[2010NitroHeat]

I haven't messed with car stereos for a long time. I just installed a Jensen CAR710W touchscreen head unit is and changed all four door speakers with Polk DB 652 speakers. I also ordered the Skar Audio 12" subwoofer and amp bundle from Amazon. I just got the package the other day, and opened it to check out all the components. Turns out the amp was leaking oil. Probably a leaking capacitor. So now I have a replacement on the way.

My question is, where should I put the amp? Will it fit under the back seat? I know a lot of people mount it on the back of the rear seat, but I'm thinking that I may want to fold the seats down, on occasion, and put stuff back there. I figured I would just leave some extra speaker wire so I can move the sub enclosure back, if I fold the seats down, and put stuff back there.

Also, should I secure the amp right to the floor, or mount the amp on something, and then secure that somehow? Where is a good place to attach the ground wire?

 

[2ndgen]

There is no room under the rear seats. When they fold down they actually hinge even lower to the floor.
There are 3 main go-to places people locate amps/subs in the nitro:
amp:
1 - under one of the front seats (so long as they are not power seats)
2 - under the load-n-go panel in the cargo--you'll have to drill holes to run the wires and mounting screws
3 - where the factory amp goes in the right rear quarter panel--assuming you have the factory amp or want to modify your rr quarter trim panel to cover it.

sub:
1 - behind the rear seat in the cargo. the kicker upgrade had a sub box that fit across the back of the cargo right behind the seats. several custom boxes posted on the forum did similarly
2 - through/replacing the load-n-go panel in the cargo--there's a few example photos of this solution in the forum gallery
3 - where the factory sub goes in the right rear quarter panel, either w/a custom box or replacing the factory sub

if your amp is small enough it's possible to mount it under the dash on the drivers side.
The ground wire can be attached to any body panel or frame location. There are several ground straps around the vehicle you could piggy-back on top of if you don't want to drill another hole.

 

[2010NitroHeat]

Under the load and go floor seems like a great place for the amp, logistically, but it's gotta be terrible for heat dissipation?

I think maybe I'll just put it under one of the front seats, or maybe go to the junkyard and see if I can get one of the factory amp/sub trim panels. It seems like it doesn't really take up that much cargo space.

The sub is in that huge enclosure in the picture. It's going in the cargo area behind one of the back seats.

 

[teahead]

front seats not that great because people in the rear need some place to put their feet.

 

[2010NitroHeat]

I got the replacement amp, and was checking out mounting locations today. Under the front seats doesn't look too good. Under the load floor seems like the perfect place, but I'd be worried about heat. If I put it there, I'd want to put some kind of vent above it.

So, I'm going to wuss out, and just mount it to the back of the rear seat. 😄 I don't have much experience working on car stereo stuff in the last few decades. I did have fun installing the head unit and speakers though.

 

[Nitrogen]

under the rear seats, thats where the factory inverter would get installed or behind right rear quarter palel,

 

[2010NitroHeat]

under the rear seats, thats where the factory inverter would get installed or behind right rear quarter panel,

That inverter must be pretty small, cause there's not much room under there when you put the seats down.

Maybe in the future, when it's warmer outside, I might go to the junk yard and try to find a factory subwoofer/amp rear quarter panel. I have the standard panel right now.

 

[Tunes]

I put both of my amps underneath the rear cargo floor. I have a 2010. I ran both my 1/0 power wires and both of myb1/0 ground wires through conduit underneath the vehicle along passengers side, I had 4 Kinetic HC600 batteries above the A/C lines on passenger side. I ran the wire up into the vehicle just behind the rear door and into the cargo tray through holes i drilled out into the side of the tray. My RCA cables went down the drivers side under the carpet and up into the cargo tray through holes I made into the drivers side. Ill see if I can post pics here but, if not, there should be several on my Facebook page. Im a car stereo competitor and have been doing custom builds and installation for just over 20yrs. 1 of my favorite things to do although it does get very frustrating at times lol

 

[Tunes]

 

[2010NitroHeat]

I put both of my amps underneath the rear cargo floor. I have a 2010. I ran both my 1/0 power wires and both of myb1/0 ground wires through conduit underneath the vehicle along passengers side, I had 4 Kinetic HC600 batteries above the A/C lines on passenger side. I ran the wire up into the vehicle just behind the rear door and into the cargo tray through holes i drilled out into the side of the tray. My RCA cables went down the drivers side under the carpet and up into the cargo tray through holes I made into the drivers side. Ill see if I can post pics here but, if not, there should be several on my Facebook page. Im a car stereo competitor and have been doing custom builds and installation for just over 20yrs. 1 of my favorite things to do although it does get very frustrating at times lol

Thanks for the reply! Did you always keep the amps covered by the cargo floor? Was there any problems with heat dissipation?

And when you say you ran the lines in "conduit", was that something you added, or is there some kind of channel already there?

 

[Tunes]

Thanks for the reply! Did you always keep the amps covered by the cargo floor? Was there any problems with heat dissipation?

And when you say you ran the lines in "conduit", was that something you added, or is there some kind of channel already there?

