Sub box for boot, touring dennis cooper?

[Ashdwsmith]

I need a sub box for my touring.

I’ve seen Dennis cooper made one, but can’t find If they are manufactured or instructions for making one.

I don’t really want to pay the £170 on eBay for the Basser one that doesn’t fit properly on the right hand side one.

cheers

ash

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

Ash, I think Dennis had his custom built that fit in the left hand side quarter. The ones from Basser are very well made, they go into the right side quarter tightly, but they go in there perfectly. I did not have to shave any of the corners like JC did, on here. What blew my mind, was if you are good at measuring, and fine cutting, the Basser unit is awesome! What had to be cut was the carpeted cover for the right rear corner. When I figured it out, it was a fun project! It was not for me, but for raftel, who is on here, and a good friend of mine.Even he had no clue that the Basser needs the cover panel to be cut open the way I did, I want one, but I use a 10” Alpine Type R, and it is deeper than the Basser can take. I just use a regular ported box. But I am thinking about getting one of the Basser boxes, which are sealed, I’d like to cut a port into it, glue in some baffle walls to create a wave guide. Would be interesting to see what kind of bass I could get out of that with an old JL sub that I have sitting around. I actually have one of

[DennisCooper]

Hi Ashdwsmith,

As per BMUS above, I had mine custom made by a trade only maufacturer I think back around in 2009/10 and had plans with him to make them in batches. Given the economic wobbles of the time/era, he decided to close up shop - I then approached a few other trade level manufacturers, and they were asking way too much money, so it went to a back burner as it were. I found someone else willing to make them how I wanted and got a few done as practice and also the right hand side version done (that everyone else has!) However, they to decided to move away from car audio and went more towards home AV installs.

The now £170 for the basser unit is a total joke! main reason is of course the UK decided to impose economic sanctions on itself so most European businesses involved in smaller volume level or specialist sales, can't be bothered with the UK market anymore so prices have soared - these basser units used to be around £80 delivered some years back!

I'll not be making these anytime soon, partly due to other more custom products I have in mind and that any good car audio fabricator can knock one up in about 30/40 minutes for you - 15 mins of that was measuring up with more accuracy on how to have the Subwoofer sandwich the oem trim piece with the enclosure at the rear to give the look in my install. The Basser unit sits totally behind the trim piece, so the sub bass outout will be 'limited' or 'confined'. With the design I did/wanted I don't have that issue and other owners of the Basser then have cut away the trim piece like what BMUS has shown above, some like his, some not as nice and other's better ! Another aspect for going with the design I wanted is that I wanted a subwoofer with a very strong grille as I often carry suitcases/supplies/items that are bulky and didn't want the larger 'lattice' type grille.

At the time, I went with the JL Audio 8W3-V3 driven by 300W RMS sub bass amplification and it's utterly phenomenal - smooth, tight, controlled, low, punchy, clean sub bass. Recent sub woofer development means there's shallow depth 10 inch sub woofers, they cost more and I'm tempted to see if the Thiele Small Parameters will allow such a sub to work just as well as the 8W3-V3in the same slightly less than ideal volume enclosure I made. BMUS - remember, ported enclosures ideally require more volume, and in this area of our cars, if you don't want to give up any load space, you don't have enough of it! check some drivers out there which may well work in tiny ported enclosures if you really want and perhaps post up another thread with your findings, but I suspect, it'll be more of a vanity thing - I'm also thinking to go the other way and make a specific enclosure (if the research allows it, ported - for a 6 inch subwoofer!)

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I suspect you've seen these pics before on here or bmw5 forum (old site when it was avilable) but I hope you can see what I did - the lower part of the enclosure fits down into the space and as the trim piece is sandwiched betwen the enclosure and sub mounting points, it then moves to clip using the OEM fitting.

Take these pics to a good car audio fabricator - as you aren't too far from me - speak to Car Audio Security (Hayes - Speak to Raj or Parm) , Team SPB (Hugh Wycombe - speak to Amar (i think thats his name!) Unique Integrations (High Wycombe - forgot the owners names, but they know E39's) John Kleis in Reading and CarTronics in Byfleet. I'm sure these and others on the Four Network of the ~UK's best car audio dealers/installers will be albe to make you the same design enclosure for perhaps a bit less than the Basser and also for the right hand side if you want.

Cheers, Dennis!



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[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

Hi Dennis, I know about a ported box needing more room, which is why I love your box being on the left side, for those that might not know, the cover panel for the left side is much larger than the one on the right. Much more room on that side, and the bonus of not having to pull the box out if you have any issues dealing with the battery on the right side. But I was thinking of incorporating the empty space above the wheels too for the transmission line, it would give a lot more volume using up space nobody thought about. Install that in place, then as you fit the main subwoofer box into the compartment, they meet up and three or four screws connect the two together. But I also saw one that fits over the spare wheel, placing it directly underneath the floor board of the cargo compartment, you may have been the one that posted that. Lots of things we can do. I actually have been picking up a bunch of wood working tools like a few routers, a big honkin router table with a four horsepower Bosch router in it, a big table saw, a miter, a whole bunch of bits, just have to start playing and experimenting! So I have the silver wagon and my Mini Cooper to do a totally custom install, can’t wait!

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

Oh! And on the cutting of raftel’s cover panel, he came over and asked me for help, but he didn’t have much time to let me do a perfect cut. It was one of those unplanned projects with only about an hour to do all the measuring, and then the cutting. I know it wasn’t exactly perfect, as you can see, but he was super happy that I was able to figure out what the Polish guy from Basser designed, don’t forget, there are no pictures whatsoever of how it was supposed to be done, anywhere! I did try looking, and I was always confused as to why the Basser box has those steps in the design, but when he came over with the Basser box, this was the first time I ever got to see one up front. I had fun doing that, and for only having a little bit under an hour to do it, I got lucky getting it done! He still has to dye the Basser’s carpet covering beige to match the rest of the cargo space. The only thing about the Basser box, it sure does not have much cubic space in it.

[DennisCooper]

Hi BMUS,

You have alot more time available than I do !

There's very little space in the bit above the wheel arches from what I remember, so wouldn't make much difference to the volumetric space - plus, the amount of time/effort you'd spend in making something that does fit/wedge in that little area means it's just a vanity project again. On top of that, as mentioned, if you make a small sealed enclosure like the Basser and my design, you can get quite close to their ideal volumetric requirements to play well - the other trick which I think you know about is to fill the enclosure with acoustic wadding which has the 'effect' of tricking the subwoofer into playing 'as if' it was in a larger enclosure - it's why when I've blind tested other ensthusiasts to listen to my audio setup, the vast majority say the sub bass must be coming from a 12 inch subwoofer and a small amount even saying they're hearing a 15 inch sub!! when they see the 'piddly little 8 inch' they're absolutely astonished ! - my point is, no point in over complicating things!

Other's have used the spare wheel well and made a cicular shaped enclousure, then puched holes in the cargo load cover - again, to me this is restricting as more of the sub bass energy doesn't move through the holes and simply stays locked in that space. plus, every now and again, I carry stuff there !

Cheers, Dennis!