OT....Truck Stereo Questions

This here is for the younger generation. My 16 year old son wants "subs" for Christmas for his 1998 Chevy 1500 extended cab. We have an aftermarket JVC stereo/cd player and the factory speakers. What does he want and what does he need to make this work? The guy we got the stero from had an "amp' but he said it would blow up the factory speakers. My wife says he wants the "boom boom" noise that all the kids have nowdays.

Help. I guess I am getting old.

simple...put a friend of his in bed with a hammer beating on bed in tune to the music.

(quoted from post at 06:07:01 12/05/11) This here is for the younger generation. My 16 year old son wants "subs" for Christmas for his 1998 Chevy 1500 extended cab. We have an aftermarket JVC stereo/cd player and the factory speakers. What does he want and what does he need to make this work? The guy we got the stero from had an "amp' but he said it would blow up the factory speakers. My wife says he wants the "boom boom" noise that all the kids have nowdays.

Help. I guess I am getting old.

Click to expand...

I know very little anymore, but if he truly wants that "boom boom" sound that can be heard LONG before the truck is visible, it'll take more than just a sub-woofer to do it. He'll need a huge amp, some huge cables, and maybe even a new stereo. A few thousand dollars will get you started. Might even need to install a second battery and up-grade the alternator.

Wal-Mart used to have an auto stereo section, maybe still do. You could start small and build from there.

You will need speakers to match the output of the amp and a seperately powered sub woofer.In a pickup it is tough to get that big boom as there is not much room to put the speakers. Unless you want to sacrifice the box space....

It's a good father son project that doesn't have to break the bank. You get to work together on wire sizing, wire routing, component placement, and possibly box building.

Decide if you are going to keep or ditch the seat in the extended cab. If you are keeping the seat that limits your area to behind the back seat, under it, or under the front seat. If you ditch it you have that whole area to work with. You'll end up purchasing an amp, a subwoofer/s, and a box to place the sub in.

Wiring: You'll run a heavy gauge 12V wire from the battery to the amp - good idea to fuse it near the battery. You will need another heavy gauge wire from a ground to the amp. Finally you will run a small gauge 12v wire from the back of the radio to the amp - this is your remote on that turns on the amp when the radio turns on. Many aftermarket radios have this lead in there wiring harness or you can piggyback into the power antenna lead. That takes care of powering the amp, now you just need to get sound back to it. The most typical is you'll run a set of pre-out style leads from the back of the radio to the input of the amp. Check that your radio is capable of this - now days even medium price radios have front, rear, and sub pre-outs.

As far as components go - you can get real crap or really decent stuff - all depends on how much you want to pay. Make a budget for the amp, speakers, and box, and go from there.

This was very over simple and short, but hopefully it gave you the basics to think over.

Click on the link and look around there!

I've bought several stereo/speaker kits from these folks and they are great to deal with. They specialize in helping you get just what you are after - and also in knowing the best way to outfit your specific vehicle.

They've got a lot of happy customers and I'm just one of them...

Howard
Crutchfield

Go to a reputable dealer that will set it all up and get an estimate... Will be a list of all you need, then get on amazon or ebay and get the stuff along with a book to get you started if needed.... The money you save can be set aside in an account that will draw interest to buy/maintain the hearing aids he'll need later....... Hindsight really sucks....

Good luck. Dave

It's not just the kids nowdays that have the boom boom, we had it back in the 80's when we were kids too. I had a buddy that had a Dodge truck he had put a stereo system in that included pretty much all the bells and whistles. It was as loud and booming as any other system around. Funny thing is this guy hated rap, or anything else that was not COUNTRY for that matter. I used to get a kick out of it when he'd pull up beside some other kid playing his rap crap what he thought was 'loud and proud'. Greg would simply pull out his best country tape and plug it in, and turn it up......Hank Jr sounds pretty good LOUD too....LOL.

