Amp Boards in your lockers - any pics and advice?

Hey Guys,

I'm awaiting delivery of my 2005 SAN and have all my stereo gear waiting to go in.

so far i need to fabricate 2 items.

firstly i need to make a small fuse panel to sit by the accesory battery box. this won't be a problem. hoping to simply cut a bit of MDF, seal it and carpet it, then mount the required fuses and a distribution block on it.

second part is whats worrying me though, i need to build an amp board. it needs to hold 1 x Kicker KX850.4 (internal speakers) and 1x kicker kx550.2 (tower speakers).

There seems to be a stack of solutions to achieve this. My spec so far is:
- Must be carpeted to match nautique carpet or contrast without looking cr*p!
- must look fairly 'factory installed' i.e profesional
- Must be held securly in the storage locker
- must hide as much wiring as possible
- can't more then a few evenings work (ideally built in a day or two).

I am fairly surw of what i'm going to do. however before i draft up my final designs i'd love to see what you guys have done to make an amp board.

could anyone who has already done this post pics, experiances etc... what did you do? how long did it take? any problems, tips etc etc....

did you guys attach it to the side of the hull or the floor? or the internal wall of the passenger storage locker?

Thanks for any advice, all appreciated...

Cheers.

Here is what I did in my boat. I used 1/2" square tubing and built a stand alone rack. After it was welded, I had it powder coated. With the amps being the size they were, all of the wires were behind the amps. Using the tubing instead of boards there was super easy access to the wires from the back and extra ventalation since the backside of the amps were open too. Some people think that I wasted the space behind the rack, but there are two Yellow top batteries there along with all of the power distrubution wires and battery solinoid. Just another way to do it.

There have been a few guys using plastic amp boards, this is probably what I will do in my boat. I will probably pick up a sheet of black abs from Tap Plastics and velcro it to the side of my carpet, maybe a few screws if I can find something to screw them to. The abs is easy to work with using circular saws or a router.

Thanks Mikeski and John, Great tips

I have some DIY experience with perspex.., might be an idea. i also like the idea of the metal frame. maybe a sealed wooden box hidden behind the amps could work....

any other ideas/suggestions/advice??

The box behind the amps would work, you just need to have enough gaps to let the air flow. The bass could actually help cool the amps.

Brit- I use 3/4" plywood covered in clear epoxy to seal it and make it stronger to screw amps to and then I just use a spray on adhesive to glue the carpet to it. I epoxy the amp mount to the boat using epoxy with lots of filler! It's worked great for me in my last and present boat. I have three amps elevated off the floor. Something I felt was a big insurance policy in case the boat got flooded. I was able to bolt a few of my amp mounts as well as epoxy.

John- Great set up! Love how clean it looks! But I have a few questions. Looks like you are taking up all your dry storage. And what you do have left you can't use for clothing or bags due to they would block the cooling of the amps because they would be laying on them. Maybe I'm not seeing all the room. Also, doesn't having amps that low to the floor worry you if you get some water in the boat for what ever reason. Looks like the battery you see in the pics is under a seat, wouldn't it have made more sense to mount the other two batteries under there where you don't access as often as through the door to the dry storage?

Don't get me wrong, love the idea with the tubing and it's a very clean install. Looks competition! Great job! Just my .02

(Message edited by kraig on February 27, 2005)

Kraig, The battery you see under the seat is recessed into the floor from the factory. With the ballast tanks under there I wasn't going to cut holes in the floor. I'll post a pic as to what the location looked like before the rack and you will see that there was only enough room for the batteries.

As for the bottom amp, it sits a half an inch above the floor so if I get a little bit of water it won't be an issue. If I get water deep enough to damage the amp in that part of my boat, I have much bigger worries than replacing an amplifier.

There is a ton of storage in an MB so I haven't had any issues.
Thanks for the good words, I hope this clears up some of the confusion.




(Message edited by hyperryd on February 27, 2005)

Kepe it coming, these are some great tips.

I think the amp board/box is going to be seperate from the structure of the boat. audio systems aren't that big in the UK and people don't really pay extra for it. i'd like to take my amps with me when i sell the boat (I have a new one each year). so it would make sense to be relatively removable.

