OP
lol Yes, you are right!
I'm seeing sarcasm there on the dif cover... lol but I'm pretty sure I missed the inside joke in there somewhere
I've Never Figured Out When Enough Is Enough
- Thread starter EternalHobbyist
- Start date
lol Yes, you are right!
I'm seeing sarcasm there on the dif cover... lol but I'm pretty sure I missed the inside joke in there somewhere
It came out great. I was starting from scratch with no existing switches I could use. I tried a different brand of switch panel but it wasn’t nearly as clean as the Auxbeam switches.
I sold the modified stock panel a few months ago with all the switches I was planning to use.
OP
This post should be relatively short. I just wanted to show how/where I ended up mounting the front/rear cameras that play in the stereo. I have always felt a front facing camera could be very helpful for navigating obstacles that I cannot see directly in front of the Jeep.
I decided to mount the camera to the front of my winch. It is very discreet, and out of the way. I doubt anyone would notice it, just because there are so many other things capturing your attention when you look at a Jeep like this:
And here is the view that it gives me. I can change the angle up or down depending on my needs, but I think it is a nice improvement. Definite showing a view that I cannot see in the cab. I still don't know how practical this whole thing is, but it was a pretty entertaining project:
So the rear camera is just a little bit different. It is on a bracket that allows it to mount between the two license plate bolts. I couldn't use this initially last year, because as we all know, our license plate does not come in the center of the vehicle from the factory. I ran the wiring and got every thing running (so that the rear view camera comes on when I shift into reverse), but just left the camera in the cab of the jeep because I wasn't ready to move the license plate yet.
I needed corner guards, rear bumper, and a swing away tire carrier first. My plan has always been to put the license plate centered on the rear wheel. Thanks to another thread I posted on this topic, right now this is the direction I'm currently leaning for that install:
This for the bracket:
https://www.quadratec.com/p/jks-man...-mount-license-plate-bracket-wrangler-JKS8211
And possibly ditch the light on the above bracket for these instead so that the light doesn't wash out the camera:
https://www.extremeterrain.com/redrock-4x4-jeep-wrangler-led-license-plate-bolts-u9912.html
I may also just build my own bracket if I'm in the mood when the Jeep gets back home.
No pics of the rear camera just yet.
I decided to mount the camera to the front of my winch. It is very discreet, and out of the way. I doubt anyone would notice it, just because there are so many other things capturing your attention when you look at a Jeep like this:
And here is the view that it gives me. I can change the angle up or down depending on my needs, but I think it is a nice improvement. Definite showing a view that I cannot see in the cab. I still don't know how practical this whole thing is, but it was a pretty entertaining project:
So the rear camera is just a little bit different. It is on a bracket that allows it to mount between the two license plate bolts. I couldn't use this initially last year, because as we all know, our license plate does not come in the center of the vehicle from the factory. I ran the wiring and got every thing running (so that the rear view camera comes on when I shift into reverse), but just left the camera in the cab of the jeep because I wasn't ready to move the license plate yet.
I needed corner guards, rear bumper, and a swing away tire carrier first. My plan has always been to put the license plate centered on the rear wheel. Thanks to another thread I posted on this topic, right now this is the direction I'm currently leaning for that install:
This for the bracket:
https://www.quadratec.com/p/jks-man...-mount-license-plate-bracket-wrangler-JKS8211
And possibly ditch the light on the above bracket for these instead so that the light doesn't wash out the camera:
https://www.extremeterrain.com/redrock-4x4-jeep-wrangler-led-license-plate-bolts-u9912.html
I may also just build my own bracket if I'm in the mood when the Jeep gets back home.
No pics of the rear camera just yet.
OP
And now, moving to the stereo. There is a little bit of a back story on this stereo. I use to have a shallow 10" subwoofer mounted in a custom box behind the front seats. (This sub and amp were stolen out of the back of the jeep a couple of years later) I had removed the back seats and put a thick layer of carpet in there for the dog that I had at the time. Well since then, I now do not have a dog, but do have three kids. I really wanted to make the jeep usable with all of my kids, and what kid doesn't love a loud sound system!? To this day, we never get into the jeep without my daughter saying "Turn up the music please!!"
