I'm doing some math and between the tools, materials and my time, I might as well buy a prefab Zenclosure. Thing is, their 12" enclosure sacrifices the spare tire. I've gone that route in my last car - never again.

IDMAX 12" D4 has a mounting depth of 8.25" and it should have at least .5" behind the magnet. Volume of box needs to be 1.5 cuft. Cutout is 11" and flange edge to edge is 12.4".

It wont fit in the area behind the driver seat - at least I haven't seen it work. The strut bar is juuuust too low to mount it underneath. Any ideas? I'm tryin to stick with a 3/4" mdf box with a 1" baffle side - so no fiberglass builds for this.

 

Oooh sweet, give me your IDMAX and I'll give you my 10" Kicker CVR - problem sovled. I freaking love IDMAX's.

 

does the id max want to be ported or sealed
how much space net does it require

 

if you want the best sq out of it in the hatch are my friend, the further away from you the better bass response)as well as positioning of course,id recommend facing the hatch glass so i deflects off of it at an angle)

 

Dream on

 

Sealed. 1.5 cubic feet. specs at 1.30 - 1.55, but Ive tried 1.45 and 1.55, so this builds gonna be 1.5.

How would you set that up? Accessibility to spare tire is a must.

 

build a sealed , 1.5 cu ft net after sub displacement, sub face up

will be light enough to pull out to access spare & jack

 

or you can just get AAA and make your life alot easier

this is what i did and too this day i havent needed it, so idk bro... the chances of you using your spare are slim

 

I hear ya. I have it too, but it doesnt help if I need to be somewhere in 15 mins. Flat tire is the laaamest excuse.

An excellent idea but a square or rectangle box doesn't look very custom.

 

Plus you probably wouldnt have the proper mounting depth. At least i wouldnt think so.

 

you can make a light removable beauty panel for a custom look

zenclosure makes a fine product and all users love them , but it is not gonna look that custom as there are many out there using it IMO but it is good

 

Sometimes you have to pick one or the other unfortunately. A square non custom box is also an easy target for a thief. I have had a flat or 2, hae always just used AAA. I have a set of original rims/tires at home in case it happens near by. I can just grab one.

 

If I reversed the design of the Zenclosure I could make the amp rack panel located between the seats and the strut bar into the baffle, angled up and firing forwards towards the windshield. Then I could turn the under strut panel facing the rear into a flat beauty panel and keep the spare.

Where theres a will theres a way...thoughts on forward firing subwoofers or the design idea?

 

foward does not sound nearly as good as backward or up

but you can try it

generally the shorter the path of the bass wave the worse it sounds

 

+1

It sounds more boomy and drowns the highs easier

 

If so you can't the max is pretty big and a spare delete/fiberglass fabrication will have to be done, if you wanna have a spare have you considered a smaller sub? Also under strut bar zenclosure(w diff sub) box maybe no the best sq but access to spare is there.

 

I've considered an IDMAX 10 v4. Couple things keep me from swapping it:

- Lowest end frequency response diminished
- Image Dynamics is out of business and that 12" may become rare
- I won a couple IASCA comps with a single 12 - my substage always beat the competition for sq and it hit the max (135db) in a sealed box so its extremely versitile.

I moved the sub around in the trunk to see how it fits....its just too big for what I want w/o spending a fortune.

I'll most likely buckle and remove the spare. I have 3 amps for sub, mids and tweeters that need a home out of sight as well so my options just got more limited. Plus the Zenclosure setup with the amps under the floor would provide weight where the spare used to be.

Given everyones response about forward firing woofers I'll be nixing that idea too.

Looks like I have my options. Thanks guys - once the build's done I'll post pics.