Under seat Boxes 101

Thought I would take a moment to talk about under seat boxes so that I could share this blog post with customers and anyone else interested in our two cents of perspective on this topic.

Without rambling on into the twenty second century, I am going to break under seat boxes down into two categories to make it super easy to understand.

Please keep in mind that this post is designed to break down FORWARD FIRE / SIDE PORTED boxes, we do not build or offer any DOWN/UP fire style boxes, if you were to see how many forward fire boxes we build to replace down/up style boxes you would understand why we do not build them, if you know you know...

Please keep in mind that this blog is designed to reflect on trucks that retain the complete use of their crew cab and rear seats, this means that the box is limited to below the rear seats. 

 

Budget Non-Power Upgraded Trucks installs from $800-$1500 average 

No Budget Power Upgraded Trucks installs from $2500+++

 

Budget Non-Power upgraded Trucks:

Even if you are not planning on adding in aftermarket HO alternators, additional batteries, we will always recommend a standard Big3 installation when adding in aftermarket audio, once this is completed in most trucks, You will have the ability to add in a total of UPTO 1500RMS in amplifiers, weather you break this into doors and subs, or just on subs is completely up to you, this is the cap in most cases before your truck will start to see voltage drops low enough to damage your equipment and or your truck. 

So, what can we achieve with 1500rms? well in a lot of cases trying to keep the budget respectable you are going to be looking at 4/6 6.5" subs in the 200-400rms rating realm then combining that with a respectable box build to get the most out of the equipment. Why 6.5's? well, that's generally because 8's are not able to fit without completing a seat lift, we will cover this in the next section.

So to recap, starting with a factory combination truck, you can generally, layer in a Big3 upgrade, tap into your factory head unit with a Line Output Converter to achieve a signal for your XXX-1500rms amp and then run 4x 6.5's in a respectable forward fire / side ported box and achieve a great result without spending a whole lot of money and doing a ton of work to the vehicle.

 

No Budget Power upgraded Trucks:

So 6.5" subs and 1500rms simply isn't for you? sure, I get it, 1500rms and beyond? here are some things you are going to need to understand about what you are spending and the preparation that will be required once you are said and done.

Big3 upgrade, this will always be mandatory in this category, let's call this $60

Seat Lifts, depending on what subs you are looking to run you are going to be buying and installing a 2.5" seat lift upwards, this generally starts at $200-

HO Alternator and battery reserve, depending on the size of the amp you are looking to run you may be doing one or the other or both, HO alternators can be anywhere from $350-600 depending on your truck and what you want, reserve power, either you are deleting your lead acid AMG starter to move to a lithium option or you are layering in additional AGM's, let's call this upgrade anywhere from $350-$1000 depending on the amps and equipment, so let's split the mix of possibility's here straight down the middle and call it $650-

Additional wire, lugs, fuse distribution, I'll be generous here and call this $100 more than a non-power upgraded truck installation.

So to recap just in installation preparation, provided you are going to complete all of this work on your own, you are on average going to spend an additional $900 on your install, this does not include the additional spend on the bigger amps, subs and box vs the 6.5's and the 1500rms max sized amp to run the budget install.

We have also not even talked about or considered sound deadening; we will save this for a whole other blog post!

Hope this has in some way helped you consider your options for your under-seat truck upgrade and given you a little more understanding on what to expect with either route.

 

Feel free to comment below and share your perspective, we are always interested to know what other people's experiences have been!