So I decided to start this journey of adding a killer sound system to the Jeep. In hind sight... I over spent, and over did it. But that's not unusual for me when I start to get excited about an idea. I tend to set the internet filters to high. Regardless, it made for a very entertaining project.
I'll start with my new subwoofer. I had a 12" MTX Thunder 5500 sub that I have had sitting in my garage for years. I bought it for another project years ago, and pulled it out of the van before I sent the van off to the junk yard. It has never found a home since then, because the box was way too big for any of my vehicles. Over the years sitting in my garage, the box itself had started molding and needed to be replaced. I ended up deciding to take the sub out of the box and measure to see if I could make a custom box that would fit in behind my rear seat as this is one of the very few places I could hope to put it.
It could be done!! And to top it off, I had an extra box that well.... almost worked.
As you can see, I wasn't out of the woods quite yet, but I at least knew that I was finally going to be able to use this sub again. I was pretty pumped. So, I got together with a friend, and we started a little project to expand the existing box to fit.
Yes, that is mold all over that box as well. We cleaned that up and sealed it in before we added the carpeting.
The we got busy rewrapping it:
The whole thing went much smoother than I would have guessed. My next problem was a combination of theft prevention and holding the sub down in the event of a rollover. I haven't quite finished this install yet, but I have made the brackets and mounted them to the sub box itself:
Up to this point, the sub box build was done at my friends shop, and the metal brackets were not measured for width. When I got home, I ended up needing to cut them shorter to actually fit. While the sub is now in the jeep, I still need to fasten it to the floor of the jeep. My original plan was remove the fuel tank, drill holes in the floor, and simply bolt it in, but now I am thinking I may use nutserts. I may also run metal up the sides of the box in case the eight fasteners aren't enough to hold it on the bottom. and finally, I will need to paint the metal.
For powering the sub, I decided to use the old MTX amp that I had for the sub originally. Amps are being manufactured MUCH smaller these days, and we I get around to working more on the interior of the jeep someday, I may upgrade to an amp that takes up less space:
I use to live on a gravel road..... Everything got cleaned up before it went in the jeep.
Much more on the sound system to come!
So I decided to start this journey of adding a killer sound system to the Jeep. In hind sight... I over spent, and over did it. But that's not unusual for me when I start to get excited about an idea. I tend to set the internet filters to high. Regardless, it made for a very entertaining project.
I'll start with my new subwoofer. I had a 12" MTX Thunder 5500 sub that I have had sitting in my garage for years. I bought it for another project years ago, and pulled it out of the van before I sent the van off to the junk yard. It has never found a home since then, because the box was way too big for any of my vehicles. Over the years sitting in my garage, the box itself had started molding and needed to be replaced. I ended up deciding to take the sub out of the box and measure to see if I could make a custom box that would fit in behind my rear seat as this is one of the very few places I could hope to put it.
It could be done!! And to top it off, I had an extra box that well.... almost worked.
As you can see, I wasn't out of the woods quite yet, but I at least knew that I was finally going to be able to use this sub again. I was pretty pumped. So, I got together with a friend, and we started a little project to expand the existing box to fit.
Yes, that is mold all over that box as well. We cleaned that up and sealed it in before we added the carpeting.
The we got busy rewrapping it:
The whole thing went much smoother than I would have guessed. My next problem was a combination of theft prevention and holding the sub down in the event of a rollover. I haven't quite finished this install yet, but I have made the brackets and mounted them to the sub box itself:
Up to this point, the sub box build was done at my friends shop, and the metal brackets were not measured for width. When I got home, I ended up needing to cut them shorter to actually fit. While the sub is now in the jeep, I still need to fasten it to the floor of the jeep. My original plan was remove the fuel tank, drill holes in the floor, and simply bolt it in, but now I am thinking I may use nutserts. I may also run metal up the sides of the box in case the eight fasteners aren't enough to hold it on the bottom. and finally, I will need to paint the metal.
