaurice.info

Yup. Here it is the mighty Parker, Arizona river float.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Parke ... eddc?hl=en

http://parkeraz.org/annual-tube-float/

Okay, so as of now, I have 2 double loaded T30s being driven off one channel of a Peavey ipr2 3000, 2 Otop12s being driven off on side of the QSC USA400 (about 200 watts into 4 ohms). The subs will be stood upright and side-by-side with the Otops sitting on top of them. All of these will be facing "front" or "rear" of the raft so as to not kill any raft passengers with sound. I am strongly considering adding my Jack12 (driven off 2nd channel of qsc amp) facing the raft itself so the passengers will get some sound too.

Any thoughts? My concerns are not having the tops high enough - sitting on top of 30" high subs on the raft that will probably be sitting at least 1 foot above the water level. Most "rafts" will be inner tube type floats, but there probably will be some other pontoon type rafts too. Should I consider raising the tops? I have some cheap tripod type speaker stands, but not top hats installed in any of my tops - just the plastic hats that screw onto the bottom of the speakers. Of course stability is a concern with these being on a raft!

I think we will end up splaying the tops about 90 degrees for wider coverage. Of course if I splayed them 120 degrees we could theoretically get all 360 degrees around us. All tops have melded arrays, so I may do the 120 degree splay.

You guys will be getting some pics of the event for your viewing pleasure. It is this Saturday, and we are getting excited. I still need to build a redneck margarita machine out of a garbage disposal and Igloo cooler. Time is tight.

Also, the generator test running all subs (but only 1 otop) went perfect. The generator is not too loud either. The weather forecast says 110 degrees Saturday! Yikes. The water temperature will probably be "only" in the 80s. I am planning to put a light sheet over the amp rack in case any water is splashed onto it. Hopefully the amps can keep their cool.

Best of luck! I want to see how you make this "Redneck Margarita Machine" out of a garbage disposal and a cooler! I would hope the disposal is new? Can't imagine drinking any liquid that's passed through a used disposal. *puke*

I and the equipment lived to tell the tale. Details and pics to follow. Raging success on the river!

The Raft:


Don't mind the fat ass holding the rope in the pic (me). I swear I don't have a "good" side anymore. You can see my tiki redneck margarita machine on the left side of the raft, along with the 2 otop12s and 2 dual loaded T30s. And my cool tiki we screwed to the front.


Same lard ass pouring a margarita.


Hooligan Gang IN THE HOUSE! You can see my Jack12 that was faced the opposite direction compared to the Otops. Later I turned one of the Otops 90 degrees to fire at the huge flock of rafts that tied off to us to hear the awesome music.





Were we a hit? Were we the loudest and cleanest sound on the river??? Why yes, yes we were! These are people who tied off to us to enjoy the party. Maybe it was the margarita machine and the beer we had, but I'm pretty sure it was the music.






Another shot of the margarita machine (Lowe's 5 gallon Igloo cooler with garbage disposal mounted on the bottom, then wrapped with reeds)and a few of the party people

There is another river float (at Laughlin this time instead of Parker) in August. The people that built the raft asked if I want to go. I told them if they double the size of the raft to 16'x16', I will double the size of the sound system. I have enough amp for it, just need to build more speakers. Back to the garage now.

Looked like a fantastic day and result

Yes Tom, I agree,

67baja wrote: Don't mind the fat ass holding the rope in the pic (me).
Same lard ass pouring a margarita.

If it will help your ego, I'll post a shirtless photo of me....that'll make you feel thin.......


As long as Drey keeps his shirt on .... he makes everybody look bad.

Bruce Weldy wrote:If it will help your ego, I'll post a shirtless photo of me....that'll make you feel thin......

I'm willing to bet I have everyone on this forum beat as king of the lard ass. I'm not going to post a pic, but I'm sure Tom and/or Monomer will vouch for me being truthful. I'm 5'11" tall (if I could stand fully upright) and weight just under 400 pounds (~181.5 kilograms)
There is a reason I call myself "Phatman"

Bruce Weldy wrote:As long as Drey keeps his shirt on .... he makes everybody look bad.

