drill a hole? if you just drill a whole with out adding a port it is the same as making the system free air, and with todays subs you could destroy them that way. if your gonna drill a whole you have to have some type of port weather slot or tube it does not matter. slot ports are easy with the proper math as well. you have to know the width and depth to find it but with a little mdf and a saw you can achieve it with what you have. a tube port is easy as well grab a some 4inch pvc/abs and also with math figure out the length you need to make the port. cut a round whole and slide the tube in. caulk it for outter seal and it's gravy. if you do not do this right the out come will be as bad if not worse than what you have now.

another thing i failed to mention. if your enclosure is just a little to big, stuff the interior with polyfill (pillow stuffing) the stuff can do wonders and it is cheap.

 

that sucks man. i used to deal with so many insurance claims for audio systems it was sickening. what sucked is insurance would only cover "x" amount when a system worth insuring cost 3 times as much. we always tried to help the people out with better discounts but even so....
I was reading your posts through this about not putting subs in because they can get stolen. there are ways to integrate a sub and enclosure into the back of most vehicles to keep it semi stealth. i am working on a new design for my 1st gen runner now that will be 100% theft proof. mine will also integrate lockable, usable storage space for recovery gear and safety equipment

 

I got a rundown on SQ today, and I have concluded that a ported box will lower the boom factor, but clear up the mucky-ness and provide better SQ, which is really what I am shooting for. Also, I have the cone off one of my speakers because I was doing a repair, and I realized a lot of the air from inside the sub box is pushing out through the opening around the voice coil, which apparently will really muddle the sound and affect SQ drastically. I am gonna glue the cone on.

My cousin's boyfriend has a ported box and he wants a solid box, and I want a ported box, so we might trade...

 

hey your a little backwards here. a ported box produces more base (almost 6 db) and is never as crisp as a sealed enclosure. you will NEVER see a ported enclosure at a SQ competition, where as almost every sub enclosure in a base sound off is ported. sealed enclosure's lock air in/out keeping the exertion even through out its frequency range. if your looking for SQ ported is the wrong direction.

 

nice to have someone looking out for me haha. well, then, I will fix my cone and see how I like the SQ then. I have also decided to switch back to a factory head unit and factory amp for my system, as I believe it sounded so much better than the Sony head unit. I will be using high level inputs tapped from my speaker wires to run the amp. Though I would like to tap into the pre amp output of the head unit, as it would make for a much cleaner and a more simple-to-reverse install...

hmm, I wonder if the pre-amp out of the factory head unit would match that of the low level input on the amp... if so, that'd be killer...

 

I am unsure of the pre-amp out of the stock system. i am assuming that it was an amplified system to start. Scosche makes a line out converter as do alot of other companies, a devise to convert your speaker wires to rca. this may be the right direction. i have used them a few times for guys that like there stock HU. one thing to remember about a stock HU is that every car's Hu is atleast 3 years old the day the vehicle was made. i know that seams stupid but it is true. here is a link to scosche.
http://www.scosche.com/products/sfID.../159/sfID3/272

 

John, my factory stereo system has a small amplifier between the vehicle harness and the head unit. Signal coming out of the head unit is not amplified.

 

thats what i am getting at. to connect the hu to the aftermareket amp is is sometimes better to use the line out converter because rca cable will carry a cleaner signal to the amp.

 

but the beauty of tapping the pre amp out is I can build myself a custom crossover cable, one that goes from the pre amp output to an RCA cable, with no electronics involved. This bypasses any added expense, as I have all the materials handy at my house here.

Hmm, when I get thirty bucks, I am gonna upgrade to the head unit with a cd player that my Toyota mechanic has for sale, and wire this Siberian tiger up....

 

might work but i doubt it because speaker out of the hu is not low enough wattage to run direct to an amp. if you run to much power into the amp inputs you could damage your amp... splicing on an rca direct from the HU is probably a bad idea. one of the reasons for the electronics in between is to change the output to a usable signal strength for the amp. If your gonna do it you might as well do it right.
IDK you can try it but i think your in for some bad juju if you do. hate to see ya fry the circuit board in your amp.

 

I'll throw a volt meter on it, if its less than 8 volts, I can do it that way, as my amp has a variable input strength knob. The amp can handle 200 mV up to 8V on the low input side. If it won't work that way, I can just tap into the high level side of the harness and run a high level input.

edit: I am tapping the pre amp output of the stock head unit, which I will assume until my testing proves me wrong is indeed low level material. It wouldn't make any sense for Toyota to amplify the signal in the headunit and then again in the amplifier... Further testing is required to confirm this though.

 

i would definitely test before hooking it up. good luck

 

i got a 97 4runner, i bought a 15in kicker crv comp. series and a 500w amp off the internet. I designed my own box so it fits under the cover in the back. Its a 3.5 cubic foot box and it ported. I got a JVC head unit. I also installed kicker door speakers. I built the box and did all the wireing myself i have pictures and will upload them later for yall to see. If any one wants the blue prints they are in a PDF file and will be happy to send them to you.

p.s. i just registered to this today and I cant get a picture to appear on the left side of the page where every one else has one what am i doing wrong?

 

This is SOME of what WAS to go into my Taco.

I had been talking to someone about alternators, but his site is no longer and he never answered his e-mails... Plus, some psycho chick keyed my truck and that made me lose alot of interest as far as what I had planned for that truck.

 

see the link bar at the top of the page? click where it says "user cp" then click on the left where it says "edit avatar" there are direction on how to do it there.

 

OMG she keyed your X-RUNNER!!!??!?!?!?!?! Heads would be rolling! That is my dream truck...

 

Alright, so this is what ive built and am proud of it. It broke the back door hatch the first time I turned it on but, easy problem to fix. I took it apart and saw that I shook out the screws that connect the rod to the handle so I put them back and added a rubber washer to help with the vibrations. To prevent this from happening again I went to lows and bought some instillation and put it in there its much cheeper than dynomats and still works, its now in all my doors.

 

Don't dream much. The 05-06's are garbage. Body kit falls off, shifting is like rowing a rake through a box of bowling balls... No more American made Yotas for me... and with the way Toyota is with their warranty work, I may never own a new one again.

Anyway... I had it 3-4 months at the time I think.
Got it painted and when I went to pick it up, I opened both doors and it was two different shades.
Told the owner and he said "In all my years of painting, not one person has ever done that"
I was like, it's a brand new truck... of course I will nitpick.

 

tjacob - nice job on that install!

4-RUNNIN' FREAK - Oh that wont stop me lol. I will still dream, not like I'll be able to afford one for another 10 years at least. Theres one that runs around my school got a JBL stereo system and its bagged to about 1-2" off the ground. Toneau cover and roll pan... wish I could see under the hood, its bound to have a blower with all that work but I've never seen it drive so I cant hear it. Have you seen the new ones? That new red color looks awesome! Not so agressive and showoff-ish.