ewarnerusa

Who here is running or has heard in person the performance of a subwoofer mounted in the rear cubby of a tacoma Xcab? A guy sells them on ebay calling them Stealth Plate.

I am becoming more interested in this setup. For those that use them, what are your impressions? Likes/dislikes? How is the plate sealed and held in place? What type of woofer do you use? Is it a free-air sub? Is there a cheaper place to get the plate than this ebay guy? Or are there plans for building your own (it can't be that hard)? Thanks for any input! I'll probably have a Kenwood mono subwoofer amp powering it, 200 watts peak.

BIGMOOI

I have not seen that one and it looks alright but i am not a 8" fan for subs but it would add bass to your system. i have seen pictures of some one that has used the same theory but they made a plate out of aluminum and mounted 2 10" subs in it. there is another box that is on ebay that you can buy it is a box that has a hinge on it and it sits between the 2 jump seats and it holds a 10" sub but there is like .6 cubic feet of air in that box so you need a sub that is of higher quality. that one you are looking at doesnt seem it is worth 100 dollars to me it is a just plate nothing special i think if you got a 8" sub then make it yourself and try it out. a 4 x 8 sheet of MDF here 3/4" is going for $14.99 i think. the only thing he is charging you so much for is that he did all the trial and error for you already. I would try to build it my self. I am personally going to build a Box BENCH seat in my ext cab. Everyone that rides in the back hates the jump seats and no one uses them so i am going to try to make a down firing box with seats a a arm rest in it for multi purpose and then i am going to try to hinge it to the floor so i can still get to my cubby holes.
Sorry for how long this reply is.
David M.

ewarnerusa

That's OK for the long post, i like the info. I also think that $100 for the plate is way too much. If I go this route I will either make the box myself or have a local cabinet maker do it. My buddy had them make a pretty nice custom setup for 2 12" for pretty cheap. But I want to know if it is going to sound good before I start buying a woofer and the amp. Thanks for the input!

Flamedx4

I have this type of setup in mine. I also did it in my F150. I have a 10' in the toyota and an 8" in the F150. (I'd be happy to take pics if you want - PM me.) The best answer is that it depends on what you want it to sound like, and considering that, how much money you want to spend. Regardless though, Calculate how much volume is in there, or use a free air sub. I stuffed some upholstery foam into the middle over the hump so the approx 1.4 cu ft in the drivers side matches the sub's requirements. (The other side still holds the jack and some junk.) The first sub didn't sound good, I had another that had a higher SPL number and it sounds much better. (Gies more boom with the small amp.) In the Ford I used a twin voice coil 8" from Walmart for something like $30 and a $29 75x2ch amp from ebay, installed it in the approx 1 cu ft. storage cubby, and it sounds Great! Having a stereo with a separate sub output that is adjustable makes a big difference. And yes, $100 to cut a piece of plywood is nuts! Do it yourself, piece of cake.

Flamedx4

By the way, check out www.dealznet.com for great prices on decent cheap brand stuff, and even name brand deals too.

ewarnerusa

cool, thank you. I have been ebaying searching today, and I have found a kenwood 8" sub that would work well. Also a Kicker Comp and Rockford Fosgate Punch that will work. It seems funny to me to have those as my backup choices, but I have a complete kenwood system so far so I want to stick with that. the amp will be a kenwood, too.

Flamedx4

There are 2 things that are really important when you choose a sub. The SPL number tells you (essentially) how loud it can be with the same power. In other words, say if you have 100 watts, an SPL of 91 will be Much louder than an SPL of 88. The other item is how many cu ft. the enclosure should be. If you don't reasonably match up the bass enclosure with the requirements, it won't sound right (Usually.) It won't resonate properly in the right range for the base you're after and the sound just won't be what you've hoped for. An 8" sub with modest power in the right box and easily sound better than 1000 watts running 2 twelves just stuck in there somewhere. Not louder but Better! Quality here is more important than pure thump! Also, a sub can actually be damaged by putting it in a sealed enclusure the wrong size or not putting it in a sealed enclosure if it's designed for one, just as it can be damaged with too much power or too little power but with high distortion. etc...

jethro

I see they sell one JL sub on that site, the 12" WO. Isn't that the weakest of all JL's subs? I can't remember. I want 2 in the back and I'm sure these sound great, especially if I only paid a couple hundred bucks for 2.