For powering the sub, I decided to use the old MTX amp that I had for the sub originally. Amps are being manufactured MUCH smaller these days, and we I get around to working more on the interior of the jeep someday, I may upgrade to an amp that takes up less space:
I use to live on a gravel road..... Everything got cleaned up before it went in the jeep.
Much more on the sound system to come!
Welcome to the Forum, I also have the air solenoid actuated SwayLoc and have never regretted the added price or additional switch.
OP
In the above post, I did not post a picture of the sub in the jeep because I don't have any. haha I will try to remember to update this thread when the jeep comes home with some updated pictures of things like that.
My end goal, was to update the original four speaker system to a nine speaker system. This would include the afore mentioned 12" subwoofer, Two new dash corner speakers, two new soundbar speakers, the addition of two new rear seat kick panel mid-range sub speakers, and the addition of two rear tweeters. I wanted all of this to be powered through amplifiers, and I wanted to add a capacitor for the subwoofer.
I also did a ton of research to get speakers that could handle as much power as I could possibly get into each speaker location, and I needed amps that would push each speaker to its fullest potential. Naturally, this search led to some pretty pricey speaker options. Here are the speakers that I ended up with:
For the front dash corner speakers, I went with the Focal Performance PC130 5-1/4" 2-way car speakers:
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_091PC130/Focal-Performance-PC-130.html
***The size of magnet that they fit on that tiny speaker....... lol
For the two new soundbar speakers, I went with the Audiofrog GS62 6" 2-way speakers:
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_898GS62/Audiofrog-GS62.html
***These speakers are incredible.....
For the addition of the rear kick panel speakers and their tweeters, I decided to go with the Focal PS 165 FE Component Speaker System:
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_091PS165FE/Focal-PS-165-FE.html
For the installation of the kick panel speakers, I went to Quadratec, and purchased the 53501 Supreme Soun Wedges:
https://www.quadratec.com/products/14131_15X_PG.htm
I will show pictures of these later, but they really did not fit well at all. I could simple be because my carpet is in the way, but when I was doing this build, I was more concerned with figuring out how to make the sound system work, so I put these in and figured I would deal with fitment at a later date. Also, the lower speakers didn't fit either because there isn't enough depth in the box to handle the higher quality speakers. So I had to make wood spacers to get me by. I just really do not like now this part of the project turned out. However, now that I have the system dialed in for sound, it is incredible. Lets just say, volume and clarity are no longer an issue.
More on the sound system to come.
My end goal, was to update the original four speaker system to a nine speaker system. This would include the afore mentioned 12" subwoofer, Two new dash corner speakers, two new soundbar speakers, the addition of two new rear seat kick panel mid-range sub speakers, and the addition of two rear tweeters. I wanted all of this to be powered through amplifiers, and I wanted to add a capacitor for the subwoofer.
I also did a ton of research to get speakers that could handle as much power as I could possibly get into each speaker location, and I needed amps that would push each speaker to its fullest potential. Naturally, this search led to some pretty pricey speaker options. Here are the speakers that I ended up with:
For the front dash corner speakers, I went with the Focal Performance PC130 5-1/4" 2-way car speakers:
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_091PC130/Focal-Performance-PC-130.html
***The size of magnet that they fit on that tiny speaker....... lol
For the two new soundbar speakers, I went with the Audiofrog GS62 6" 2-way speakers:
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_898GS62/Audiofrog-GS62.html