+1,000,000! Drey is the epitome of physical fitness.

Some details on the raft, etc.

The raft was built as 2 8x8 rafts using pressure treated 2x6s. Each raft was set on 4 55 gallon plastic barrels which float about 450 pounds each. The 2 rafts were bolted together to make a single 8x16 raft, but the waves caused the 2 rafts to flex at the bolts and started pulling the wood apart, so we just used nylon tie downs to hold the rafts together but allowed them to flex in the middle. If too many people were in the middle of the 2 rafts, the seam there would dip into the water so we had to scatter the people around the raft a bit. My amp rack had the front and back access covers off but I stapled cheap towels over them just in case we got hit with water - there were a lot of people squirting everyone with water. I did put a little 8-10" fan in the back of the rack to help circulate air just in case the amps needed it.

The margarita machine with the 1/3 horsepower disposal drew a shit-ton of power on start up which caused the music to die out completely for about 5 seconds. Also the generator would jump around when I flipped the switch for the disposal. I am sure that wasn't the best situation for the amps, generator, etc. but everything worked perfect after the disposal was up and running. I may want to add a battery setup or capacitor for the starting of the margarita machine. It was funny when we asked if anyone wanted a drink from the margarita machine. People would swim up and (with the machine running, mind you) we would open the 1" ball valve above their mouth and they would get literally showered with margarita. A disposal and a 1" pipe = a lot of margarita real fast.

Speaking of the margarita machine, it works amazing in the garage, but in 110 degree weather using ice that is right at 32 degrees instead of the 0 degrees right from the freezer, we did not create slush but rather really cold liquid margaritas. Gotta come up with a solution for that.

I only saw 1 girl who really "earned" her bead necklace, tho we distributed hundreds of them. Hopefully the new owners deserved them but I missed the show.

The people I was with asked for just fun music for the river. You know good music from the 70s, 80s, etc. that people in their 30s and 40s could sing along to. The reality was that the current dance music went over way,way better. People on the boats would be dancing and partying to Lady Gaga, then Queen would come on and everyone just settled down. Then the Hooligan Gang would (live) rap a few songs and rafts would just untie them selves from us and drift away. Put on your surprised faces, but something about "being a Boss Nigga" just didn't fly with the crowd. It was really too bad I hadn't prepared enough dance music for the event. The crowd was more of a Spring Break type crowd. People in their 20s doing beer bongs and shots.

My plan for immediate future expansion:

2 more dual loaded T30s and some SLA Pros (because I have all the stuff in the garage to make them). On the next raft, I will take one 8x8 section for myself. V-plate the 4 dual loaded T30s (WOW) diagonally on the 8x8 and put the otop12s on top of them (which will help the sound travel since they will be higher), then do the sla pros on the other end of the raft. With a raft that big (16x16), I may face all 4 tops inward to the raft so we can have a dance area on the raft and the tops should still travel outward in all directions. Any thoughts?

I know mixing otops and sla pros may not be the best thing to do, but that's my plan at this point. SLA Pros are for sure on my short list of things to build. If I point all the tops outward from the 4 corners of the raft, I could use the Jack12 firing onto the raft for local sound, but it would not be as impressive as all tops facing in. Remember, I am new to all this and am feeling (reading) my way.

67baja wrote: The margarita machine with the 1/3 horsepower disposal drew a shit-ton of power on start up which caused the music to die out completely for about 5 seconds. Also the generator would jump around when I flipped the switch for the disposal. I am sure that wasn't the best situation for the amps, generator, etc. but everything worked perfect after the disposal was up and running. I may want to add a battery setup or capacitor for the starting of the margarita machine.

An old trick is to run 1 or 2 500 watt par cans on the genny to keep the load, hence the rpms up. Worth a try.

67baja wrote:

That's a crazy inflatable!

+1 on running parcans (or some other constant half decent load) on the genny to even out the revs.

Your raft sounds a bit precarious though... weren't you worried about it all going in the drink