Max mounting depth of door speakers in 89-92 Ranger

[cgrey8]

Does anybody know what the max mounting depth of door speakers is in 89-92 era Rangers?

The best info I can find on this is looking on Crutchfield and they don't list a max mounting depth. So what I did was look for the deepest depth speaker they list that will work in my year Ranger. That speaker is listed as 2.25" mounting depth. But this doesn't mean deeper speakers won't work. It just means they don't stock deeper mounting depth speakers that fit.

So does anybody have any info on this? I don't want to buy a pair, install them, and find the windows don't let down all the way or the magnet interferes with something in the door.

[Soul]

when I did mine on the 2002 ranger I took a straight edge across the hole and a tape measure and measured to door skin with window down, making sure nothing was in the way. Early ranger's doors are pretty thin though.

[carvinmark]

when I did mine on the 2002 ranger I took a straight edge across the hole and a tape measure and measured to door skin with window down, making sure nothing was in the way. Early ranger's doors are pretty thin though.

Good idea on measuring that way.

[cgrey8]

That may end up being what I have to do. I was just hoping there was a number published somewhere that I could go by without having to take the door panel off and speaker out to verify. But it looks like that's what I'll be doing.

On a sidenote, I'm a little disappointed in the 6.5" speaker offerings that are out there. I've gone through the reviews of almost every speaker Crutchfield lists as fitting and every one have someone that was disappointed. Of course, they all have people that love them but they are comparing to the stock POS they replaced, not reviewing the quality of the speaker relative to similar speakers. The mid and treble range from decent to great depending on price and head unit. But the common theme is that none of the 6.5" speakers have any bass to speak of...even the Kicker and Rockford 6.5"s were commented on as lacking. I guess it is difficult to get decent bass response from speakers designed to fit in a shallow door or maybe doors are just pathetic enclosures.

The speakers in there now are Infinity speakers I bought probably 15 years ago shortly after I got the truck. They never had great bass response either and they certainly don't with no surround. Add to that, the passenger's side speaker cuts out intermittently. While I had the panel off, I could touch the cone and make it cut in and out. So that speaker is effectively blown. I'm not nearly as into stereos as I was back then so at this point, I'm not looking to get top quality from them. I'm just looking for something to replace these with so I don't have that speaker cutting in and out like it's been doing for the past few years. Here recently, it has been out more often than working. There's a number of possibles to choose from on eBay. The Kenwoods Crutchfield sells for $50 I can get off ebay for $30. I think the Polks are around $60ish. And the offbrands like Jensen, Pyramid, BOSS, and a few others range from $15-25 shipped. TBO, I'm thinking one of them will be just fine for how I listen to the radio now. But one caught my eye as interesting...





They sell on eBay for $25 shipped and the 2 reviews I found on the Internet were no better or worse than any of the more expensive Crutchfield speakers. And they obviously pride themselves on Bass. Even if they don't perform as well as advertised, they are the cheapest 4-way speakers I could find that fit a 6.5" application. The only catch is they have a 2.5" mounting depth, which is .25" deeper than the deepest speaker that is known to work in a Ranger door. So I'd be taking a chance with them if I don't measure 1st.

Any other thoughts or recommendations?

[Chris]

In my experience, you will not get any decent bass out of 6.5s. You should have 6x8 in the back above your jump seats, if you have an ex cab, those will give you a little more bass. To be honest, if you don't listen to your music at high volume I'd put just about any 6.5 and 6x8, get a set of bass blockers then get you an 8" bazooka bass tube. They are small and provide crisp, clean, solid bass. It won't hit as hard as a set of 10" and the righ amp and box combo, but it'll do just plenty if all you want is a full, clean sounding music. Just my opinion.

[cgrey8]

I have a set of Polks in the back and I think they are 5x7s...but yeah 6x8s I recall would've also fit. I got the 5x7s out of my wife's Escort after she totaled it. I didn't figure there was any good reason to let them go to the junkyard. They are OK, but nothing like what I've heard from decent 6x9s.

