One of the staples of car audio enhancements over the years has been bass upgrades. While factory systems can sometimes sound not too bad, they never really produce enough bass. This was the case with this GMC Sierra. The owner wanted to add a truck subwoofer enclosure, subwoofers, and an amplifier. After talking with him a bit, we found he wanted more bass than our standard truck bass upgrade would provide. We had the perfect solution for him.
System Plan
Our upgrade plans for the client’s truck consisted of two JL Audio 10Tw3 subwoofers. These subwoofers are positioned in the middle of JL Audio’s line of thin subwoofers. In the right enclosure, with plenty of power, these subwoofers are very impressive. To power the 10Tw3’s we used a JL Audio JD1000/1 amplifier. This amp will provide a pair of subwoofers with 1000 watts. We love the JD amplifiers for the value they provide. We mounted the amplifier behind the back seat of the truck and powered it with a JL Audio wiring kit.
Truck Subwoofer Enclosure
Up next was the fabrication of the subwoofer enclosure. There wasn’t a lot of extra space under the back seat of this Sierra, so we knew we needed to measure carefully. After taking into account the thickness of the subwoofer and the grille, we were able to design the perfect enclosure for this truck.
As with most of our truck subwoofer enclosures, this one was built out of 3/4″ MDF. The center of the truck floor had a bit of a hump in it, so we had to take that into account with our design. We also added a divider in the center of the enclosure. While this does make the enclosure more rigid, we do it primarily for a different reason. If two subwoofers share the airspace in an enclosure, and one of them stops working, then the woofer that remains working is all of a sudden in double the airspace it is supposed to be in. This can have damaging effects on the subwoofer and the air in the enclosure no longer can adequately support the woofer suspension.
Once we had the enclosure fabricated it was time to add a little extra detail before we carpeted it. We used our laser to make a trim ring that attaches to the front of the box. This ring provides a pocket for us to insert a cosmetic piece of acrylic into the front of it.
The upholstery was next. We used a black automotive-grade carpet to cover the subwoofer enclosure. We use the finest upholstery glue available for all our upholstery work. The heat and humidity in Florida are a challenge for glues, so we make sure we use the best.
To finish off the enclosure, we added a custom laser-cut front trim plate. We added the GMC logo on the piece for an even further customized enclosure.
Amplifier Adjustment and Delivery
Lastly, we wired up and loaded the enclosure with the JL Audio 10Tw3 subwoofers. Then it was the moment we had been waiting for. Turning the system on. We adjusted the crossover and gain settings on the amplifier and finally got to hear the result of our hard work. It sounded great! The upgrade gave the client tons of great-sounding, deep bass.
Want more bass in your truck? One of our custom truck subwoofer enclosures will help! Stop by or contact us here to learn more about how to get more bass in your truck.
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