Steel sub-woofer enclosure

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TJ's-TJ

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We are adding a sub-woofer enclosure behind the rear seat. When you ask a 15 year old if he would rather have storage space or good bass, guess what the answer is? We decided to stick with a 10" Polk MM1 series mostly because everything else is Polk and it is marine rated.

https://www.polkaudio.com/products/mm1042dvc/support
Since we have no spare and we just added ~100lbs to the front bumper with the winch, we currently have a fair amount of rake with no hard top, so the idea of adding weight via the sub enclosure seemed like an ok thing to do.

A bunch of research into sub-woofer enclosures... some say that it sound terrible due to steel being to "lively" a material, some say it will be fine if we add some damping material internal to the steel enclosure walls.

Either way, we are going to try it and see what happens, since I can get 1/4" steel plate cut to size free from work and it will be fun to build.

1580127936737.png


Why everyone should have a plasma cutter:
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Sub will be down firing and the stepped area next to it will have the amp mounted to it. The plan is to have all the wires connectorized so that it can be easily removed.

1580128277303.png


Tacked together with the Mig, we will get the Tig torch out to fuse all the seams. This will probably weigh ~100lbs once populated.
 
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TJ's-TJ said:
We are adding a sub-woofer enclosure behind the rear seat. When you ask a 15 year old if he would rather have storage space or good bass, guess what the answer is? We decided to stick with a 10" Polk MM1 series mostly because everything else is Polk and it is marine rated.

https://www.polkaudio.com/products/mm1042dvc/support
Since we have no spare and we just added ~100lbs to the front bumper with the winch, we currently have a fair amount of rake with no hard top, so the idea of adding weight via the sub enclosure seemed like an ok thing to do.

A bunch of research into sub-woofer enclosures... some say that it sound terrible due to steel being to "lively" a material, some say it will be fine if we add some damping material internal to the steel enclosure walls.

Either way, we are going to try it and see what happens, since I can get 1/4" steel plate cut to size free from work and it will be fun to build.

View attachment 136905

Why everyone should have a plasma cutter:
View attachment 136906

View attachment 136907

Sub will be down firing and the stepped area next to it will have the amp mounted to it. The plan is to have all the wires connectorized so that it can be easily removed.

View attachment 136908

Tacked together with the Mig, we will get the Tig torch out to fuse all the seams. This will probably weigh ~100lbs once populated.
Click to expand...

Great idea, to get rid of the rake and add some bass. While metal is not the preferred choice of material, what you are doing is very thoughtful, and as you said/read, add a bunch of damping material and you should be all good.

What kind of amplifier is powering that? Possibly add some quick disconnects so you can remove the box if you need the rare cargo space for a Home Depot run, kids sports gear or something like that?
 
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skrelnik said:
Great idea, to get rid of the rake and add some bass. While metal is not the preferred choice of material, what you are doing is very thoughtful, and as you said/read, add a bunch of damping material and you should be all good.

What kind of amplifier is powering that? Possibly add some quick disconnects so you can remove the box if you need to the rare cargo space for a Home Depot run, kids sports gear or something like that?
Click to expand...

Yes, everything will be on connectors so it can be easily taken out. This is the amp:

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_575R7501D/Rockford-Fosgate-Prime-R750-1D.html
 
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TJ's-TJ said:
Yes, everything will be on connectors so it can be easily taken out. This is the amp:

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_575R7501D/Rockford-Fosgate-Prime-R750-1D.html
Click to expand...

I have no metal fab skills whatsoever else I would love to tackle a project like that. I take the easy way out and literally just found a used Helix sub-box on Ebay with two 10" DVC that are direct fit to my amp, so will be tinkering again with my system. It also has quick disconnects so I can easily remove, it is also powered by the amp itself so no additional power/grounds are needed. Audio upgrades are so friggin' addicting, and moreso when stacked with a Wrangler!
 
1/4" steel? 😲 I would say that it is at least "slightly over-engineered" but the work looks really nice and it sounds like the price of the material was right. And if it doesn't work out like you imagined, it would be an easy conversion to a grill/wok burner. 😁

I just got plasma cutter from Santa last year and I have no Idea how I have lived without it for this long.
 
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Look into a product called No Rez. It's somewhat expensive but steel is a horrible material to build a sub box out of and you will have some wicked resonance. Lining the inside with No Rez will help a lot. It's the best performing damping material on the market for speaker boxes.
 
WallyWest said:
Look into a product called No Rez. It's somewhat expensive but steel is a horrible material to build a sub box out of and you will have some wicked resonance. Lining the inside with No Rez will help a lot. It's the best performing damping material on the market for speaker boxes.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I plan to try it out first, then address any problems. Keeping my fingers crossed that it is thick enough to not have issues...
 
Thats pretty cool! However im not sure how much can the metal affect the pitch of the bass, even with some insulation. The other thing is how much insulation would you need to counter for the metal enclosure, and if that takes up to much volume inside.

Maybe when he gets older, turns the tj it into a rock crawler and later on it can be converted to a fuel cell.
 
Here is how the components will mount. The LC2 is a signal processor that is supposed to bring out the bass from the factory radio.
1580300274671.png
 
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The lc2 is a line out converter. You would need to tap into the speakers wires and the box would use that to turn it into a sub signal.

You might have an overheating issue with the amp sandwich between the box and floor.
 
Jramos013 said:
The lc2 is a line out converter. You would need to tap into the speakers wires and the box would use that to turn it into a sub signal.

You might have an overheating issue with the amp sandwich between the box and floor.
Click to expand...

Yes, We are keeping the factory head unit and have tapped into the sound bar wires for the speaker level inputs, the LC2 got good reviews for improving factory radio bass output to feed the sub amp. I am a little worried about heat, we'll see what happens.
 
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TJ's-TJ said:
Yes, We are keeping the factory head unit and have tapped into the sound bar wires for the speaker level inputs, the LC2 got good reviews for improving factory radio bass output to feed the sub amp. I am a little worried about heat, we'll see what happens.
Click to expand...

Looking good...the LC2 is a great device for how you are using it, it was built for this situation.

In addition to keeping the stock head unit, do you have the stock speakers still, or did you upgrade them?
 
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