For getting the bass, I've got 2-10" kickers in sealed boxes. They are almost as old as the Infinitys in the door. My step brother bought a set of the cheap gray-red coned Rockford Fosgate Series 1 10s for his truck. Later he ran into money issues & sold them to me for what was probably cigarette and pool money (kinda explains the money issues). So I built some boxes for them to fit in my truck. They were OK, but when I got the money, I bought what I really wanted which was a set of 10" Kicker Comps. At the time, they were the new style Kickers with the inverted dust cap and Kicker written differently. They sounded way better than the POS low-end gray-cone Rockfords. Funny part was I wound up selling those junky Rockford 10s to someone else for more than I paid for them. After 10 years or so, the Kickers started to sag. So I flipped them upside down and that actually helped. They obviously don't sound anywhere near as good as they did new. But for my purposes, they are fine.

I've got 4-15" Kicker Comps from back when the woofer cones were black and KICKER was written in gold. They are in a 4th order bandpass box (can't see the speakers). I just haven't been motivated enough to bust open the box and put them in the truck. Maybe that's what I'll do this weekend...then again, I might just sit on the couch with the cat and watch TV.

[Chris]

then again, I might just sit on the couch with the cat and watch TV.

That sounds like a good weekend.

[Soul]

I have polks in my truck, 6.5 up front 6 x 8 back doors, and the 6.5's hit hard enough I can feel it on my leg while driving. Only thing feeding them is a kenwood head unit. I like alot of bass personnally which I listen to hard rock and metal.

Side note does any one know any good speaker boxes for extended cab rangers? I made some to house some 12 inch 1200 watt subs but think I could find much better (not good at figuring air space.)

[cgrey8]

I never found any that were affordable. I wound up always designing and building my boxes.

Sealed boxes are easy...lots of slop for guessing and error. Ported boxes are where you have to be a little more meticulous with the math and measuring. If you are off more than 1/4" on measurements, and the tune of the port is thrown off.

And Bandbass boxes are the worst. I think they require your dimensions to be within 1/16" or the port tune is off.

Back when I was in highschool and college, I didn't dare bother with ported or bandpass. I didn't have the tools and precision to build them well. I didn't even have a square. They were always shoddy throw-together boxes I did one night. In fact, the boxes in the truck now were built in about 3hrs one night with a jigsaw as my only cutting tool...so as you can imagine, my edges weren't exactly smooth. But that was OK. They didn't need to be because I only cared about the sound, not the look.

It wasn't until after I got out of college that I was tooled and patient enough to build a precision box. I modelled it in a CAD program so I could ensure that my internal volume was right. And I ran all the numbers through a Speaker Box Design software I found for free on the Internet. After about 30-40 iterations through the design software, I got something with dimensions that worked and the tune I was looking for. By that time, I had a square, circular saw, and random orbital sander. Every cut was sanded down to dimension and I was well within 1/16" on all dimensions. The box was built for my 97 Ranger with 2-12" Polk GNXs I bought used off eBay for $40. In a bandpass box, the speaker's power handling is doubled. So I powered it with a big @$$ Porfile California AP2000:

The speaker box took up 1/3rd of the floor space, the amp took up the rest. I even made a cover to go over the amp so I could still use the supercab section behind the passenger seat without messing up the amp. The door and back speakers are all 6x8 Infinity Kappa Perfects. There's nothing lacking in that system. It is LOUD with bass that almost hurts. That's the only setup and installation I ever did "right". And amazingly I did it for cheap. I built the box, installed the amp wiring kit, bought the parts off eBay where I could for cheap, and setup everything to look 1/2 way decent. Now it's not as nice as these multi-thousand dollar installations where they install fiberglass molded body panels. That's show-quality there.

[Soul]

These are what I made for free lol (out of scrap mdf), it has been cleaned up a little since this pic. I wood rasped the uneven corners and moved amp and cap to safer/visually better spots.

