"How to" AMP rack's

Rather than post in Murphys thread and answer his specific question I thought I would start a thread that could be used for people looking to mount amp's in there boat. It seems like a pretty common question here. I thought I would share my way of doing it and the reason I do it this way. Im hopeing you can share the way you did your's so people can get some Idea's and use this thread in the future.

Most boats have a curved or concave gunnal. This make's mounting a traditional Amp board or Rack tricky. It's hard to get a large amp board to stick to a curved surface like your gunnal. You don't need to make a rack or board to mount your amp's.

I make 2 mounting point's or block's one for the front of the amp and one for the back. These block's glue to the bare fiberglass using your faverote glue. These block's have a stud or bolt comming off of them. These blocks are made of MDF. I coverd them in epoxy and painted them.
Here is a pick of a amp hanging on a block thats mounted. The cut away carpet is for another mounting block that hasen't been put up yet. You can see the 2nd mounting block down the line with a stud for another amp waiting to be mounted.

You have to make a metal strap that bolts to the amp's mounting feet. This metal strap is what attaches to the mounting block. Like this.

This allows you to hang or mount your amps up in aera's you might not be able to get to.
Here is another look at the strap or mounting point.

Here is that I did to mount the distrbution blocks.


IMO this way of mounting amp's has a few advantages. It allows you to mount to a curved surface. This helps when you have long flat amp's. The Block also work to stand the amp off the mounting surface. This help's the amp shed heet, because the amp is not mounted to a flat surface like a amp board air can flow around and underneath the amp.


I uderstand this way of mounting amp's is not for everyone there is may way's to skin a cat. Just wanted to share one way of doing it mabey it will work for you. Let's see your amp rack and if you have any tip's how you did it or why you did it that way it would be great.

Nice work "G" and thanks for the tips. I need to redo the amps that I have done plus install another one for my boat speakers.

Here is how we did it on the last boat. The metal rack was custom built and mounting blocks were fiberglassed onto the hull to screw the rack into.
Jason at Kingpin did a great job and the amps were rock solid through many doubleups.

Wow Brady, that looks good. It is super clean looking.

Thanks, That was last years boat. We are working on some things with the boat this year. Most likely the same sort of set-up. I was really happy with how that one turned out. I really wish the boat manufacturers would place the batteries in an area other than where they seem to get towels, backpacks, and gear piled up on them.

Very creative. Nice work...both of you.

Grant owns a Stereoboat that you wakeboard behind

grant it's hard to tell because I'm on my phone, but are there only 2 mounting studs per amp? is there any play or movement in chop or rough water? looks great, all of it. I'd like to redo mine. I learned a lot, and it's nice, but it could be better and cleaner.

Bruce: On my install each mount has 2 stud's. One stud or bolt for each amp. This type of install is some what flexable. If you get a smaller amp that will not make the span you can make longer wider strap's to fill the gap.
Your looking at the mount at the end it only has one stud comming off it because that's the end. the mounts in the center all have 2 stud's. And no the amp's don't move at all.


(Message edited by grant_west on October 16, 2009)

I have also used metal STRAP's. These metal bars run verticaly (up and down). They attach to the rub rail bolt's comming threw your rub rail at the top of the boat on the interior side and then screw into the floor.
Here is what the strap's for Jason's 209 looked like.

The strap's just like the mount's on my boat have stud's comming off them this is where the amps attatch to the strap's

"G", how do you secure the studs in the block so they don't spin when tightening the nut to secure the amp to the stud? Thanks.

G, those 2300's are so dope. Did you bail on the Cat 5?

Randy- the stud has a t-nut to keep it from spinning. These can be found at orchard, home depot, etc.

On my Nautique 211 there is plenty of space to mount two large amps above the driver's feet. I built an erector set with steel and aluminum rails then hang the amps from these with aluminum angle brackets. On my first try I hung the amps upside down but quickly learned that amps don't cool well in this orientation. These days I always try to install amps vertically so the air cool like a chimney draws the smoke out of your house, my second choice is right side up. Sorry G but amps mounted like yours = Fail (LOL, payback for your comment on my remote placement, I have been waiting!). Typically you will have a row of ICs on each side. When you mount them on the side like G has shown the bottom ones are heating the top ones so the amp's cooling effectivity is reduced by 50% or more