'88xtracab

Hello everyone. This is my first post on this forum, but I've been a long time lurker! I just purchased an 1988 Xtra Cab, but I don't pick it up for another week. I want to get the speakers ordered so I can get them installed right away. I've searched and searched the forum, the web, crutchfield, etc and have found a lot of conflicting info.

Form what I can gather, is there only one pair of speakers in this truck, located in the dash? And are they just your standard 4" speakers? I'm thinking about replacing them with 4" Alpine SPS 410 speakers. Anyone have any experience with these?

Also, if these are the only speakers, I probably will try to do a custom install of some 6x9s in the cab. Anyone have any suggestions on how to do this? I've read that since 6x9s are meant to be open air speakers, they don't perform well in boxes...

Finally, can I put a double din or 1.5 din deck in there, or should I just stick with the standard Alpine deck?

Thanks everyone! Looking forward to some great discussions on this board!

Josh
Charlotte, NC

'88xtracab

Oh, also, for the 4" speakers in the dash, can those be upgraded to 4x6" 5.25" or 6.5" with minor modifications to the mounting location, or are you pretty stuck with the 4"??

Thanks!
Josh

Dimedout

4" dash speakers are all my truck had. I installed 2 6" speakers in my 4runner console. Sounds pretty good. I know a bunch of guys cut some holes in the xtra cab plastic panels put I decided against that since they break very easy and are hard to find. I'm gonna throw a 10" or 2 10" speakers on the xtra cab shelf.

Greg_Canada

4" will fit in the dash, nothing larger.
You can cut holes in your door panels and install 6-1/2" speakers there, or do what i did and make custom kickpanel speaker pods... (i got Bumpin' Yota' to make mine)

'88xtracab

thanks for the replies. those kickpanels look cool. do you think these q logic ones from eBay will fit? it says 86-95 regular cab, but is the kick panel in the xtra cab different??

http://www.ebay.com/itm/86-thru-95-Toyota-Regular-Cab-Truck-Speaker-Kick-Panels-6-1-2-/370837037276?pt=Car_Audio_Video&hash=item56579c20dc&vxp=mtr

highonpottery

iTrader: (1)

pretty sure only the 4" dash speakers and that's the only size that'll fit in the dash. if you have stock head unit, you may not even have wiring outputs for rear speakers on the harness and aftermarket radio is the only fix. when I did speaker research, I found the 4" Boston Acoustics to be some of the highest rated small speakers. tested mine against some decent 4" kenwoods - the BAs blew them out of the water, were like 300x better in sound...they even sound better than my 6.5" Pioneer door speakers (added)

Greg_Canada

I doubt it, they bolt in differently. You may be able to modify to fit, but i have never tried...

Toyotafiberglass makes new replacement panels http://toyotafiberglass.com/truck_9.html (Scroll down)

Stetson_md

I had 10 infinity (now Harman) speakers outta a 93 Chrysler car and a $2ooo Pioneer stero mounted in my yota only to find out they speakers and the hideaway unit for my radio had been water damaged during the tropical storm we had tween the time I pulled them and the time I installed them. But I had a 6.5" in the bottom of each door a 1.25" in the top rear of each door 2 4" in the factory holes two 6x9" behind the seats and two 5.25" I planed to put in the kick panels. And had I not had to buy a new stereo and speakers ida had concert speakers in the bed. Atm its got 6 cheapo speakers and a 250 watt radio

donomite49

my 88 xtra cab came with the dash speakers as mentioned above, and some 4 or 5 inch little wimpy speakers in the panel behind the seats. sounded OK for what they were.
i put some pioneer 6" round coaxial speakers in the factory mounting location (drilled new mounting holes).
it sounds a lot better with just the rear speaker upgrade and the cheapo sony xplode head unit i've had for a while, course the radio went out but i still have cd.
i'd put speakers in the factory location, and put the amp and sub under the seats, space is limited in our trucks.

xXbrutalXcoreXx

I installed Infinity 60.9cs in the doors and on the pillars a while back and have been very happy with them. I also have 4" pioneer speakers in the dash to help with the mid-highs. Any sort of decent ~6.5" speaker in the doors is going to make a large improvement over stock.

94hiluxZE

I could only fit 4" in my dash. I put 2 6" can speakers in the back of my xtra cab boted on the top so I didnt loose space because I didnt want to cut into the door or anything crazy since I probably would have messed it up.

Gamefreakgc

I just finished putting in an entirely new stereo system in my truck. Hopefully I can add to what others have already posted.