BIGMOOI

The JL 12w0 is the lowest in that model since the w6 and w7 are the best in there series but the w0 and the w3 are the most efficent subs they have i think I have heard both the w3 sound better but you pay more for them the w6 and w7 cost alot and are real power hungry so you are looking to get a pretty big amp with a real good RMS wattage. But in my opinion i would not go with JL everyone thinks they are gods and i think they are over rated for there price. it is just like they always recommend there own amps for the w6 and w7 because they know that there subs are very power hungry.
This ia just my opinion.
David M.

ewarnerusa

I have bought a brand new 8" Kicker Comp, and I'll soon have a Kenwood sub amp (100 watt RMS/200 peak). So my low end improvement has begun. I'm pretty sure I'll go this cubby route first and see for myself what I think. it seems like the consensus among other boards is that I will be let down. But I'm not looking for a ground shaker that will make traffic stare at me, I just want some nice low end to fill out my setup. I'm planning on using polyfill in the enclosure, and likely sound damping the sheet metal inside the cubby as well as the "stealth plate" w/ dynamat. Maybe using some door weather stripping for the plate seal? I'll post progress. Thanks for input.

SlimTacoma

Yikes. I thought I was pushing it with an 8". I have mine in the driver's side compartment and like the sound. I would like to get a 10" in there but I didn't think it would fit. Have any pics?

Flamedx4

Yep, see link below. (I added it my sig since so many people ask for pics.)
It's the very bottom pic if you don't feel like looking through them all. BTW-
I did this in my F150 also, there's a pic of that there, so when you see it don't think I'm an idiot that doesn't know a Toy from a POS Ford...

SlimTacoma

Did that require any additional cutting to the body? The 8" just slipped right in. Quite a paint job by the way.

Flamedx4

Cutting to the body? No, the 10 fits with ample room, I could almost stick a 12 in there... Depth is the limiter, not diameter... Its just 3/4" plywood, covered with some fabric, and drilled holes around the edges and screwed down. Drop in the sub and screw it down. Amp is under the drivers seat. Simplest sub install I've ever seen. You can even leave the jump seat down, sounds no different.

ewarnerusa

Well, I finished it up with a 8" Kicker CompVR. I meant to get just a regular Comp, but that's an ebay sale for ya. I'm powered it with a Kenwood amp bridged to 100 watts RMS/200 watts peak. It sounds good, I'm pleased. I lined the cubby with polyfill and there is no rattling.

nigeltufnel3

hey, what is that extra plastic plate on the front of the bench, with the two round holes in it? does that just come on a taco? I have a 94 PU and was wanting to do a similar thing in my back bench.

ewarnerusa

it is some sort of cup holder/platform. it flips up and has two legs that fold down to support it. It is useful if loading big boxes in the xcab. The cupholders are tiny and nearly useless, though. I used them to hold up a flower vase once on a trip across town.

Brad

I am just wondering if any one put dinamat or anything other than polyfill and if you left the carpet in the hole. I am going to put in a 10 here in the next day or two and am wondering if there are any other little tricks to get the best sound!!
Thanks guys!
By the way Flamed- I looked for you picture of the 10 and couldn't find it.
If anyone else has any pics let me know.

MrSkott

ewarnerusa, it looks great, saves a ton of space and is handy. But for real bass production, its not so good. 1. Lack of volume air space. You can get some pretty nifty long throw woofers like an 8" R series alpine, that come close to meeting the air space volume, but an 8 will be useless at highway speeds....they can't overcome the tire frequencies. 2. The interior sidewalls of those cubbies are too thin to really support proper low end frequency generation which equals half your bass traveling out and down out of the cab area. I had a buddy with an 01 try and try to develop epoxy layers, even going so far as to use that flexible water based plastic mesh they use for broken arms in order to create a stiff enclosure and to no avail. I have a small Isobaric box (holds the 10" woofer inside two small chambers) holding a Alpine 10" and it produces low end bass even at 70 mph with the windows down. Sorry mate, I liked the look of it too...it just ends up not sounding very good. If someone has found a way to stiffen and thicken the inside walls to deepen the sound...lemme know.

Scott

ewarnerusa

I've had this setup for several months now, and I'm totally happy. It is not a ground shaker, but it fills out the sound nicely. If I put a Bass Patrol CD in there, it can shake the mirrors and pound in the chest. But everything people have said about it is true. If you're looking to make a real air mover and earth shaker, the cubby route is not a good idea. I lined the wood plate with some weather stripping, and laid down some ~1" foam padding all along the bare metal on the inside of the cubby. I also stuffed it as best i could in the channel that links the passenger side cubby to the driver's side to try to seal it off. If course it is not perfect, but I thought it couldn't hurt. the foam is some padding for refinishing padded chairs that I just had lying around. I also filled in most of the cubby with polyfill, too. The thin metal sheeting of the cubby seems like it would be helped by applying some dynamat to it or something, but I never tried. I put a standard 8" wire mesh grill over the woofer to protect it. I took the carpet out, too.