***These speakers are incredible.....
For the addition of the rear kick panel speakers and their tweeters, I decided to go with the Focal PS 165 FE Component Speaker System:
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_091PS165FE/Focal-PS-165-FE.html
For the installation of the kick panel speakers, I went to Quadratec, and purchased the 53501 Supreme Soun Wedges:
https://www.quadratec.com/products/14131_15X_PG.htm
I will show pictures of these later, but they really did not fit well at all. I could simple be because my carpet is in the way, but when I was doing this build, I was more concerned with figuring out how to make the sound system work, so I put these in and figured I would deal with fitment at a later date. Also, the lower speakers didn't fit either because there isn't enough depth in the box to handle the higher quality speakers. So I had to make wood spacers to get me by. I just really do not like now this part of the project turned out. However, now that I have the system dialed in for sound, it is incredible. Lets just say, volume and clarity are no longer an issue.
More on the sound system to come.
OP
Thank you!
And thank you for commenting on that. I have low keyed wondered if it was the right call, but didn't feel like asking because what is done is done and I didn't want to have regret. haha
Thanks for posting the detail on the speakers. I run Polk DB522’s, and every once in a while I think about upgrading. It sounds like you are happy with your choice.
I may have missed it, but what Amp are you running?
Edit: Oh yeah, and putting the pneumatic on the Swaylock was not the right call…
OP
Thanks for posting the detail on the speakers. I run Polk DB522’s, and every once in a while I think about upgrading. It sounds like you are happy with your choice.
I may have missed it, but what Amp are you running?
Edit: Oh yeah, and putting the pneumatic on the Swaylock was not the right call…
For my soundbar speakers, I used the AudioControl ACM-2.300:
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_161ACM2300/AudioControl-ACM-2-300.html
I really don't have any complaints about it, but I literally got it all tuned and moved on to others things. So I'm not an audio engineer.
And then for the Dash Speakers and the components, I used the JL Audio MX280/4:
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_13698408/JL-Audio-MX500-4.html
For this application, I called in to Crutchfield and had the size the exact amp to truly push out the power that it advertised, so I know it was the right call and properly sized for my speakers.
and then of course for the subwoofer, I already had the MTX Thunder 5302. That one is no longer produced, so no link to post up. It is a two channel amp that I am using as a one channel. Years ago, it was sized for the sub.
OP
I don't have a current picture to show how this all looks in the jeep, but when it comes back home, I'll take some pictures and post them up.
When I first got everything setup, I had problems getting all of the rear speakers to work. I also had problems with a speaker pop out of the sub everytime I powered down the jeep.
Getting all speakers running properly, came down to getting my RCAs all hooked up properly. To this day, I do not know why it works the way that it does. It defies logic in my head, but everything is working great!
Regarding the speaker pop, I believe I had constant power supplied to the wrong wire on the head unit. I had known this was an issue, because the head unit wasn't saving it settings when the Jeep was shut off. Once I got this sorted out, the speaker pop went away as well. Sometimes I fiddle fart around with something long enough and get lucky. That is what I credit this to. lol
When I first got everything setup, I had problems getting all of the rear speakers to work. I also had problems with a speaker pop out of the sub everytime I powered down the jeep.
Getting all speakers running properly, came down to getting my RCAs all hooked up properly. To this day, I do not know why it works the way that it does. It defies logic in my head, but everything is working great!
Regarding the speaker pop, I believe I had constant power supplied to the wrong wire on the head unit. I had known this was an issue, because the head unit wasn't saving it settings when the Jeep was shut off. Once I got this sorted out, the speaker pop went away as well. Sometimes I fiddle fart around with something long enough and get lucky. That is what I credit this to. lol
OP
Edit: Oh yeah, and putting the pneumatic on the Swaylock was not the right call…
That's what I get for opening my big mouth!