I went with two Kicker DS40 4" speakers in the dash and two Kicker KS69 6x9"s in the back speaker compartments on the side panels. I went with a Kenwood KDC-255U since it offered 50 watt peak with 20 watt RMS. I don't have a sub or and amp, and don't really plan on it due to the lack of space.

First off, your truck may have storage pockets on the sides (I'm not talking about under the jump seats) instead of speakers. Mine had puny 4" speakers that weren't even wired to the stereo. They sounded awful anyway so wasn't about to keep them.

You'll want to buy a new Receiver, the factory one SUCKS, even if you do have a CD player. It doesn't put out enough watts to power your speakers well. There's lots different receivers out there, basically buy one that has the features you want. You'll want at least 50 watt peak, with at least 18 watt RMS. More is better. I pickup up a 50 watt, 20 watt RMS Kenwood that has USB functionality (all my music on a flash drive, play anything I want!), an AUX imput for iPods, phones, etc and CD player. All that for $70.

The brand of your speaker will make as much a difference as the size! Go to Best Buy, Fry's, or somewhere that lets you hear the speakers first. You'll know which brands are the best, and which ones you can afford. Polk Audio, Kicker, and Infinity are solid top of the line brands. Avoid the cheapo stuff, you'll regret it. I've never heard Alpine speakers so I can't speak to it. From what I've read, they are middle-of-the-line speakers. Again, listen to the speakers before buying them. Once you find a model you like, go buy them off Ebay or Amazon for half the price. Also, don't buy ancient speakers (really old models), newer technology is best since they sound better.

For the front, your options are just replacing the 4" speakers with better sounding speakers, or modding the interior to fit larger ones. I went with Kicker because they sounded crisp and clear, simple upgrade. You MIGHT be able to fit 4x6", but they don't sound as good as most 4" anyway. If you want 5" or 6" in the front, you'll need to modify your dash or install them in the door or kicker panels like the others suggested. Once again, the BRAND is key here, don't go with the cheap ones. A quality 4" will sound better than a cheap 6".

For the rear, if you don't have the rear speakers already installed, you'll need to modify the enclosure to be able to mount them. If you do have speakers back there, you'll need to clean out all the components, leaving you an empty shell. Keep the pieces from the old speaker enclosure, you can re-use the screws and mounting brackets (and even the speaker clips if you have to).

Your options in the rear are to just install another pair of 4" in the back (only if you had speakers there already, once again not all trucks do), or modify to hold 6", 6.5" or 6x9" speakers. I highly recommend not keeping the rear speakers at 4", you will have absolutely no bass in the truck. If you do look to install 6" or larger speakers, it's going to be some work. You'll need to remove the entire rear seat (a hint, the top and bottom panels pull off, but you have to pull HARD!), the side panels behind the door, the seatbelts, among others. Once you get to the storage compartment/speakers you'll need to remove all components from inside so you have a clean enclosure. Most speakers nowaday are open-air or Infinity Baffle speakers, meaning the will sound ok without a wooden enclosure (speaker box) as long as you isolate the rear sounds (bass) from the front sounds (mid and treble). I did this by sound proofing the speaker enclosure with some dynomat materials, some expanding foam, mounting my 6x9"s on MDF board and sealing the edges with expanding foam again (see below).



As you can see, I reused the original mounting holes and bolts. Made it easier. However, the 1/2" would have killed the sound from the speakers. From there, I just painted the foam and speaker board a flat grey to match the interior and put it all back together. For the 6x9" I also had to cut further down the panel so they would fit.



I'm very happy with how they turned out (it looks better than in the pictures). The sound is a huge improvement over stock. The bass isn't anything spectacular though since there isn't a perfect, sound-proof enclosure to put them in (most newer cars mount them behind the rear seats over the trunk for better bass). If you want that, you'll need to buy pre-made enclosures and set them on top of your back seats, making your truck only able to hold 2 people instead of 4.

The last piece is wiring. This can take as long as mounting the speakers if you don't know what you are doing. The good news is that you don't have to do anything crazy, in fact installing an aftermarket stereo system is easier than the factory. The factory system uses about 18 different wires ( around 14 speaker wires?), the new ones take about 12, with only 8 speaker wires. You'll have a positive and negative for each speaker (4 sets of 2), power, ground, mute, and a couple others.

