Amp Rack Design

I decided that mounting the Amp behind the carpet will be too difficult (based on the difficult mounting w/o drilling as well as lack of ease of access to gain/crossover settings).

I didn't want to drill into the seat either, but I didn't want my amp laying flat taking up any more space than necessary. Then I thought about using a board that fits the rear seat to the bumper side of the trunk as a base. I'll make a solid back wall (which faces the seats) and mount the amp horizontally on that. Then I'll make a top that covers where the roof of the trunk is (attatched to the wall I built) and put 2 braces in front to support the wall which the amp is mounted on. The sides and rear facing portion will all be open. Then the sub box goes between that and the bumper, on the base board.

I might even take advantage of the space between the seat and the amp rack making 2 false walls that I can hide any wiring. I would drill holes into the wall to run the power, ground, turn on, and something with the LOC's (maybe mount them to the wall with velcro).

Here is a drawing I did fast to show what I'm thinking. Obviously none of it is to scale, and the amp won't have that much space between it and the supports (only about 2-3 inches) The bottom drawing sucks, the top one is more what it will look like. Let me know what you think.

why dont you save yourself a lot of time and space and just screw it to the top or back of the sub box?

that's going to waste your entire trunk space, and looks like a lot more work then putting it behind the carpet.

what I am going to do is get a big piece of cardboard, and cut it out so that it fits in behind the carpet. Then get some mdf or something and trace it on to that, cut it out and put the wood in there, then silicon it to the car. then screw the amp to that.

[mike2002]

the vibrations from being directly on the sub box will shorten the life of the amp quite a bit

also, i dont think you have THAT much space in the trunk. id but the box up to the seat itself, its not a deep trunk

you could custom build a board in the spare tire well for your amp/wires, if you dont mid getting rid of the spare. or you could put the amp there, and then get a carpet cover for the tire, like old cars had, and set the spare off to the side. since if you decide you want the spare, and you have that setup, your not getting it out to easily with all that stuff on top

that crap about vibrations is pure 100% BS

it would vibrate a lot more going down the road, bumps, etc.

[mike2002]

Originally posted by tenny@Apr 6 2005, 07:34 PM
that crap about vibrations is pure 100% BS

it would vibrate a lot more going down the road, bumps, etc.

Quoted post

yes i know nothing....i just see alot of amps going back to my brothers shop, and the tech's/owners of those companies saying that alot problems are from screwing that amp to the box. i guess those techs at phoenix gold, mtx, atomic audio, etc etc dont know anything either, afterall george at atomic audio did pioneer loudspeakers

the road doesn't give it vibrations like a screwing it to a box thats actually getting decent power will. you get much harsher vibrations on the box itself. and no, hitting bumps arn't good for it either, but thats not as constant as the sub vibrations, and why subject it to more abuse than you need to.

well they gotta blame it on something...

sub boxes dont vibrate that much, it's not going to hurt it at all.

get someone to drive your car and lay in the trunk well going down the highway, you'll find that when your not sitting on a cushy seat it does in fact vibrate.

[mikegett]

Have you ever used transducers or ultarsonic cleaners? They are coils bolted onto a solid surface. When voltage is applied to the coil (transducer) it vibrates. Different voltages give different energy waves. Your sub coil is one large transducer. At low frequencies its vibrations can be subsonic. It is not the force of the vibration but the wave produced that causes damage. Our subsonic cleaners feel like a electric toothbrush but will strip coatings off of stainless steel. It is by far one of the most abbrasive means to clean.

:grin: :new_all_coholic:

a lightbulb is also a transducer, so is an LED. Does that mean that I cannot mount my amp near any lights or LED's?

