Factory Alpine Subwoofer Replacement

[RyanDavidPonter]

Haven’t been here in a while, but my truck has the 10 speaker Alpine Sound System and it’s decent. The door speakers can get loud when it comes to lows, mids, and highs. The dash speakers and the headliner speakers do a decent job with highs and mids (looking forward to replacing them eventually), but the only thing that is really annoying me is that junky 8 inch subwoofer. All it does is rattle and you can barely hear it.

I’m looking forward to replacing it with something that at least sounds better. I’m not expecting loud and extreme performance since I want to run it off the factory amplifier, I just want something that sounds better and gets the job done.

I was looking at the CT Sounds Bio 8” subwoofer. It’s a lower end subwoofer of CT Sounds but I’ve heard some pretty good things about them. The RMS rating on them is 300 watts and they are 2 ohm, and I think the factory amplifier gives out 100-200 watts and it’s also a 2 ohm, so I wonder if that would work.

I’m not sure if I would need some kind of adapter ring or modifications to get the subwoofer to fit into the factory enclosure, and I also don’t know what exact harness I would need to make it plug and play with the factory harness, because I don’t feel like cutting up wires and I want to keep it simple and clean.

Has anyone done this?

 

[Happycamperr]

Hi, there has been quite a few other threads on different forms and some YT videos about it. I’m looking to do it also, favoring the pioneer sub. Seems like a pretty simple task, here is a YT link to one of the videos. I would post the other forum links, but it might be against the rules, a google search should pull them up, just look for “replacing OEM alpine sub ram 1500”

Edit: keep in mind it has to be a shallow mount sub if you plan to keep the original box, there’s a few people online that have put the dimensions and what you can fit in the oem box. You’ll need some metra harness adapters also. I believe it’s a dual 2 ohm voice coil, but the video should say. It’s recommended you seal the factory box and stuff it with poly fill, some people also line the box with sound deaden mats, to try and give it more of a punch. Hope this helps

SIMPLE Subwoofer Upgrade for Ram 1500 (2009-2018 Ram 4th gen Trucks)

Buy the Pioneer sub here! https://amzn.to/3fOcJCgMetra harness: https://amzn.to/3qag0k9***FOR A LIMITED TIME*** (it's on right now): Get $40 cash back when y...

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[Cableman]

I see people put an 8” pioneer sub in place, the shallow one, and some polly fill, not sure how much it really does.

I just installed the pac ch-41 sub harness so i was able to install an alpine 600x1 amp and 12” type s sub in a box i made to fit where the factory one goes. Night and day sound, it punches hard and changed the whole sound of the system. I also replaced the dash and rear door speakers with infinity’s

 

[RyanDavidPonter]

Hi, there has been quite a few other threads on different forms and some YT videos about it. I’m looking to do it also, favoring the pioneer sub. Seems like a pretty simple task, here is a YT link to one of the videos. I would post the other forum links, but it might be against the rules, a google search should pull them up, just look for “replacing OEM alpine sub ram 1500”

Edit: keep in mind it has to be a shallow mount sub if you plan to keep the original box, there’s a few people online that have put the dimensions and what you can fit in the oem box. You’ll need some metra harness adapters also. I believe it’s a dual 2 ohm voice coil, but the video should say. It’s recommended you seal the factory box and stuff it with poly fill, some people also line the box with sound deaden mats, to try and give it more of a punch. Hope this helps

SIMPLE Subwoofer Upgrade for Ram 1500 (2009-2018 Ram 4th gen Trucks)

Buy the Pioneer sub here! https://amzn.to/3fOcJCgMetra harness: https://amzn.to/3qag0k9***FOR A LIMITED TIME*** (it's on right now): Get $40 cash back when y...

m.youtube.com

The CT Sounds subwoofer’s height is 4.69”, and I was doing some more research and the factory subwoofer is about 4”, so the CT Sounds is VERY slightly taller.

I saw a couple of people put in 8” Skar SDRs in their factory subwoofer enclosure and they created a custom spacer because of the height. I believe the SDRs height is about 6” or so.

I know you’re supposed to use a shallow mount subwoofer, but honestly I really don’t care if it doesn’t sound properly tuned because of the factory enclosure, anything is better than that piece of junk under the seat right now.

I might try the polyfill method and see if that does anything. I’ll keep you updated on what I end up doing.

 

[RyanDavidPonter]

So I’m COMPLETELY rethinking the idea. I did some research and I’m starting to think about getting a whole new single 8” ported enclosure, and retrofitting the wiring harness into it.

I also started looking into the RECOIL RW8D2. The reason why I’m choosing this sub instead is because it has a lower RMS rating. It’s rated at 200 watts RMS and I believe the factory sub is rated at 150 watts RMS. It should be pretty good, especially since the RECOIL sub is gonna run off a 2 ohm load.

Now about the enclosure, the factory enclosure really does suck after I took a deeper look at it in my truck and how it performs. I realized that a lot of the bass is coming from the opposite side of the sub, and it’s almost like it’s trapped, so I think a ported enclosure would help get some more loudness, and definitely would sound better.

I’m not completely sure how I’m gonna retrofit the wiring harness from the factory enclosure into the new (and definitely improved) enclosure. I guess the only way to find out is do it myself since nobody else has done this (at least to what I’ve heard and seen).

 

[Marshall]

Way back in the day I did sound systems and electronics , The speaker, woofer is only part of the solution, the box/ encloser is as or more important to get good bass, as you noted in last post. sealed box's work with small speakers, but good bass are usally ported, insulated baffled cases.
Power has not so much unless you just want to blow the back window out.
My factory system is the same as yours, but Highs are my problem, and I have hearing problems now with aids. I don't have any rattle in mine, but I don't run much volume.
One of the better mid range systems I use to handle where Philips brand, lower power, but quality 8" woofer is a proper encloser .
At one time I built some enclosers, but they where more for the home.

 

[RyanDavidPonter]

Way back in the day I did sound systems and electronics , The speaker, woofer is only part of the solution, the box/ encloser is as or more important to get good bass, as you noted in last post. sealed box's work with small speakers, but good bass are usally ported, insulated baffled cases.
Power has not so much unless you just want to blow the back window out.
My factory system is the same as yours, but Highs are my problem, and I have hearing problems now with aids. I don't have any rattle in mine, but I don't run much volume.
One of the better mid range systems I use to handle where Philips brand, lower power, but quality 8" woofer is a proper encloser .
At one time I built some enclosers, but they where more for the home.

Nice!

 

[16WhiteQC]

Just do the shallow pioneer listed above, have been running mine for 9 years.

It's a noticeable difference as far as how clean with a little added volume and you keep the fold flat floor.

*Edit - If this is close enough just go grab this, had one in my 08' PowerWagon, sounded good! -- https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1598412848131866/

 

[One Mile Up]

@RyanDavidPonter --> here is what I did -- and it's been _fantastic_ (IMO!)

Finally, upgrading my factory audio (Keep it simple, stoopid!)

My truck : 2017 2500 6.4L Hemi (Laramie) w/factory Alpine 9-speaker system Doing the audio upgrades in phases (as money allows :hidesbehindsofa:)... just got phase 2 completed! ✅ Phase 1: - Replace factory 8.4 U-connect with KENWOOD eXcelon Reference DMX1057XR head unit. ✅ Phase 2: -...

www.ramforum.com