Seriously what your son is wanting isn't going to be cheap if you do it right. One thing to not cheap out on for sure is the speakers. If you do put in a sizable amp, etc then the speakers are going to be the weak link and you can easily 'blow them out' if they aren't capable of handling all your sending to them. That said a decent stero system is all anyone needs, regardless of what he might want. Not intending to step on your toes as a parent here, but an extreemly loud stereo is bad for the hearing, as well as unsafe when driving. Personally, regardless of what he wanted, I wouldn't waste the money to put a system like that, in a truck, for a 16 year old that still has all of his hearing and is just learning to drive. Get him a nice, quality stereo, a couple of nice speakers, and that'a all he'll ever need. That's all I've got in my '88 Camaro and though I'm just shy of 44 now, that type system will get as loud as I can stand now, even with some prior hearing loss, and as loud as I would have ever wanted it when I was 16. The really nice thing is that it does it all while retaining a good quality sound without alot of buzzing, static, etc from the speakers being overloaded, and it didn't break the bank to put it in.

That said, tell him if he's going to spend money on a truck, spend it making both more functional and better looking. That will attract more girls than a loud stereo ever could....And what young guy isn't in to 'more' girls more than they are a loud stereo???...LOL

I know you want to get the boy what he want's but it's gonna hurt him permanantly so I would buy him something else.

I remember my son wanting the same thing years ago & I woulden't be a party to damaging his hearing. Of course he bought them himself later & I could hear the Boom Boom half a mile away every time he came home. He can't hear half as good as I do now & I'm an old man. Tried to tell him & I wish I had been wrong but the ears can't stand them.

As a teenager, I too had to have the boom boom stereo. You could here me coming from over a mile away. I could flip quarters on the truck roof. I had 1200 watts of power and (4) 10" subwoofers.

My recommendations: (2) 10" Kicker subwoofers (2 or 4 ohm depending on your amp used) in behind the seat truck enclosure boxes, a 500-600 "true" wattage two channel amp with a built in crossover (My preference is Alpine). Then, either install low banpass filters on the door speakers to keep the bass out (doesn't work real great, but cheap) or install a small cheap amplifier with a built in crossover to them to have a more stereo sound. If you replace the door speakers with aftermarket ones, I prefer boston acoustic.

For a system like I described, you will not need a capacitor, extra battery, or heavy duty alternator. If you go over 1000 watts, then these additional parts start coming into play.

Of course you will need 8 gauge wire from the battery and an inline fuse if using one amp or a fuse block if using 2 or more amps. Don't forget the RCA cables from the stereo to the amplifier.

You will easily spend close to or over $1000. Crutchfield is way too expensive. Visit a local stereo shop or Best Buy.

yea: i could hear them a mile away, because when i had a car/truck, was lucky to have a stereo in it, have 8-track or cassette player...no boom-boxes in the 70"s, still have good hearing at 58 yrs old, it a shame, today"s kids want to put a $5000 stereo, with $4000 wheels, in a $500 car/truck

And then his truck becomes an instant target for thieves, so ,,better spring for an alarm system also

And then his truck becomes an instant target for thieves, so ,,better spring for an alarm system also

A cheap way to get that sound: Tell him to ride around with the driver's window down, and beat on the outside door panel with a BFH! Door panels are cheaper, by far, than those boom sounds!

Would sound about the same.

Thanks to some of you for the advice. I did some research on this after the post. If I do this it is going to me fairly mild. I found a company that makes a box to go under the back seat. It holds one 10" sub. Found some lower wattage amps also. I think we can have something decent without ruining hearing or my bank account.

For the rest of you I am sure you never wanted or did anything like that either.

You must be a real giving Dad. My dad would make me work for the farmer neighbors hauling hay or cutting/hanging tobacco to make money for anything I wanted to do to my car. Including maintenance and the car payment itself. He always said if you don't like what we have and our rules, then work and buy it yourself. It made me a better person though.

Good luck with the father son project.