FIn thing - anyone know where ot get osme nice marine carpet to roughly match a nautique?

Don't knock this because it is in the middle of a project, but this was real easy to do and very sturdy. It also lets you continue to use the storage area.

Don't knock this because it is in the middle of a project, but this was real easy to do and very sturdy. It also lets you continue to use the storage area.

My advice is dont let Jason work on your boat.

Grant ~ you mean your work doesn't look like that

oh man! If this was some 1960's lund i wouldn't be so concerned.. but that actually looks like a previously nice boat...

Grant,
the pic isn't as clean as yours but you have to consider that the project is only about 12% complete. Once I get everything done, none of the wires show and the ugly board gets covered in carpet. Sorry you have to use your imagination until it gets done. It's hard to get work done as fast as you do because I have to heat a 20'x40' shed everytime I want to work on it.

Ok, i should have read properly.

i retract my previous statement, i didn't realise it was 'in progress'. I look forward ot seeing the finished project

Jay: I should have inserted J/K or LOL, I understand that when you are in progress somtimes the project can have its ulgy stages. So sorry if I offened you. I should have kept to my own rule of thumb , "If you dont have anything nice to say shut the "F" up"

Grant,
thats ok, I figured you were kidding but couldn't tell, I have never seen you burn anyone one down before. I am impressed with your in-progess pics, they look very clean for in-progress

Gotta give it to Jason for thinking outside the box! It's nice to see people pushing the envelope a little and trying something different.

After all, isn't that how wakeboarding came into existence?
Not sure I like it, but I definately do see the advantages to it. It's something different and maybe that will spark more imagination to try different ways of mounting our systems that cost almost as much as our boats!

Good Luck with it Jason!

On my MC I used MDF for the amp board. First I cut out a piece of MDF that would be used for the board. Then I placed it on the wall behind the passenger seat under the front bow. Place it on the left side where it is angled somewhat. Trace the size of the board out on the carpet. cut out the carpet. once the board is built carpet the board but leave the bottom no carpeted. Use silicon as an adhesive. Looks good. Minimal fabrication. Once the silicon is there that thing is not comming off

Anybody ever consider putting a cooling fan in the closed area where the amps are? I am considering doing so in our Sanger DLX, and have looked at the little Stinger unit, but was not real excited by it.
I think exchanging the air in that closed area is good for both the cooling issue and to keep the moisture out.
I would be interested in anything else that has been considered.

(Message edited by sam8 on March 08, 2005)

I used a 3" fan on the old shelf I had mounted in the boat. It was hooked to a relay off of the turn on wire so it only ran when the amps were on. I don't know if was really needed as I haven't ran it in over a year and have had no problems

Army Dad- I use a four inch fan for fresh air intake and a three inch fan sucking the hot air out through a drink holder. It works pretty well, unless you are really rocking for a while, then we open the seat a little to let out the heat.



(Message edited by hyperryd on March 08, 2005)

Thanks guys! John, I think I am going to try the drink holder mod.

I use a blower fan. I mounted the blower fan out of the way in the very front of the boat and ran a heater hose to the amp board's. My PPI amps have a built in fan and like John I try to keep the passenger seet open to let out the heet and bass.

I like the cup holder fan. John stupid question have you had any trouble with water shorting out the fan?

Here is another idea. Just cut out 2 small strips of carpet to mount 2x4's to the side of the boat with liquid nails. Then mount the amp rack (MDF wrapped with matching carpet) to the 2x4's. All of the wiring is done on the back of the amp rack so all you see are the amps. You don't lose any floor space with this design.

Grant- no water problems, just blood from people sticking their fingers in the cup holder. j/k. There isn't any water near that part of my boat, the biggest problem is new people to the boat forgeting it is a fan and putting sunglasses, etc. in the drink holder. All of my regulars are used to it.
I was going to use a blower fan like Grant said, but they pull a fair amount of power. These fans combined don't pull 1 amp.

(Message edited by hyperryd on March 09, 2005)

Put a piece of screen over the bottom of the cup holder. That way you won't have to worry about people sticking items in there.