This is for all those who have the JL Audio Stealthbox for the Excursion. First, my dilema. Although, I do not have the privelege of owning my own "X" yet. It has been decided, between my wife and I, that it will be our next vehicle. PSD powered, of course. Excitement about this has lead me to plot stereo upgrade options. Because, as we all know, stock stereos suck! Right now, my Ranger has a good chunk of stereo equipment in it already. All of it would swap right into an Excursion. Especially, the main speakers. 6x8 seems to be pretty common in Ford trucks. I have four Boston Acoustics CX6's mounted on custom made (by me) adapters for the 6x8 holes. These should go right into the holes in the four doors of an Excursion. If not, some new adapter plates are no problem to make. Perhaps steel instead of masonite. For bass, my Ranger currently has two 8 inch Bazooka tubes (one powers itself and the unpowered slave). They work great in a Supercab Ranger. Above all else, stealth mounting was first priority when I designed the system for my Ranger. I had to cough up $250 for a new cargo area cover to hide the amps and subs (truck never came with one but has the holes in it to mount one). Best investment I have ever made!

I don't want to continue on with the Bazooka tubes with the Excursion. They will take up some cargo space and be exposed to beating and banging from cargo. Keeping them out-of-sight would be a little harder too. I would rather go with a JL Audio Stealthbox up front. This would save alot of wiring cost too. Again, as with my Ranger, stealth is priority one.

Now, my problem comes in not with the installing Stealthbox itself but where to mount the amplifiers to power it and the rest of the speakers in the system. Where did you guys mount your amps? My concern is for the life of the amps. I have read that a few folks have mounted them under the second row seats. Is there enough room under there for air to circulate and allow the amps to be properly cooled? If not, is there enough room under the second row seats one could build an enclosure around the amps with small fans for air circulation? These won't be ultra powerful amps (25Wx4 and a 300Wx1 continuous). Likewise, neither amp will see higher than a four ohm load. SO how did you guys solve these problems?

Thanks,

Paul


Bonus Points to whoever can figure out where to mount an EQ232ix out-of-sight!

 

I have a class D behind the rear seat of my crewcab superduty, and it gets very hot. I don't think you would have as much trouble. If your good with fabricating, I plan on mounting a processor and my next amp behind the dash, in the middle portion that has the ashtray. The last time I had that panel off, it seemed like more than enough room.

 

The processor I could see. If it was one of those units controlled by the head unit. But an amplifier? Unless it was liquid cooled it would probably get real hot, shut down alot and then eventually fry out completely. IIRC, there aren't many of those out there since PPI canned the "ART" series.

Thanks for your help,

Paul