I knew it was that freakin LED that screwed up my last amp... lol

[mike2002]

do what you want tenny, you obviously know your stuff . To everyone else, find somewhere else for your amp

meh if mounting it to the subbox really did ruin amps like you guys say there would be a lot more problems then there are. 80% of amp installs are done that way.

what specific part of teh amp is effected by the vibrations? Prove to me exactly how it ruins the amp and then i'll believe it.

if you turn up your stereo and put your hand on your sub box, there is not much vibration

[mike2002]

i guess we should re-phrase that. sub boxes with decet subs in them, getting decent power, will shorten the life of a amp if its mounted to it.....

no one is saying they ruin them, but it does shorten there life, and put more stress on them. ive dropped my cell phone at least 30 times, it still works, but i know dropping it isn't good for it

mikegett is a tech for eclipse, and ive heard from several other techs / owners of audio companies, not to attach the amp to the box. when we were running concept 2400's a few years ago in my brothers truck for a competition, we were on a deadline and we ddint' have time for a custom rack, and my brother mounted the amps to the box. it was a ported box, but the thing vibrated so much it turned the dials on the crossover. so we put little daps of silicon on them to stop those from moving, he ruined 2 concept 2400's that weekend. 1 on the way down, then he put a spare in and another on the way back. when we got back we built a custom rack, and they worked fine for the next 6 months untill we switched them for american bass 1200's.

not sure what "proof" you need. its pretty common knowledge that vibrations shorten the life of electronics. its also common knowledge that they will get more vibrations being on a box, then put on a rack.

A quick note about my design.

The base board will only be about 14" wide, and it will be on the 40 seat side of the trunk, so the whole 60 side will be able to fold down with no obstruction.

By mounting the amp on its side, I will only take up about 4" of floor space vs 10" or so. This will allow me to keep the sub closer towards the seat.

See, I really don't want to drill into seats or floorpans or basically anything, but I don't want my box (13.5 x 13.5 x 10.5) to tip over and everything to be sliding around the trunk.

If someone has a better solution than what I drew up, fill me in.

[mike2002]

what are the measurements of the amp? lxwxh?


if i was to remove my amp off my rear seat, i wouldn't know it had ever been there. 4 tiny holes masked by pushing the carpet over them. the rear seat has a huge plastic backing to, so its very secure...just a fyi

The amp measurments are 13-1/16"W x 2"H x 10-5/16"D

My box is 13-1/2"W x 13-1/2"H x 10-1/2"D.

Now that I know you can't tell anything was mounted on the seat if you removed the amp, I may just do that instead.

I still need an idea for the box though, and I think using that board sounds decent, but if anyone has a suggestion that doesn't involve drilling into my trunk, I'd like to hear it.

mike - when you drilled to mount your amp, did you just drill through the carpet and everything? Or did you cut flaps on the carpet, lift those and then drill? I don't want to F*up my seat in any way by drilling wrong.

[BLK03GXS]

Originally posted by tenny@Apr 7 2005, 01:34 AM
that crap about vibrations is pure 100% BS

it would vibrate a lot more going down the road, bumps, etc.

Quoted post

After this post you should have shut your face, you obviously know NOTHING. GO home Jr, and respect what ppl who know more then you tell you. If you dont want to beleave it, then dont. but Dont dispute what is fact.

if its a fact then PROVE IT if you cant then f*** off and shut your mouth.

Anyone has yet to show actual proof or tell me how exactly it hurts the amp or shortens its life. So tell me all about your "facts".

What does the vibration do, saying it shortens its life is hardly proving anything and is hardly a fact. Do the transistors all of a sudden melt? do the heat sinks catch on fire? do the resistors turn into goopy jelly? do the rectifiers catch on fire and burn your car all up? Does the power wire blow up killing 8000 innocent bystanders???

Please enlighten me as to what exactly happens, share all of these facts and proof you have with the rest of us mere mortals, oh great car audio gods!

crap somebody better call infinity, bazooka, etc and tell them to stop making powered sub boxes because they are all going to blow up and kill somebody... can one of you car audio gods do that? may mister blk03gxs can do that? I am sure he knows all the right numbers to call.

[mike2002]

well im going to ignore tenny...but anyways


jiffy, i didn't pre drill. i got some pointed screws and just drilled them in, the plastics soft enough so you dont need to pre-drill. if i take the screws out, i can just massage the carpet and the holes are still there, but barely noticible. i believe the carpet is glued to the plastic, so you cant cut a flap up, but a flap would be more noticeable. I used #10 screws i believe, they were pretty thick, but my amps pretty heavy. with a lighter amp, you can use thinner screws that are even less intrusive.

also, since you mounting your amp sideways, the heat sinks are not as effective. one thing i did was put some 3/4" rubber washers under the screws, when drilled in they squished to about 3/8", but now the amp itself isn't touching the seat, so heat can get out from behind it. also helps to absorb a little vibration id think.