Under the rear bin? (Amp Installed!...)

GSB · February 12, 2004, 18:19

As I'm about to install a UD Sub Jnr, and will shortly be needing to fit an amp into my car, I've been investigating possible locations for mounting electonics. Essentially I dont want to lose any storage space, and I'd like the Amp to be out of sight.

You may not know this, but in certain markets Toyota mount additional emmisions control equipment under the floor of the left side locker. Here in Europe, its not a requirement so the space is empty, and the floor of the left side locker is lower to give us a bit more space. But, even the lowered floor doesn't go all the way to the bottom of the available space, the plastic floor of your luggage bin actually sits alot higher than the steel floor below it...

I started by removing the plastics from the rear luggage bins:

On the right side of the car (left of picture) you can just make out the fuel tank level sender. Theres not a lot of room to play with here. On the Left side of the car though (right of picture) you can see the storage well is alot deeper...

Here are a couple of detail closeup's of the luggage bin once removed from the car...

As you can see, it actually stands quite a way from the steel floor below it. Theres a good 60mm of clearance under the main part of the plastic floor.

Heres the steel floor directly below, with steel measuring rules to give an idea of scale:

You can also see in these photo's where I've removed one of the studs that would have mounted the US market emmisions controls. The others will serve as Earthing points.

Just for comparison and an idea of whats possible, heres a photo of my trusty old Kenwood Amp sitting on top of the platform in the luggage box:

And in the same position in the naked luggage bay.(note the location of the 2 boltholes above the amplifier.)

Now my amp is a little on the large side, and I doubt I'll be using it again for this job, but after measuring, an amp sized 250mmL x 150mmW x 50mmH would fit comfortably under the plastic floor of the luggage locker. There would be enough room for air circulation, and if a pattern of ventilation holes were drilled through the plastic floor, cooling would definitely not be a problem.

A larger unit such as mine can also be fitted. The amp shown above doesn't sit in the bottom of the recess shown as its to wide (280 x 200 x 50). It sits on the sides of the depression in the floor, but with a Jigsaw, it could be recessed through the bottom of the plastic floor so that only 20mm of storage space is lost. Not only would cooling be assured, but it would look good too. s:wink: :wink: s:wink:

All I need to do now is find a decent amp, of the correct size, and I'm in business. Failing that, the old faithful Kenwood shown above is going in!

markiii · February 12, 2004, 18:40

GHrant depending upon how many channells the Blaukpunkt PA2100 is tiny and will go under there. Or my theory is a Genesis Profile.

The same thought had occured to me as well.

GSB · February 13, 2004, 11:02

Quote from: "markiii"Grant depending upon how many channells the Blaukpunkt PA2100 is tiny and will go under there. Or my theory is a Genesis Profile.

The same thought had occured to me as well.

The Blaupunkt will certainly fit. its only 223x150x51mm, but its only 2 channels. If anyone wants to fit an amp with NO loss of space? this is the one!

The Genesis Profile amps are a bit bigger, the 2 channel one being 240x217x38, and the 4 channel one at 300x217x38mm, So whilst they're very low profile, its too big to sit in the steel well and make proper use of the space available, especially when you take the cable routing into account. They're actually bigger (in the dimension that counts) than the 260Watt 4 channel Kenwood shown above...

Bugger...

markiii · February 13, 2004, 11:05

interesting I always though it would fit.

Since you don't have air con how about under the dash on the passenger side?

GSB · February 13, 2004, 11:13

No chance, I may not have air-con, but I dont think it makes a difference, theres still no room under there... I imagine the air-con extras are fitted internally to all the stuff thats bolted in already...

markiii · February 13, 2004, 11:19

well I took a look under there the weekend to see if Icould fit teh sub on the passenger side to equyal out some of the weigth of my fat arese on teh drivers side.

Theres an awful lof of plastic gubbins which I assumed is the aircon, if it's not I'd love to know what it is.

Heres another thought though, looking at where teh us sub goes there is loads of spac further over where the pabel covering teh bottom f the steering wheel is. with suitable bracketry it could be housed there.

GSB · February 13, 2004, 11:34

Its certainly worth looking into... I'll have a measure up later.

Ive pretty much discounted mounting an amp under the seat now. If you want to maintain the full forward travel (essential for full access to the luggage locker behind) I think you need to find an amp thats no taller than about 30mm! Unless of course the profile of the floor pan dips under the seats, I'll measure that later too.

Just as a thought, a Sony (no, not my favorite ICE manufacturer either) XM-444 might fit. its 260x55x180mm and the connections are all on the end. If you did have to have it showing through the plastic floor though, it'd be really ugly...

Another one that might fit is the Sony XM 440NX.

Its 237 x 50 x 214 mm, but look what would happen if you chopped those feet off. It'd drop into the well in the car a treat...

markiii · February 13, 2004, 11:55

the profile is the slimmest amp I can find, I made a cardboard mock up for testing, and that will not go under the seats and still allow them to slide, so I'm pretty sure the seats are a no go.

I haven't done the math yet, but a couple of PA2100 side on might be an option.

I've borrowed a mates old Phoenix gold 4 channell to have a play, becuase I'm contemplating a 5 channel, sub, doors, and storage lockers, depending on if I reckon I need teh rear fill or not.

