blackbetty14
Senior Member
- Joined
- Oct 23, 2014
- Posts
- 2,701
- Reaction score
- 1,424
- Location
- CT
- Ram Year
- 2024
- Engine
- Hemi 5.7 VVT/Etorque
Ive been wanting to add another sub to my 18 Laramie CC with the alpine system. I’ve upgraded every speaker minus the front doors and have replaced the stock sub with a pioneer shallow sub. I’m happy with the system but I would like just a smidge more thump. I do not want to modify the truck or delete anything to get what I want. Which means not lifting the seat and not getting rid of the fold flat floor. On my 14 express CC I used a $50 box off amazon and modded it for a 12” pioneer shallow sub but I had to lift the rear seat and it had no fold flat floor.
So in keeping everything stock I have created what I think is perfect. Went to Home Depot Saturday afternoon and picked up a qt of fiberglass resin, 1 fiberglass Matt package and a 2ftx2ft 1/2” MDF board. Came home and layed down 2” blue painters tape in the driver storage area. Then layed aluminum foil and started mixing resin and putting down Matt. Of course it was 20*F out and it was flurrying lol. Gave it a few hours to harden up and pulled it out and brought it inside to cure. Then I made a template in cardboard for the MDF top, transfered and cut the MDF and sub hole. Put the glass box back in the truck and put the MDF top on and proceeded to glass in some pieces through the sub hole to join the 2 together on the inside. Gave it a couple of hours to cure alittle in the freezing weather and then pulled it out and brought it inside. Laid on more glass where they meet around the perameter and the. Let it cure for a hour or so. ( I mix heavy hardener so it cures in less than 10 min in the cup lol) after about and hour or so I went around the edge with loctite construction adhesive that’s poly and not silicone. I also applied some to the inside with my finger. Let it cure over night and this morning I wired up my 2nd pioneer shallow sub into a 4 ohm config (has dual 2ohm voice coils) and ran the wires through the end of the box that I drilled a hole for. I sealed up the hole and pulled the sub out. Now I had some black carpet left over and covered the box with that being the stock sub was black. I went through final assembly and dropped the box in. Like a glove and fits so tight I have to force and wiggle it out of its hole.
To finish it off I’m going to run 20ft of 8 gauge welding cable from the battery and ground to the seat bolts. I have a scosche LOC from my old setup I’ll use and tap into the stock sub wire for signal. For the juice I won a Ebay bid for a Alpine MRV-250 amp, mono class D puts out 250w rms at 2 ohm and 150w rms at 4ohm minimum (I get actual cert rating with the amp) but they usually will do 40w+ over the rating. The pioneer 8” shallow sub has a 600w max and 150-175w rms rating. The Alpine amp also comes with a remote bass knob which costs $30 extra so if I bought it from crutchfield it would have been $150 amp and $30 knob or $180 total. I got both for $66 shipped lol, so siked about that. I have $35-40 invested in the glass, resin and MDF. Got the sub off amazon for $60 prime. So for about $160 I have the box, sub and amp ready to rock. I have the wire, cable, carpet etc all left over from other projects.
Either way, it came out nice and it’s solid. Pics of the progress and finished product as I’m sure you all want to see. Finished sub has about 1” clearance between the top
Of the sub and the bottom of the fold flat floor.
So in keeping everything stock I have created what I think is perfect. Went to Home Depot Saturday afternoon and picked up a qt of fiberglass resin, 1 fiberglass Matt package and a 2ftx2ft 1/2” MDF board. Came home and layed down 2” blue painters tape in the driver storage area. Then layed aluminum foil and started mixing resin and putting down Matt. Of course it was 20*F out and it was flurrying lol. Gave it a few hours to harden up and pulled it out and brought it inside to cure. Then I made a template in cardboard for the MDF top, transfered and cut the MDF and sub hole. Put the glass box back in the truck and put the MDF top on and proceeded to glass in some pieces through the sub hole to join the 2 together on the inside. Gave it a couple of hours to cure alittle in the freezing weather and then pulled it out and brought it inside. Laid on more glass where they meet around the perameter and the. Let it cure for a hour or so. ( I mix heavy hardener so it cures in less than 10 min in the cup lol) after about and hour or so I went around the edge with loctite construction adhesive that’s poly and not silicone. I also applied some to the inside with my finger. Let it cure over night and this morning I wired up my 2nd pioneer shallow sub into a 4 ohm config (has dual 2ohm voice coils) and ran the wires through the end of the box that I drilled a hole for. I sealed up the hole and pulled the sub out. Now I had some black carpet left over and covered the box with that being the stock sub was black. I went through final assembly and dropped the box in. Like a glove and fits so tight I have to force and wiggle it out of its hole.
To finish it off I’m going to run 20ft of 8 gauge welding cable from the battery and ground to the seat bolts. I have a scosche LOC from my old setup I’ll use and tap into the stock sub wire for signal. For the juice I won a Ebay bid for a Alpine MRV-250 amp, mono class D puts out 250w rms at 2 ohm and 150w rms at 4ohm minimum (I get actual cert rating with the amp) but they usually will do 40w+ over the rating. The pioneer 8” shallow sub has a 600w max and 150-175w rms rating. The Alpine amp also comes with a remote bass knob which costs $30 extra so if I bought it from crutchfield it would have been $150 amp and $30 knob or $180 total. I got both for $66 shipped lol, so siked about that. I have $35-40 invested in the glass, resin and MDF. Got the sub off amazon for $60 prime. So for about $160 I have the box, sub and amp ready to rock. I have the wire, cable, carpet etc all left over from other projects.
Either way, it came out nice and it’s solid. Pics of the progress and finished product as I’m sure you all want to see. Finished sub has about 1” clearance between the top
Of the sub and the bottom of the fold flat floor.