OP
Here are some links in case you are curious of some of the items that I used:
Front Camera:
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_130NDBC8/Pioneer-ND-BC8.html
Rear Camera:
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_707V17IRTJ/Boyo-VTL17IRTJ.html
Head Unit:
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_104BE7ACP/Boss-BE7ACP.html
Antenna Extension Cable:
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_12044EC18/Metra-44-EC18-Antenna-Extension-Cable.html
Wiring Harness:
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_120701817/Metra-70-1817-Receiver-Wiring-Harness.html
Dash Kit:
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_120956549/Metra-95-6549-Dash-Kit-Black.html
RCA Y-Adapters:
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_142DMM/EFX-Delta-Series-Y-Adapter.html
Capacitor:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DX64FG8/?tag=wranglerorg-20
Front Camera:
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_130NDBC8/Pioneer-ND-BC8.html
Rear Camera:
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_707V17IRTJ/Boyo-VTL17IRTJ.html
Head Unit:
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_104BE7ACP/Boss-BE7ACP.html
Antenna Extension Cable:
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_12044EC18/Metra-44-EC18-Antenna-Extension-Cable.html
Wiring Harness:
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_120701817/Metra-70-1817-Receiver-Wiring-Harness.html
Dash Kit:
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_120956549/Metra-95-6549-Dash-Kit-Black.html
RCA Y-Adapters:
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_142DMM/EFX-Delta-Series-Y-Adapter.html
Capacitor:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DX64FG8/?tag=wranglerorg-20
That's quite a system you put together. Nice work.
Ryan - You should also aim a camera at your new LS so you can tell if it is running or not...
Ryan - You should also aim a camera at your new LS so you can tell if it is running or not...
I do have a camera in my garage
OP
I've definitely considered it, but my head unit only supports two cameras. I would have to change it out. Maybe someday.
Same with mine. I bought a switch on Amazon and can toggle between those two and my front camera.
Intelligent Car Video Switcher 3-way Input 1-way Output for the Car Camera https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B155G5M/?tag=wranglerorg-20
OP
I think I have covered the sound system sufficiently at this point. Time to move on to other things. I am running out of pictures to share, so there will come a point where I will either run out of story to tell, or pictures to post until my jeep comes back. I'm hoping to have it back this next week. I told the guy to keep it as long as he needs it. I don't want him to rush his work or to feel like I am pressuring him.
Anyways, we are still on all of the work performed last year. I also added the MC oil pan skid. I had started to build one of these myself years ago (still have the start to it actually), but ended up just deciding to purchase one because ya know... its easier.
Here is some eye candy on that:
I think it was @DrDmoney that said he had an aluminum fetish in his build thread, well, I have a fetish for this gold finish that MC puts out.
I also got the steering box skid that attaches to the MC front bumper. You can see it under the Swayloc:
I don't think I have a current picture of my Warn fuel tank skid, but when I was doing the frame, I went ahead and dropped the fuel tank out and refinished the skid with POR15 + Topcoat.
Then of course, it is worth mentioning my Rokman belly up skid that was installed back when the Atlas was put in. I really like the clearance that this belly pan gives. It is one of the main reasons I haven't sprung for a long arm suspension yet. The MC one replaces that Skid, and you lose clearance. I will more likely eventually go to a mid arm setup on this jeep.
Here is what my clearance looks like:
Anyways, we are still on all of the work performed last year. I also added the MC oil pan skid. I had started to build one of these myself years ago (still have the start to it actually), but ended up just deciding to purchase one because ya know... its easier.
Here is some eye candy on that:
I think it was @DrDmoney that said he had an aluminum fetish in his build thread, well, I have a fetish for this gold finish that MC puts out.
I also got the steering box skid that attaches to the MC front bumper. You can see it under the Swayloc:
I don't think I have a current picture of my Warn fuel tank skid, but when I was doing the frame, I went ahead and dropped the fuel tank out and refinished the skid with POR15 + Topcoat.
Then of course, it is worth mentioning my Rokman belly up skid that was installed back when the Atlas was put in. I really like the clearance that this belly pan gives. It is one of the main reasons I haven't sprung for a long arm suspension yet. The MC one replaces that Skid, and you lose clearance. I will more likely eventually go to a mid arm setup on this jeep.
Here is what my clearance looks like:
OP