If you already have an aftermarket receiver in the truck then most of the work has already been done (wahoo!). I still recommend buying a newer one but it might be decent enough. The connector in the back will just plug in, you'll just have to connect your new speakers to the already existing wires (unless you didn't have rear speakers, then you'll have to run wires, not hard though). If you have the factory receiver then you'll have more work (boo...), since you'll need to wire the entire harness. The hard part is figuring out from the 3 or 4 different connectors which wires go to which component. The colors match... sort of. The easiest way to rewire is buy a cheapo wire cutter/stripper and some butt connectors that you can just crimp or twist on. Go one by one and match up the wires (the ones with black stripes are the negative). Your new receiver should come with a wire harness to start with so you'll be connecting each wire to the ones you just ran or existing factory wiring. You'll have several clips and wires that will be left over that are not hooked up, that's ok.

There you go... hope that helps ya. Overall, it cost me $190 for spekers and the receiver and about $50 for supplies/parts.

'88xtracab

Thanks for all of the replies guys, keep em coming! I love to see all of the custom stuff you guys did. Its giving me great ideas. I guess I'll probably just have to wait until I get the truck on Monday to see what's in the back there. Probably will stick to 4" in the front and try to figure out a way to get 6x9s in the back. Thinking about adding an Alpine double din receiver as I like the look of all of that space being taken up. If anyone has a double din deck in there some photos would be appreciated so I can see the look!

I used to do this stuff to my cars (and friends cars) back in high school so I have a little experience and can probably figure out the wiring part and some of the modification stuff. the thing I probably know the least about is the soundproofing and what not to make the speakers sound better, eliminate rattling, improve bass, etc., etc. I never really got as far as adding dynamat and that stuff on my high school budget back then.

Also wondering, being that the 4" speakers have nearly no bass, should I put a crossover on them so the low frequencies don't distort the sound?

Gamefreakgc

Glad to hear you know a bit and feel comfortable.

I didn't put crossovers on mine but was prepared to do so if it sounded poor. They sound just fine, it might be unique to my setup though. Probably varies from system to system.

As far as rattling goes, you shouldn't have any unless you're putting in a sub. If you do, that means there's clips or screw missing and the trim pieces are loose. Mine doesn't rattle and it's far from perfect.

Double-din would be awesome. I thought about it but they are too pricey for me but the video screens and large displays look fantastic. However, double-din means double-chance of being stolen.

RSR

If you search the forums before posting, all of your questions would be answered....

oldblue

i just recently upgraded my stereo in my truck, the am/fm only was getting old. i put in a pioneer deck, 50x4 watts. it has a cd player i never use, but an auxillary input and a usb port so i can use my phone for slacker radio and my ipod for all my saved music. i replaced the dash speakers with a set of pioneer speakers 4". They were like $80 which i thought was insane, but they sounded soooooo much better than the factory. even with just these two speakers, the sound system was decent. i then added two pioneer 6.5" speakers (cheapo $30) in the rear side cubby hole compartments. i just grabbed some particle board from home depot and made them to fit into the cubby and put the speakers in those. that way if i ever wanted, i could remove the speakers and still put the factory "doors" back in. even tho these were cheap speakers from wallmart, it made it sound great. i have decent bass now, and i can crank it up loud!! i have less than $175 total in the setup.

'88xtracab

thanks Old Blue, do you have some pictures of your cubby speakers you can post? that's sounds like a good solution. I like the idea of speakers in my door, but not sure that I want to do any major cutting, so your cubby speakers sound like a good option!

Greg_Canada

Nice job, but those aren't "high end" speakers, they are low-mid end. High end speakers cost $500++ for a set. Mid end, 250-499. I do fully agree with listening to them first, but newer speakers wont sound much better than older speakers... speaker tech hasn't changed too much in the past 20 years to make it change by leaps and bounds.

Buy a deck that has a built in crossover... issue solved. I had to make mine run 85hz + or they would sound bad. 6x9's and 6.5's should play down to 50-60hz.

An amp will ALWAYS make the speakers sound better, even if you buy a 25w rms x 4 amp, the difference will be incredible. A deck puts out "20w rms x 4" but the amp is literally smaller than a pinky finger. You will get deeper bass, greater treble, much cleaner sound, etc.
If you want to run off just a deck, get speakers with the lowest power handling you can. If you get 100w rated speakers, but the deck only puts out 20 w, they are severely underpowered. You want to buy 35-50w rated speakers max.

Gamefreakgc

Yes, I'm aware of those speakers, they put them in high-end luxury cars. I'm talking about the average consumer, no one on here than $200 for a pair of speakers. If we had that kind of money, we'd all have newer trucks!

Greg_Canada

LOL i hear you, but some of us are crazy and love dumping $ into the old trucks cause they have the cool/nostalgic factor you can't get in the new "electronic" vehicles.