Although my Cab came from the factory with Bose audio, unless I have my head directly between the two front speakers, it's a bit lacking in oomph.
I've had subs in my previous cars and thought that as I had various amps and cables lying around, I might as well use them. Of course I ended up buying a new amp when I came to do the install.
I built a sub box that would fit under the roof storage compartment and would fit my Phase Linear Aliante 10" sub. I calculated the size of the box using an old copy of WinISD that I've had for years.
I consulted the wiring diagrams and determined that the best place to get a signal for the amp was from the input of the factory amp in the rear right of the car.
I ran a fused +12v cable from the battery to the back of the car, using a kit from Halfords (which was surprisingly reasonable). Getting the cable through the firewall was a bit of a challenge, but with the glovebox removed I was eventually able to manage it. I then ran this below the centre console to the rear seat, which was a bit of a pain but worked in the end. I pulled the cable through to the boot and found I had plenty to spare.
I removed the plug for the factory amp and located the pins I wanted:
PIN 25 = Remote Turn On
PIN 6 = Signal Earth
PIN 7 = Rear Left
PIN 8 = Rear Right
I cut the ends off the phono cable that came with the amp wiring kit and wired up the earth first, then the signal pins.
I ran the phono cable and remote turn on to the other side of the boot where I installed my Amp.
I'm not sure if this is the best place.. I ordered a Vibe LiteBox Bass amp as I wanted a remote gain control as I wouldn't had head unit control over the subwoofer level. It was only £50, but I wasn't sure if it would be the older shape model or the newer one. I got the old shape and found that I couldn't install it on the back of the rearseats as there is insufficient space (despite it being small).
I bought a replacement ski-hatch for the rear seat and took it apart, removing the bag.
I swapped the ski-hatch housing into the car so I just have a hole into the boot from the cabin.
I put all the carpet back, ran a cable to the remote amp gain control which I've installed under the armrest and tried it out.
The particular Vibe litebox amp I have is a bit of a pain as the level dials are all on the underside.. but once I got it all figured out, it makes a nice improvement to the stock Bose sound.
I haven't lost a huge amount of boot space - I might try to relocate the amp to somewhere more out of the way in the future though.
During the install I had the boot open for long periods - this has subsequently busted my GPS antenna cable so my next job is to replace all the RG174 cables that run to the antennas in the bootlid.
I've had subs in my previous cars and thought that as I had various amps and cables lying around, I might as well use them. Of course I ended up buying a new amp when I came to do the install.
I built a sub box that would fit under the roof storage compartment and would fit my Phase Linear Aliante 10" sub. I calculated the size of the box using an old copy of WinISD that I've had for years.
I consulted the wiring diagrams and determined that the best place to get a signal for the amp was from the input of the factory amp in the rear right of the car.
I ran a fused +12v cable from the battery to the back of the car, using a kit from Halfords (which was surprisingly reasonable). Getting the cable through the firewall was a bit of a challenge, but with the glovebox removed I was eventually able to manage it. I then ran this below the centre console to the rear seat, which was a bit of a pain but worked in the end. I pulled the cable through to the boot and found I had plenty to spare.
I removed the plug for the factory amp and located the pins I wanted:
PIN 25 = Remote Turn On
PIN 6 = Signal Earth
PIN 7 = Rear Left
PIN 8 = Rear Right
I cut the ends off the phono cable that came with the amp wiring kit and wired up the earth first, then the signal pins.
I ran the phono cable and remote turn on to the other side of the boot where I installed my Amp.
I'm not sure if this is the best place.. I ordered a Vibe LiteBox Bass amp as I wanted a remote gain control as I wouldn't had head unit control over the subwoofer level. It was only £50, but I wasn't sure if it would be the older shape model or the newer one. I got the old shape and found that I couldn't install it on the back of the rearseats as there is insufficient space (despite it being small).
I bought a replacement ski-hatch for the rear seat and took it apart, removing the bag.
I swapped the ski-hatch housing into the car so I just have a hole into the boot from the cabin.
I put all the carpet back, ran a cable to the remote amp gain control which I've installed under the armrest and tried it out.
The particular Vibe litebox amp I have is a bit of a pain as the level dials are all on the underside.. but once I got it all figured out, it makes a nice improvement to the stock Bose sound.
I haven't lost a huge amount of boot space - I might try to relocate the amp to somewhere more out of the way in the future though.
During the install I had the boot open for long periods - this has subsequently busted my GPS antenna cable so my next job is to replace all the RG174 cables that run to the antennas in the bootlid.