GSB · February 13, 2004, 16:32

Quote from: "markiii"Heres another thought though, looking at where the us sub goes there is loads of spac further over where the pabel covering the bottom f the steering wheel is. with suitable bracketry it could be housed there.

Well, I've just had that area of the car in bits, and although I'm not saying its impossible, its not going to be easy, and you wont get anything bigger in there than you can already get in the rear bin... Of course if you werent about to put a big sub unit up there it'd be a doddle!

There is a drop in the floor pan under the seat that could be exploited though, a depression roughly 180mm wide x 45mm deep. Cant think of an amp I'd fit in there, but a DAB module would fit nicely.

SteveJ · February 13, 2004, 17:20

Grant,

The studs that you point out in the passenger side bin are actually for mounting the SMT ECU - the charcoal canister in the US goes behind our drivers seat (and makes the bin floor almost level with the bottom of the bin door)

Posted just in case any SMT owners are getting similar ideas.... s:(

s:(

Anonymous · February 14, 2004, 08:45

GSB, may I suggest that you consider the area under the seats? There's plenty of room there for an amp the size of a Genesis Profile II and no problems with ventilation.

GSB · February 14, 2004, 12:35

Quote from: "SteveJ"Grant,

The studs that you point out in the passenger side bin are actually for mounting the SMT ECU - the charcoal canister in the US goes behind our drivers seat (and makes the bin floor almost level with the bottom of the bin door)

Posted just in case any SMT owners are getting similar ideas.... s:( s:(

I'm fairly sure its the left side of the car that gets the level floor, there was a discussion comparing the 2 on SC ages ago (sadly, before it was hacked and wiped out...)

Heres a photo of Ed Blacks car, you can see the dish on what would be our drivers side, same as ours. I'm not totally sure, but I dont think he has SMT?

http://musicaltouch.com/images/Black_amp.jpg

Anonymous · February 15, 2004, 16:53

be carefull when maounting the amp under the trim behing the lockers as i have noted before that if using it at high gain then there is not sufficent air flow to cool the amp and also you are mounting it above the fuel cell so its your call

but all i do is mount the amp upside down on the cut out of the bim and mount the amp on MDF and fit it so that it is flush and there for you only use a small amount of depth

Tem · February 15, 2004, 20:48

I guess the need for airflow depends a lot from the amp itself...

I had a biggish amp in the tray...on top of the plastic floor that is. And I couldn't run it at high volumes for long periods if I kept the bin doors shut. Even had a fan in there to help it out a bit, but it just made too much heat... s:? :? s:?

Anonymous · February 15, 2004, 21:39

but the bins are not totaly sealed and with enogth air flow you could just get away with it ! but it's risky as the hotter the amp gets the more noise it picks up and makes

Tem · February 16, 2004, 06:36

Quote from: "Buster"but the bins are not totaly sealed and with enogth air flow you could just get away with it

I know, first I thought the biggish space and not being sealed should be enough...then I tried to create some airflow with a fan and cut some routes for the air and it did get better, but the amp still kept shutting down cause of heat. It wasn't too bad in the end, but high volume for half an hour or so during hot summerday was too much with the doors closed...

Anonymous · February 16, 2004, 10:47

yeah in summer i even find it hard to keep my amps cool as the engine also projuces a lot of heat to the bins

Anonymous · February 16, 2004, 11:03

How about under the plastic trim in the front, near the spare wheel?

Some sort of protection against road spray would be required, but there should be no heat problems. s:?: :?: s:?:

Tem · February 16, 2004, 11:10

IIRC, bamaspyder had his amp in there without any issues.

GSB · February 16, 2004, 12:19

Quote from: "victor"How about under the plastic trim in the front, near the spare wheel?

Some sort of protection against road spray would be required, but there should be no heat problems. s:?: :?: s:?:

Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of inside the spare wheel itself. A compact amp would be small enough to fit inside the rim. It would be a fairly simple matter to fix the amp to the front of the bin, place the spare over the top, and use a strap to hold it down rather than the big bolt.

GSB · February 16, 2004, 13:23

Just to confirm. It looka s though SMT owners should be okay with this. The US market evaporative emmisions control normally fits in the luggage bay as shown below, but here in Europe we've been blessed with enough extra space for at least five mars bars. s:wink: :wink: s:wink:

SteveJ · February 16, 2004, 13:56

So where on earth does their SMT controller go then s:? :? s:?

markiii · February 16, 2004, 13:58

the smt European, has a raised but not flush floor to teh bin. I assume the flush floor is because both of them are in there.

Having seen Adam this weekend te smt stands off teh flor on quite a bracket, so without that it should fit.

Jap GT300 · February 18, 2004, 13:25

Looking underneath I would have thought you could relocate the SMT controller against the firewall

Anonymous · February 18, 2004, 14:24

Quote from: "victor"How about under the plastic trim in the front, near the spare wheel?

Some sort of protection against road spray would be required, but there should be no heat problems. s:?: :?: s:?:

You dont realt want to mount it there or in the front spear wheel cubby thingy as you will have to run long power cables throght the car and then run speaker cable back up the car best to leave all the wires as short as possible