Fahrenheit 451

I searched through the electronics section on this and since it seemed to be a somewhat blighted area, I decided to try my luck here.
First off, I am not a huge audiophile nor am I some 16 yr old punk trying to vibrate my gonads with massive amounts of bass that does little more than tick off other drivers and make license plates rattle making the car sound very much like a baby toy on steroids.
This plain jane '93 4Runner exists for the sole purpose of getting my son to daycare, me to work afterwards and to take us on family camping trips. When I bought it a few years ago I stuck the old Pioneer from my '85 4Runner into it. Ye old tape deck is about 8yrs old now and cassettes no longer play very well in it even after cleaning the heads.
Here is link to a Google search for "tape deck" and one for "cassettes" for you young 'uns.
So, I would like something new and better, plays cds and likely mp3s once I figure out how to do the mp3 thing. Technology what?
My main problem is that as I have aged, the hearing in my shins is no long what it used to be so hearing the speakers that Toyota placed (perhaps to promote circulation in one's left leg while driving) in the dashboard aren't enough for even me. Perhaps if I keep this truck long enough, when I am older and deafer I can get hearing aid extensions and tie them to my socks.
I would also like to be able to play music or audio books and have my son be able to hear them.
What I would like to do is to put some speakers in the rear of the truck. This brings about the real issue. We recently came back from a camping trip and the truck was still full of gear (with a 3yr old and camping in the desert you have to bring enough for anything from 30 degree to 70 degree temps and it adds up). The first thing I noticed when looking at the truck to figure out what to do about speakers was that I had to dig down to get to the factory speaker location. No point in going through the huge hassle of pulling panels and putting in spiffy new speakers if they are muffled under sleeping bags and water containers. Although I suppose you could possibly get some cool "Jaws" effect that way.
After searching the internet I have come across 5 main things:
Pods made for you, pods you make yourself, speaker boxes big enough to smuggle small children in that apparently are actualllly made to house loud speakers designed large enough to warn off low flying planes, small simple carpeted boxes that I assume one simply tosses in the back of the truck and hopes for the best, and marine grade weatherproof and waterproof bracket mounted box speakers.
I don't have time to make my own pods, I live far from the airport, I quit smuggling children when Angelina Jolie and Madonna made quasi-legal child adoption popular enough to drive down the market and I am guessing that marine grade speakers sound best accompanied with heat stroke and beer ears.
This pretty much leaves small boxes and crossed fingers or pods made to order. Anybody have much experience with either in a truck whose real purpose in life will be getting dirty and bumped around?
I found these on eBay: pods built for you and was intrigued, but compared to a $20 box the "neat-o" factor starts to tarnish a tad maybe. Then again, if they really worked and could possibly be set up to quickly mount and dismount it might be worth it.
Any opines will help. To put it in perspective, I've been driving for about 25yrs, this is my 8th truck, but I believe only the 3rd stereo/speakers combo I have ever purchased. So, yeah, I'm pretty clueless

trythis

I think a good bet is to get a factory stereo with a factory amp from a 2003 or later model. They have a plug on the back for a CD changer and you an get an ipod adapter that plugs into that with the changer or not. They will display your titles and the stereo (2003 and newer) will not be so loud that people next to you arent ready to shoot you.

The 4 inch speakers in the front can be upgraded to handle 40 watts or so for that extra built in factory amp, and then use the back lower corner of the door for some 6 inch speakers. If you want to go crazy, get some little tweeters for the front top part of the door, and get a small (10 inch) self powered sub box.

I did similar, but no sub, in my truck. The speakers are inside the back seat and are invisible back panel but out of the way so that a tiny person can still sit in there. My radios head unit is from a 2000, so it lacks the music information, but I really like the double DIN big button factory radios. I cant stand removable face plates and all those tiny ass buttons that come on new replacement head units. It has a CD player and a tape deck, and the factory amp is loud enough to hurt my ears if I want it to. The little tiny factory amp will fit under the easy enough, and makes a big difference over the stock power. If you like the little tiny radios, (single DIN) I guess, your thinking I wasted my time typing all that.

Fahrenheit 451

"If you like the little tiny radios..."
Heck, I didn't even know there was an option LOL! I just figured they were all small with flippin' tiny buttons so you can't tell what is going on without putting everybody else on the road at risk.
I figure if I can get some sound behind me I'll have a better chance of hearing it and it sounding somewhat good as well as making it so my son can hear it well enough.
I only have a little hearing loss on the left side, but it seems to be enough that anything sitting low is pretty much wasted. Mostly, I want to try and figure out a way to get speakers behind me and high enough I can hear them well while ensuring that they won't get covered or bashed by camping stuff.

bob200587

what year and stuff is you're truck?

I have replacement 4" speakers in the dash, an Alpine head unit, and matching 6x9" speakers in the walls for the rear.

SKNKWRX

pods made for 2nd gen runner (I fit them in my 1st gen) from crutchfield



small 10" sealed sub in rear (removable easily)



new head unit that plays CD/CDR/CDRW/MP3 CDs



amp hidden in the rear



good luck remember speakers should be in the front not the rear of you....you dont turn your back on the band at a concert do you?

Turd Ferguson

Short of going all out and doing amps etc, there are alternatives.

I have a 5 year old Alpine CDA9815 head unit in my rig, with the stock speakers and formerly a small 10" sub I've since taken out.

