I just purchased my first car and it is a 1987 4Runner and I was wondering what the best setup was for about 2 subs, an amp, and a few more speakers. I was thinking about trying to get 2 6x9" low profile speakers to put in the doors but other than that I don't really know what I'm going to do.
Jonathan

 

Whatever you put in make it stealth or you will end up with busted rear windows from some meth head stealing your stereo. The older runners are easy targets to thieves if you advertise what is inside.

You also might look into a Tuffy Locking Center Console for your head unit.

 

Ok, thanks man. I already have a Alpine HU and it has the removable face so that i can out it in my backpack for school and stuff.

 

Yea they are. its VERY easy to see what you have in a 1st gen 4runner.

I suggest getting the windows tinted a few shades dark but not pitch black to make it obvious. It will just keep your stuff away from prying eyes.

GET AN ALARM.

Besides that.

6x9's sound like garbage.

get a nice set of 5 1\4" component speakres and a nice amp and you will be MUCH happier for not a lot more money. (little bit more work but not really)

Also remember your truck is 20 years old and probably has some shakes and rattles. putting some serious subs in will require lots of dynamat and work..

I used to run two alpine type-r 12's on a Fosgate 1001bd amp (1000 watts rms). and it shook the crap out of the truck. enough to flex the roof and cargo windows. and knocked out one of the sliding windows after letting the buytl cure for 24 hours.

I had infinity 4" speakers in the front and alpine type r 6x9's in boxes in the back seat. Did it sound nice? well decent. but it was louder than all hell. This lead to someone wanting the stereo more than me. Broke my right wing window and broke into the truck stealing everything but my headunit and front speakers.

Im much happier now with a my 6 1\2" components in my taco. Sounds GREAT and doesnt give me or the 10 cars surronding me in traffic head aches.

 

Aliright that helps alot. What would be one of the better alarm systems be and how much would it cost because i have to pay for it all.
Jonathan

 

A lot of alarms are the same. Most I see are made by directed electronics.

I have a viper 791vx which is one of their top of the line systems. (2 way paging, knock\tilt sensor, starter kill, remote start)

You can get a good alarm online from $100-200. Professional install will cost you out the wazoo. Is your truck a manual? If it is i would stray away from one with remote start. Someone else can chime in on alarms. I dont know that much and chose to have my installed professionally. I used to work at best buy and the installer is a friend who i would trust to install the alarm. I also got some nice discounts.. Good installation is VERY important with alarms or you will be stuck in a parking lot with the alarm going off and a truck that wont start.

 

Take the money you would spend on subs and put it aside in a Roth IRA.

In 10 years you wont have the subs or they would have been stolen...

(I just pulled my truck out of storage and removed some of the stuff that I wasted money on when I was alot younger.)

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If you HAVE to have a sound system - install 4" in the stock location
I think a 4" compoonent system with tweets in the dash and the grilles painted a color to match the dash is pretty stealth.

DO NOT put any sound system stickers on the truck!!!!

If you have to have some bass - put in speakers in the rear in the "stock" location. No visible grilles.

If you do NOT have rear seats - mount the amps UNDER the load tray. BOLT them to the load tray. Makes it harder to steal. Us bolts and nuts with nylocks. This way the thief has to have TWO wrenches to get them out.

Otherwise - remove the side panels and mount an amp board in there on stand offs to the stock sheet metal braces.

 

DooD, we must be neighbors! Hey, this is semi-rural GeOrGia man, I wouldn't worry about all that stuff...
You need a winch, a jack, some tires, some lockers, and a CB radadio, who needs WATTS!

Get a bazooka powered tube... its the easiest thing to install and they sound gr8. And for gosh sakes, don't tear out all the panels and carpet from the rear to install some boxes that will make you deaf LOL.

 

Thanks for all the advice guys!

 

Where are some good places to go 'wheelin aroung here? I just got my firt car so I'm new to all of this, but I'm looking forward to goin' on my first trail ride.

 

If you want dynamat then get FatMat it is less than 1/3 the price.
Also for theft proofing you can pop-rivit you amps and other stuff in, that way if someone else wants it they have to drill it out, most people dont carry drills around. I did it in my 87 P/U and they tried to pry it off the back wall with a crowbar. It never worked after that but they didnt get the amp.
And remember "out of sight, out of mind".
When looking at subs and amps dont worry about max power, it doesent mean anything. Look at the RMS power, thats what you neeed to worry about. 200 RMS in a sub is pretty dang good.

Have fun with the 4-runner... I wish I had one.

 

nice choice for first set of wheels buddy! do yourself a favor, adopt the mentality that low profile is best. don't attract the cops, don't attract the thieves, don't attract the haters. meanwhile outfit your rig stealth style so you can enjoy it!

for tunes, i'd recommend a simple set up that's got all the bases (and bass) covered without going into the custom stereo competition realm. here's a good way to go:

Head: Get something that you like and is on sale, single or double DIN (single saves you room for a CB) size. Unless you go into the hi-end segment, all radios today are pretty similarly made. Look for one with a MP3 input on the face if you wanna plug your IPOD type thing in there. Get one that has subwoofer output already in it, and a low pass crossover which will let you cut off the low notes to the four corner speakers.

For speakers, get yourself whatever is a good sale and is not made of paper and foam. Most speakers today are poly cone and rubber surround and they hold up to dust accumulation and temp change better. If you can, stick with the stock location in the dash and put some insulation behind them. Or you can eliminate and wire one into the doors, but you risk dunking them if you wanna wheel in a deep puddle.
In the rear panels, forward of the rear seat belt rollers, you can put a pair of 6x9's or 6" round. Again, any decent brand on sale.

Behind the rear seat are factory locations (i have little holes in the panels already forming a "speaker grille") where you can put 8" subs easily, which you can hook to your sub outputs if you bought that kind of radio. If you got one hi-power enough it will push the subs fine since you're using the low pass crossover. Or you can add a tiny 2 channel amp for the subs alone, but you'll need to run power directly from the battery with an 8gauge minimum power supply. There's no real need unless you gotta have the boom with the top off at 60.

You can have a single head and six speaker set up: 2- 4" in the dash, 2- 6" or 6x9's in the rear seat, and 2- 8" subs in the back for $400 and it will sound pretty damn good and be completely stealth. If you find you have to use any grilles that come with the speakers you buy, take a trip to the fabric shop and buy some sheer grey fabric like grandma would make a scarf from, and stretch it over the grilles before you mount them and they'll look like factory original instead of aftermarket, which will deter the croox. i hate croox. no need to go any higher end with extra batteries, amps, capacitors, and crap, you want a good sounding system with low investment and no worries if something breaks you just replace it.

good luck with that and enjoy your new truck. wear your friggin' seat belt, and keep it at the speed limit for the first year man; don't accumulate 12 points your first year like i did and piss away $1000s in insurance, tickets, and other headache. i hate giving money to the gov't now for anything. ha

keep it low profile, and keep on truckin'

p.s. i'm down here in sandy springs if you ever wanna talk about mods drop me a line.

 

not to be neg, but i got my bass stole out of my 1st gen 4runner 2years ago (2 12" kickers). I replaced it with some good 5.25 or .75" speakers in the panels. And a bazooka tube with a custom cardboard box cover(very stealth!)