[cgrey8]

Very nice. How are those Pyles?? I had 2-15" Pyle drivers back in highschool that I setup for my home stereo. But I don't recall ever running them in a car. For home speakers, they were alright. The 15" Kicker Freeairs would've been a far better setup and not that much more expensive.

I'll have to see if I can get some pics of the Bandbass box and amp I got in the 97 Ranger. It's not exactly exciting to look at with the speakers inside the box. But the painted box with a slot-port coming out the side is at least interesting. The more impressive sight is the huge amp in the floor. And of course the sound...but I can't really take a picture of that.

[cgrey8]

Well this weekend was productive.

First off the mounting depth was measured to be 2.25". With the window rolled down and a ruler, I measured from the mounting surface back to the glass, and it's just slightly above 2.25"...maybe another 1/16" but to be safe, I wouldn't go over 2 1/4" without some kind of spacer to get the magnet out of the way of the glass. That tells me that if those Bass Infernos above are 2.5", I'd have to spacer them out 1/4" to clear. There are plenty of other speakers out there that are much more shallow that I'll consider instead of these.

In other news, I got my 10s out and the 15s in. It's amazing how much better they sound. They produce lows with far greater intensity and ease than the 10s ever did. It's almost annoying that I never took the time to do this before now. I also upgraded the amp with one I bought for my wife's car. Before I could install it, she decided she didn't like the sub in the trunk because it took up too much space. So the sub came out and the amp never got used & sat in the garage forgotten about.

With the stereo upgrades and newly tinted windows, I was further inspired to go ahead and give the truck the yearly hand wash and vacuum. So for the next 2-3 days, the truck actually looks nice. That won't last...

[Soul]

They aren't bad for the price (picked them up new for 35 apiece), and a 2000 watt amp helps .

[cgrey8]

Update. I emailed the manufacturer of those Bass Inferno speakers, and it turns out, the mfg is actually dB Research...more on that in a minute. They wrote back and said the BI60 has a top mounting depth of 56mm, which is 2.20". That means I can use them. So I bought them off eBay for $25 shipped. We'll see how they sound once I get them in. With those 15s, I don't need them for the bass. I just need something that doesn't rattle in the door like what's in there now does. I'll update when I get them in.

Now about dB Research. They make speakers & amps under 3 different brand names:

• Bass Inferno
• DB Drive
• Quantum Audio

When you compare the Bass Inferno with the Quantum speakers, you can see the similarities. They are obviously derivatives of each other with only minor cosmetic differences. Some even have the same exact specs. If you check any of the websites, click the Quantum Audio website. If nothing else, enjoy the models..

DB Research sells capacitors, cables, and other connection stuff under the DB Link brand.

They may sound like absolute crap. And if they do, I'll say that too. But hopefully they'll be at least decent for $25.

[cgrey8]

The short answer is, they are in and sound great for $25 including shipping. For someone not looking to spend a fortune on upgrades to their factory speakers, these fit the bill and do so well. Now the long...

As it turns out, I was worried about mounting depth and that wasn't the dimension I should've been as concerned about. I should've also paid attention to the mounting hole diameter requirement of the speaker. I just assumed that all 6.5" speakers would have the same mounting hole diameter but evidently not so. These Bass Inferno BI60 speakers have a mounting hole diameter requirement of 141mm (5.55"). However the factory holes in my door are smaller than that. I didn't think to measure them for an exact measure, but they appear to be closer to 5" diameter holes. So the speakers don't fit all the way down in the holes. Is that ideal? No, but it works. I filled the gap between the lip of the speakers and the door where it does touch the speaker basket with weather stripping. I held the speakers up to the door, drilled new holes, screwed them down, and voila! they were in. The door panel that goes over the door has a big heavy foam pad with a good inch to spare for speaker to cush into. Thus the added protrusion of the speaker not fitting all the way down in the hole was no concern at all. With the weather stripping, they aren't likely to rattle or cause any kinds of problems.