Search out a V-Drive series Alpine head unit. They have a very strong amp built in and surprisingly will make the stock speakers sound decent.

From there, your fronts are 4" speakers and won't provide much in the way of output, but there are options, from drop-in replacements to full-on component speakers with sep. crossovers, though the drop ins are most likely the best option for a weekend warrior vehicle.

For the rears, again, same as above. But if you tend to tailgate a bit, you may want to look at surface-mounted all-weather speakers. Boston Acoustics makes some great, small all-weather speakers worth looking at.

Tiger Paw

I know it sounds blasphemous, but Jeep has a sound bar for their vehicles that fits overhead. Might be something to consider or pull from.

I have the same problem with too much gear in the back covering my speakers. We like to listen to books on tape on long trips and all the stuff in the back kinda mufffles the sound a bit. Just a good selling point for me to convince the girlfriend that I really do need that roof rack and/or the cool custom cargo trailer.

ShoeRunner

I think I had similar goals and mine is still somewhat a work in progress, but I bought two of the Kicker enclosed 6 1/2" boxes. They currently float in the back, but I am toying with ways to mount them to movable boards that I can place them depending on needs. I have a very small amp driving them and they sound great. I am contemplating not even using the 10" sub I have.

Also for the deck I have the radio out of an '06 Scion, it plays mp3's and WMA's and sounds great. I picked it up on ebay for $100. I did have to get the connectors and such from my parts department, but not too much fabbing was involved.

ShoeRunner

SKNXWRX,
How is the foot clearance with those pods from a 2nd gen? Is the dead pedal still usable? I notice yours is an auto, would this even be possible with a clutch?

Fahrenheit 451

I came across those foot pods while surfing, but quickly ruled them out. Even at only 6"1' I don't have leg room to spare for speakers.
Interesting info on the Boston Acoustic surface mount speakers. I had searched a few different electronics places online, but never came across those somehow. That would seem to be a possible way to go that would help in getting them somewhere out of the way.
I also came across those Jeep speakers. They look interesting although I would have to figure a way to mount them to the headliner and risk causing it to sag. I suppose they could also be position in a different fashion behind the seats or something. I want to get measurements for them so I could cut a piece of carboard to size so I can shift it around in the truck to see where they might fit.
A roof rack is being talked about already too which might solve everything in a quicker, albeit somewhat more expensive fashion.
***HUGE DIGRESSION FOLLOWS FEEL FREE TO SKIP TO THE END!!***
After this last trip, my wife is all for it anyway. We got back behind the San Rafael Swell heading to Little Wild Horse Canyon and took a wash that people had been driving down. We got a little ways back in and I decided that even if there was a camping spot I didn't like the idea of having to drive out on a wash if rains came and out there when the come, they frequently come big. Driving out I thought I heard some odd sounds, but convinced myself it was just the wind from her open window. Once we got back to the dirt road, she heard the same sound and gave me the "oh, crap!" look. Sure enough, the right rear was shot. Somewhere a branch or sharp rock had ripped right through the tire. No biggie. Jack it up, pull out the spare...this is where you suddenly realize the nearest town is 50 miles away, that it is late, no shops are likely to be open and that after all the maintenance done on the truck before the trip you never checked the spare. Sure enough, I had at some point drug or dropped the truck on the rear and the spare was barely holding air. When we finally got back to Green River it had about 10lbs in it. I would have whipped out the old junky compressor, but as it turns out it was sitting back in the garage where it was last used to fill inner tubes for sledding. Gotta love those first trips of the year...
Equally sure enough, no shops for tires open, found one place to get it aired up and it wouldn't hold air well. Nice slow trip to Moab only to find that the "Big O" there, isn't. Hard to believe a tire place can't survive in Moab, but I guess it's true.
At this point it was late so I stopped in a store, bought a compressor and headed for the hills. Pitched camp, jacked up the truck, filled the tire and went to bed. We wound up driving back to Moab in the morning and bought a used tire at the American Tire place (nice guys), got the spare fixed (apparently the bead wasn't sitting completely right and once they highballed it, it was fine) then got back to seriously shortened camping trip.
So, yeah, having a rack up top with a GOOD spare on it, plus holding some of the stuff that covers the stock speaker position might be a smart approach.
***END DIGRESSION***
I guess more research is coming especially since I just read one post mentioning "component speakers" and, as yet, I have no clue what those are LOL!
Thanks for the opinions so far guys!

breknraj

I know that you are talking 4Runners, but in my truck I have a Pioneer head unit, with a CD changer (6 disc) under the passenger seat. As far as speakers, I have just replaced front and rear with Infinity Kappa series speakers (4" 2 ways in front, and 6" 3 ways in back). I find this to be a nice sounding system. It sounds like something similar might work for your needs, too.

Turd Ferguson

The Boston Acoustics speakers I mentioned are actually indoor-outdoor home speakers, but with a small amp mounted to the seatback, you can swing it. When I sold electronics another life ago I used to install them in all sorts of "tailgating" vehicles.

http://www.bostonacoustics.com/home_...product_id=282



They make them in white or black. And they're relatively large, but the smallest of Boston's Voyager series. But figuring that you use your truck for camping, you get some site music, too.

The best way I could think to mount them (and get some additional mount points) is to install the roll bar from a 1st Gen into your rig, then u-bolt them to it. This way you can swivel them forward for normal use and backwards for camping without losing any cargo space.

Again, YMMV.