My newest mod: bed speakers (still in progress)

[mjonags32]

A lot of times, the bed of my truck is like a place to hang out for my friends. If it’s in the parking lot, camping, or going to the beach, we all hang out back there. The other day when we were hanging out back there, I noticed that we could barely hear my radio. The sliding rear window doesn’t make anything better; you still can’t hear anything. So I decided that I wanted to put speakers back there. I didn't want them to be on all the time, like when I was driving or something. I only wanted them to be on whenever we were gonna hang out back there.

So this is what I came up with…

I got these cheap 3” waterproof full-range speakers (Max 60 watts). When I first bought them, I figured that if they didn't sound good, or they got stolen, or anything like that, it would be ok since they were only like $17 (eBay).



At first I was going to put them in storage compartments in the bed, similar to the way TN member BillBrasky put his air compressor hose in there, except face them on the opposite wall, so that they face toward the tailgate.

But instead, I’m going to put them in the bed pockets.



I planned on making a custom speaker mount and drill into that. So after everything, I don’t have to drill into any part of the bed. This past week I went to a plastic store and got some plastic where the texture matches the look of the composite bed. Yesterday I got around to cutting the plastic to fit the bed pockets. The hole in the middle is 3” in diameter, to mount the speakers. You can see that back corners had to be rounded to fit the pockets.




Also the bottom side of the front also had to be rounded.









As far as the switch, I got this DPDT toggle switch from Radioshack (bottom left). This way I can wire them as left and right speakers and turn them on with the same switch.



I still have to wire it, but I don’t know when I can get around to it. My weekdays are pretty much filled with work and weekends are pretty busy.

I’ll keep you guys updated when these will actually be up and running.

Video:
http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/sh...d.php?t=198237

[visforvegetable]

sweet idea. how "waterproof" are these speakers? will it be safe if it was drenched in water when lets say if it rained pretty hard? thanks for sharing by the way.

[viet2100]

Did you remake some drain holes since you put in a different piece?

[beastbluetaco]

It looks good.

[Kenny]

Siiiickkk!

[Phi Kai]

I'm curious to see how these sound...with football season coming up it might be time to prep the stereo for tailgaiting...although i usually just open the doors...

[Nicky9]

Looks good... Great idea
if you are concerned with water... mount them in the top of the pocket facing down towards to ground.

[noladude]

Originally Posted by Nicky9

Looks good... Great idea
if you are concerned with water... mount them in the top of the pocket facing down towards to ground.

good idea ... I would mount them in the top of the side pocket facing down...that would keep the water out and may slightly improve the sound quality.

[tacoma2006]

i had a friend that mounted some inside his rear bumper, but i dont know if those speakers will sound good there.

you just gave me a idea though get a cross bar and round it out like a tube then mount tower speakers on it, you wake board guys know what im talking about.

like these

[mjonags32]

Originally Posted by visforvegetable

sweet idea. how "waterproof" are these speakers? will it be safe if it was drenched in water when lets say if it rained pretty hard? thanks for sharing by the way.

well, i hope they're pretty water proof. they're actually intended for boats. the company makes all bunch of products for marine sports. but we'll see, they were only $17, so I'm not expecting these to be top notch.

Originally Posted by viet2100

Did you remake some drain holes since you put in a different piece?

i was thinking of doing that. i still can. i just didnt want to cut more of the speaker mount just yet. i dont want to make any final decisions until it's all done.

Originally Posted by Phi Kai

I'm curious to see how these sound...with football season coming up it might be time to prep the stereo for tailgaiting...although i usually just open the doors...

exactly what i was thinking. i went to like 4 or 5 49er games last year (when i didnt have my taco yet). now that i have the truck, it's gonna be a whole lot of fun! i was also thinking about when we go snowboarding and we're unloading and suiting up.

i dont need these speakers to be super bad ass that you can hear it a block down, just enough to listen to when we're back there.

Originally Posted by Nicky9

Looks good... Great idea
if you are concerned with water... mount them in the top of the pocket facing down towards to ground.

that's a good idea, but the top doesnt have the space for the speaker magnet like the bottom does. then that would defeat the whole idea i stated about not drilling into the truck.

[tooblutacoma06]

Originally Posted by tacoma2006

i had a friend that mounted some inside his rear bumper, but i dont know if those speakers will sound good there.

you just gave me a idea though get a cross bar and round it out like a tube then mount tower speakers on it, you wake board guys know what im talking about.

like these

Indeed, that would be sweet, but tower speakers are very expensive. I don't know if that would really be worth it. But they are really loud!! I was on a MasterCraft X80 today and it had the loudest tower speakers I've ever heard! Killer boat by the way.

Nice work man! Keep us updated for sure.

[Nicky9]

Originally Posted by mjonags32

well, i hope they're pretty water proof. they're actually intended for boats. the company makes all bunch of products for marine sports. but we'll see, they were only $17, so I'm not expecting these to be top notch.



i was thinking of doing that. i still can. i just didnt want to cut more of the speaker mount just yet. i dont want to make any final decisions until it's all done.



exactly what i was thinking. i went to like 4 or 5 49er games last year (when i didnt have my taco yet). now that i have the truck, it's gonna be a whole lot of fun! i was also thinking about when we go snowboarding and we're unloading and suiting up.

i dont need these speakers to be super bad ass that you can hear it a block down, just enough to listen to when we're back there.



that's a good idea, but the top doesnt have the space for the speaker magnet like the bottom does. then that would defeat the whole idea i stated about not drilling into the truck.

Yeah I knew you didnt want to cut into the box... just figured for those who didnt mind brakin out the ol' dremel might be interested in the upside down mount. Let us know how they sound.

[Phi Kai]

Why did you use DPDT switch? wouldn't you just need on and off or do you have like on with cab speakers and on by themselves

My only concern if I were to do it would be the speakers able to handle enough power to be heard...I mean we generally just turn on some games on XM so who knows...

[06TacomaDouble]

Nice work mjonags32!

[Larzzzz]

Nice idea indeed. The pocket the speakers are sitting in is removable. I just don't know if it can be flipped over and reinstalled with the pocket on the top.