Yes. Both sub amps stayed covered. I never had any problems with them getting hot. They were there for @ 8 years before I ended up selling them

 

[JPthekid]

I’d prob go under dash, or drivers seat. If u do not care about the storage in back….under the stow and go is perfect. I just use my rig to much to do that In Mine. Back seat mount would prob be my next attempt tho…..assuming nothing hindered it. Havent lookend into that super deep

 

[2010NitroHeat]

I’d prob go under dash, or drivers seat. If u do not care about the storage in back….under the stow and go is perfect. I just use my rig to much to do that In Mine. Back seat mount would prob be my next attempt tho…..assuming nothing hindered it. Havent lookend into that super deep

I think I'm going to put it under the cargo load floor. I won't be pushing it super hard. I went to the junkyard the other day, and pulled apart one of the Nitro's there, just to know what to expect when I pulled mine apart. Doesn't seem too bad getting the panels off. Hope they go back on as easy.

 

[JasenTexas]

I placed my Skar RP-1200.1D under the passenger seat. It mounted great and I never have issues with people hitting it with their feet as of yet. There is also a wire channel under the passenger carpet with easy access to the firewall for your cables.

 

[2010NitroHeat]

I just installed mine yesterday. I ended up putting the amp under the cargo floor. The install went really well. No problems at all. The only problem I ran into was that I was installing it at my work's shop, and I forgot to bring the screws to mount the amp. I planned on doing it today, at home, because I didn't have to work, but ended up getting called to come in to work. Since I didn't want to drive around more with the amp unsecured, and was kind of in a rush,I just put some adhesive Velcro on the bottom of the amp. It worked so good, I might just leave it!

Now I have to learn what all the settings and switches do on the amp. And how to set it up with my head unit.

Anyone got any suggestions on how to set the 'GAIN', 'BASS EQ', '(L)ow (P)ass (F)ilter', and 'SUBSONIC'? I started doing some reading, on how to do it. But some of it is kind of confusing. And then adding that my head unit also has subwoofer settings, and then there's the remote bass control knob. Seems like a lot of moving parts to consider.

 

[2010NitroHeat]

I placed my Skar RP-1200.1D under the passenger seat. It mounted great and I never have issues with people hitting it with their feet as of yet. There is also a wire channel under the passenger carpet with easy access to the firewall for your cables. View attachment 40904

That looks good! When I was just trying to place the amp in different locations, it seemed like I couldn't even get the amp to fit under the passenger seat. There seemed to be a metal bracket in the way. It seemed like it fit better under the driver seat, but the floor was more uneven there.

 

[2ndgen]

The low pass filter is going to be how you adjust the frequency cutoff between your low range and mid/high speakers. This depends on your speaker frequency response ranges--which should be in the documentation. Eg, if your sub's frequency response is listed as 10Hz-60Hz, you'd set your low pass to 60Hz. If your mid-range speaker frequency response is 50Hz-10kHz, you could split the overlap and set it for 55Hz, if they don't overlap, you could split the gap, or pick one end of the gap--just have to try and see which sounds better.

 

[2010NitroHeat]

The low pass filter is going to be how you adjust the frequency cutoff between your low range and mid/high speakers. This depends on your speaker frequency response ranges--which should be in the documentation. Eg, if your sub's frequency response is listed as 10Hz-60Hz, you'd set your low pass to 60Hz. If your mid-range speaker frequency response is 50Hz-10kHz, you could split the overlap and set it for 55Hz, if they don't overlap, you could split the gap, or pick one end of the gap--just have to try and see which sounds better.

I'm not sure you could really get that specific with the frequency, as the knob just has the min and max labeled, and you set it somewhere in between. You could probably get close though.

I had a guy I know do some tuning on it. I'm not sure I like how he set it up though. He turned the head unit's bass way down, and then turned up the amp's "Bass EQ", and now I don't think I like the way the door speakers (which I replaced with Polk 2 ways) sound. I have no idea how he set up the LPF and Subsonic though.

 

[JasenTexas]

I'm not sure you could really get that specific with the frequency, as the knob just has the min and max labeled, and you set it somewhere in between. You could probably get close though.

View attachment 40906

I had a guy I know do some tuning on it. I'm not sure I like how he set it up though. He turned the head unit's bass way down, and then turned up the amp's "Bass EQ", and now I don't think I like the way the door speakers (which I replaced with Polk 2 ways) sound. I have no idea how he set up the LPF and Subsonic though.

You really shouldn't use the Bass EQ. You can but if you do, make sure to set the gains with it on and leave it there. Properly setting the input gain is important to make sure you are not sending clipped signal to your subs. There are quite a few videos out there showing how to properly set your gains with a cheap multimeter. It only takes a few minutes.

 

[2010NitroHeat]

You really shouldn't use the Bass EQ. You can but if you do, make sure to set the gains with it on and leave it there. Properly setting the input gain is important to make sure you are not sending clipped signal to your subs. There are quite a few videos out there showing how to properly set your gains with a cheap multimeter. It only takes a few minutes.

Yeah, even Skar, the company who makes the amp and speaker, say that you typically leave the Bass EQ set to zero. I'll have to do some more research, and watch some videos. I didn't know you could set the gain with a multimeter. I'll have to check that out.