Dash Speaker Addition?

[Matt400]

I added 3. 5" aftermarket Infinity's to the dash locations. No wiring is in there but the screw locks for the speakers is.



I powered the new dash speakers with the factory head unit and added a 35W 4 channel amp to power the door speakers.



At first the combo didn't sound well at all and then I made 2 huge improvements-



1) I added base blockers to the positive side at the new speakers so they won't try and reproduce base they are not capable of and then. .



2) I turned down the front and rear gain on the power amp for the doors to let the factory head unit powered 3. 5's vocal come through.

Back and forth I adjusted gain levels till the entire cab has a nice sound fill.

 

[ReevesRacing]

That sounds like a nice plan.

Where did you end up mounting the amp?

Did you have wiring diagrams to go by, or just ohm it out?

 

[Matt400]

Originally posted by JReeves

Where did you end up mounting the amp?

Did you have wiring diagrams to go by, or just ohm it out?

The amp mounting didn't go as planned but plan "B" worked out ok... .

I did a bunch of research on amps and was focused on getting the smallest (dimension wise) 4 channel amp I could find and that led me to this GM-X374 Pioneer:

#ad




Its a 400W amp but actually is 35W RMS per channel of continuous power. I was sure it would fit horizontally behind the glove box and above the heater box as there is a cavity back there but no-go



That was ok cuz I mounted it under the drivers power seat. For power & ground I simply spliced into the power seat supply circuit that already has a 50A fuse on it plus the amp is equipped with a 30A fuse on its self.



The amp has speaker level terminals so no RCA connections were used. I made up a speaker wire harness with bulk speaker wire on a spool, I needed 4 channels out and 4 channels in so that meant 8 runs of wire.

I ran the speaker wires from the Amp to the back of the factory HU going under the drivers door sill and carpet.



For connections I used a factory wire diagram that told me what colors the door speakers were and an ohm meter to verify each color I connected at the HU before connecting it at the amp.



The carpet and floor pad is pretty thick and since I don't run it hard off road I secured the amp with 2 short screws into the carpet and pad just so it doesn't slide around. Powering the seat all the way forward made for access without removing the seat. I positioned the amp so the adjustments are just below the power seat controls and the wire connections are on the transmission tunnel side.



A sense wire was needed to power up the amp and I didn't see an output from the factory HU for this so I taped into the cig lighter circuit so the amp comes on when ever I turn the key whether the radio is on or off but its on 90% anyway.

 

[ReevesRacing]

Thanks for the great reply!



You wouldn't happen to have those wiring diagrams handy would you?

 

[Pawpaw]

Originally posted by JReeves

Thanks for the great reply!



You wouldn't happen to have those wiring diagrams handy would you?

http://www.dodge.com/bodybuilder/



Check the bottom right corner and you will find that you can download "Ram Wiring Diagram".

 

[Matt400]

Originally posted by JReeves

You wouldn't happen to have those wiring diagrams handy would you?

If Bob Hall's download doesn't work just PM me with a fax number and I will fax it. I haven't figured out how to post/upload a pdf file.

 

[ReevesRacing]

Well, I downloaded Adobe 6, but it still isn't working right. If you would, could you please fax it to me. I will PM you the number.



Thank you very much for the offer..... man you guys are KILLER!!! I LOVE THIS SITE!!!

 

[Matt400]

8 pages Audio incl. cover just went your way