The annoying part is Crutchfield lists speakers that call themselves 6.5" speakers. Over 1/2 the list are 6.5s. The others are 5.25" speakers. These Bass Infernos have a screw-hole diameter of 158.5mm (6.24"). I didn't measure the absolute outside diameter, but my best guess is they are right on 6.5". So when buying speakers for these older Ranger doors that take round speakers, just be aware that not all 6.5s are made the same. And if you can find speakers sold as 6" speakers, that's probably closer to what "fits" in the hole. A quick search on eBay shows the are some mfgs that sell 6" speakers, but they don't seem popular at all. A 6" speaker is an oddball size. Even eBay's size chart doesn't show a 6" speaker size to choose from when making a search. It goes from 5.25" right to 6.5". So if having the speakers mounted perfectly in the hole is a concern for you, research your potential speaker's mounting depth and hole diameter by searching the mfg's website, asking the sellers for that info, or emailing the mfg directly which is what I had to do to get accurate mounting depth info. The information is most likely available if you can just the right people to bug. The easier/lazier option is just going with one of the name brand speakers Crutchfield recommends which are usually going to cost you more even for the cheapest option. The cheapest of the Cruchfield brands was a set of Kenwood KFC-1662S 6.5" speakers. Crutchfield sells them for $50+s/h. On eBay, they sell for as low as $38 (inc s/h). Is the research time worth the effort of saving $10-15? Probably not for the average person that's looking for a straight-forward installation. What talked me into the riskier route was a lot of the reviews I was reading about the Kenwoods that just weren't flattering. Based on the reviews, they appear to be mediocre quality that are only a step up from factory speakers, and that's not exactly saying a lot. To be honest, that was fine for me, but if I'm going to get mediocre, I'd rather not pay any more than I have to so if they did completely suck, I didn't feel bad about it. So that's why I went looking for the cheapest 6.5" options I could that had at least decent specs (frequency range and SPL). As it turns out, these Bass Inferno speakers are not mediocre at all. They may be by some people's standards that consider anything less than Alpine or Bose as inadequate, but they sound great to me. They may also have durability issues if you connect them up to external amps (I'm using the amp in the head unit). But in my truck, I challenge anybody to listen to them and call them out as "cheap" speakers. In fact, my initial impression using the fader is they sound better than the Polk 5x7s I have installed in the back. The bass response is better than I expect from door speakers. They are actually impressive...for door speakers. In perspective, an 8" subwoofer could put them in their place but I think you'd be hard pressed to find any other speakers to put in the doors that would have better bass response than these. Bottom line is I wouldn't hesitate to buy Bass Inferno or Quantum Audio again in the future.

Now was that all to the installation? Unfortunately not. Things like this are never simple for me. I knew my passenger side door speaker was cutting in and out and had been getting worse. I thought it was just the speaker being blown and cutting in and out intermittently. But even the new speaker was cutting in and out telling me the wiring was bad. So I started playing around with the wire as it went into the door and found it cut in and out as I played with that wire. The bad connection was right as the wire went into the rubber seal in the door. So I pulled the new speaker out, disconnected the wire harness inside the door from the hold-downs, clipped the wire right at the rubber seal, and got it all pulled out. Pulling the old wire out of the rubber piece was more difficult than I expected. After putting some muscle into separating them, the wire insulation stayed in the rubber piece leaving me with a door wire harness with about 3" of exposed copper wire on the end. There was no coercing that old wire insulation out or getting new wire through until it was gone. So...I just drilled the rubber piece out. I installed a high quality piece of speaker wire in the rubber piece and wired it up to both the inside door wire and the wire coming through the fender. After taping everything up, I installed everything back together, and no more intermittent speaker playing when the door is opened and closed. It ended up being easier than I thought it was going to be when I 1st realized it was the wire.