Old trucker needs help

 

New member
Username: Ledzep

Ohio

Post Number: 5
Registered: Nov-05
ok little kiddies , please be kind to me,i always say there is no such thing as a dumb question, so im here to learn. i have some audio experience so im not totally lost,used to run sound for bands back in the day. here is my issue. i drive a semi truck for a living and i am having i guess what you would call a mid life crisis, im tired of being mature, i like to jam as much as any 20 yr old,im 39 btw. in the truck i share half the day with another old metal head, we are not allowed to permanantly mount anything, and our cb/stereo has to run off of a quick connect +/- post on the dash. my co-driver had built a box with super tuner pioneer,a 10 in walmart woofer,and 2 pioneer full range 6 in coaxial speakers and a sony explode 600 watt amp bridged to the sub woofer only, the 6in speakers run straight off the head unit. it didnt sound all that good and i know its not top of the line audio equiptment, but still i thought it should sound better. i worked on it, sealed the box around the woofer , made a port tube out of pvc pipe to the most proper dimensions i could find,i also put high pass crossovers on the 6 in speakers to relieve stress on them. it sounded great after the few tweeks, and even though it was cheap equiptment, it still rocked pretty good. the only problem we had was the amp was clipping from power strain, neither of us knowing anything at the time about capacitors, we decided to add a 12 volt lawn mower battery to the box (300 cca), and believe it or not, it actually worked damn good, no more clipping,it is hooked in with the power cord to buffer whatever loss there is from the small quick connect +/- terminals on dash. all in all now it looks like hell but sounds fairly good.
now here is the issue .... its just not good enough. my craving for good audio i had as a kid has made me want to ditch the whole setup and build one from the ground up, with a bit better equiptment and alot lighter weight because its just too heavy to move when we have to switch trucks.
here is my first question:
1) if the battery we added to the box was able to stop the clipping of the amp, do you think a capacitor would be a better and lighter solution ?
keep in mind the power drag is not due to a weak altenator, its a semi truck with a huge alt, the clipping is a result of the small quick connect +/_ terminals on dash. i tried to get the specs on the +/_ quick connects from our shop, but they looked at me like i asked them how many gigawatts are going to the flux capacitor ..lol . so if the battery added in box helped, would a capacitor work as well and be lighter ? if so , tell me what to look for in a capacitor, brand name and specs.
2)as i build this new box, there are some issues to deal with. my company wont allow any audio equiptment to be located anywhere except the passenger seat.so all the sound is blasting into my right ear and killin it :-( . i want it to sound good as it can, be priced fairly good, and be lightweight, keep in mind there will also be weight added by mounting a cb radio as well for traffic information and bear reports cause i live in ohio ..lol ... here is my plan, i wanted to start with maybe an 8 or 10 inch amplified sub box.im thinking of using a bazoka tube because its a decent price, sounds real tight, no worries about matching cubic feet of space and i believe the constant air flow in and out of the bazoka tube also helps to cool the amp and extend its life. (i have a 10in amplified bazoka tube in my S10 and it sounds great, never gets hot). i then wanted to place two decent sounding 6in full range speakers with a high pass filter that compliments the range of the bazoka tube in the side of the project facing towards the windsield at an angle from the right side of the passenger seat reflecting off windsield toward my face, so as to try to eliminate some of the effect of all the sound killing my right ear. any advice on this would be great.
also any advice on a decent priced head unit that will play mp3 disc,be xm ready,have rca outputs for the bazoka tube, and good quality built in amp to run the 2 6 inch full range speakers, and also might be a bit user friendly because its hard to operate alot of controls on a stereo when you driving a semi truck.

mostly want to know about capacitors though.

any help or advice would be greatly appreciated at allenx1966@aol.com
thanks , allen .... old metal head
 

Anonymous
 
bump for this guy - its alot of reading but some interesting problems .
 

Anonymous
 
there are only like 10 threads. what is the point of bumping him.
 

Bronze Member
Username: A444w444m

Post Number: 83
Registered: Oct-05
wut is "bumping" somebody?
 

Anonymous
 
putting the person on the top of the list on the forum.
 

Bronze Member
Username: Islandboy808

Mililani, Hawaii US

Post Number: 52
Registered: Nov-05
bumps there post up to the top of the list
 

Silver Member
Username: 54danny54

Post Number: 959
Registered: Nov-04
lets see...
1.) NO CAP...you can hook ya system up to ya fuse block

2.)heres sum links 2 order sum cheap yet good sounding equipment for ya situation...
Sub: http://www.woofersetc.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&Product_ID=2447

amp: http://www.woofersetc.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&Product_ID=3135
wire it to 2 ohms

Speaks: http://www.woofersetc.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&Product_ID=830

amp for speaks: http://www.woofersetc.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&Product_ID=67

Head unit: http://www.woofersetc.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&Product_ID=2860

should be liek 500 bux or less...good for a boxed system like u talk bout
 

Bronze Member
Username: Ledzep

Ohio

Post Number: 13
Registered: Nov-05
Compluva ..... as i stated in my post , i have to use these quick connect +/- post on the dash, and the whole box must fit on the passenger seat. our company has strict rules on that to prevent drivers from tearing the trucks up. we have 1000's of trucks and trust me, if they let drivers get to the fuse block, all hell would break loose...lol.. thank you for the links i will check them out.
im thinking i will get a 8 inch amplified bazzoka tube and see if it clips,they are made very well and dont draw alot of amps, if it dont clip then, i may just get a cap anyway, i read that they do help even out and smooth out your power, but should not be used to replace a weak under powered altenator. i will just use it as a comlpliment with the bazzoka tube to smooth things out ... what do you think about that ?
once again...thanks for the links bro
 

Gold Member
Username: Kd7nfr

Montpelier, ID United States

Post Number: 1228
Registered: Apr-05
allen: try your other post... I posted over there.
 

Gold Member
Username: Basshead86

Ocala, FL USA

Post Number: 2649
Registered: Aug-05
me too.
 

Silver Member
Username: 54danny54

Post Number: 962
Registered: Nov-04
No prob...bazooka tubes get loud but dont bump.

That site has cheap bazooka stuff, check it
 

Anonymous
 
Scratch that. Get a small power converter, and get a Bose CD Wave Radio. Small, and fill up the cabin of that truck good times.
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