This may sound frivolous, but I want to upgrade the sound system in my 1999 Dodge Ram Van 1500 Hitop in preparation for a cross country trip. As this is a conversion van, it has captain's chairs for front seats. the current speaker mounts in the doors are located in such a way that the speakers fire right into the side of the seat mounts. Not ideal.

Before I go about taking the door cards off to see what the inside structure of the doors looks like, does anyone have a pic of a bare front door?

thanks, I would like to investigate mounting speakers a bit higher up and forward of the standard location in order to mount 5.25 inch speakers that would fire into the air, instead of into the side of the seats.

thanks for any help.

 

The door cover isn't easily to take off. But, you can manage to pop off the lower part of the panel since they are push-fastened on. What you will see is the speaker opening and four screw holes in the actual sheet metal of the door.

I've replaced those door speakers this past summer with a good pair of 6x9s. Since the location is soooo low in the door, not much sound travels up to the hearing of it. In other words, it's a wasted location for speakers at best. It would do better with sub-woofers there to pound rather than make music. That's my 2-cents.

If you can find a Dodge Caravan/Dakota/Durango AM/FM/CD player from the mid-90s to about 2001, it is a direct fit for our van. This radio has more amp power, better controls and the sound is amazingly clean. Most of the time eBay has these going from $45-$120. The model number is ... The upgrade OEM radio is AM/FM/CD/Cassette. Model: P04704383AF or P04704383AH (note, the AB, AC, AD, models will fit, but those radios have quality issues)

We had a Dodge Caravan with the P04704383AF radio. It was sweet sounding, always a good full sound, and never lacking.

 

Stev, thanks for the reply. You have confirmed what I feel. That's why I am anxious to see if there is another place to put speakers in the door, before I start taking a door apart, but may have to anyway.

Maybe a custom install. I am going to put tweeters in the dash where the small speakers are now.

as for the rest of the system, I am putting in a Kenwood digital music receiver and have amps, subs, etc.

thanks for your information.

 

The stock tweeters is what made me change the sound system speakers out. They just went really bad over time. The paper just disintegrated. The newer tweeters are 4-inch type that are deeper for more range. These are the speakers where most of the vocals will reach the ear. So, the deeper the better to prevent super high squeaky voices. The OEM inserts I just took out. Those hold 3.5-inch tweeters in place. Glad Dodge allows the inserts to be removed to put bigger speakers in there. The tough part is the wiggle room to install them. PLUS, ground the new speakers well and tape over the leads to prevent shorting them. (I had to do this twice to get it right. haha).

Yah, the door speakers are a waste in my book. Maybe some 5x7s under the dash would work. There really isn't room in the ceiling and the magnets will only attract rust to the roof top.

If you are putting in a good system, I would highly recommend running new wires to carry the load.

 

yeah, I'm doing everything over, all new wiring, amps, power leads, etc. I have a fiberglass high top van and have heard about people with similar-type vans who put the front speakers in the false roof over the front seats in boxes. Maybe I'll end up going that way, who knows?

 

I put in new same size replacements for the stock door speakers, but instead of moving them I added a 1 inch surface mount dome tweeters higher up and forward on the door panel. This moved higher frequencies up out of the way of the chairs and did not require me to do wholesale wiring and mounting changes. The sound is now "crisp and clean" and voices are more intellegible. I merely added them in parallel without the use of a crossover, but you could mount a crossover circuit depending on the particular door panel speakers you choose to use. I used Crutchfield to source the speakers and have always been happy with their selections.

 

rs,
I picked up a few sets of JBL P560C 5.25 component speakers with crossovers. They are on sale for 80.00 a pair at JBL.com. I guess they are being phased out, msrp was around 270.00.

anyway, I am now thinking of seeing if the woofer (the 5.25 inch speaker) will fit in the dash mounting area, and then I could mount the tweeters on the A-pillar.

I am going to wait until it gets warmer again, though. a couple of months at least, unless I decide to get this all professionally done.

thanks for all the info, guys.

 

I actually have had good results using the front door 6x9 location. The install is a little tricky though. The stock speakers actually have a large bottom mount lip on them. So I had to use silicone to fill some of the gaps around the replacements. The plastic sound sheet also needs to be put back into place correctly so the bass wave dosent leak out too much and cancel the front wave. I have to say, the old school paper cone speakers I used sound better than any polyconed 6x9 that are produced today. The sound is much clearer and the bass is significantly more accurate. And at 93dBs/watt you are not going to do much better than that unless you pay Infinity Refernece prices - That is the only way to out do these 6x9s. You will not hear the tweeters too much in the door location, but the increase in midbass is significant if you follow these instructions. Dont let the price fool ya!

http://www.amazon.com/Jensen-JS692-6.../dp/B000F33CK2

The dash speakers really need to be polycone. They are baked in the sun everyday Since they are only 4in, they are not bass monsters, so polycone is a good choice. I have Boss 3-ways up there. The angle the fire into the windshield is actually very good. I get great stereo separation with our vans dash set up.


Since I have an Elk Conversion (and I would suspect all conversions are this way or another) the rear 6x9s are mounted above the futon. This mounting place on mine is excellent. They actually get mounted on to wood, so the same 6x9s I have have in the doors sound excellent in this position. They actually sound like high-end house speakers - comparable to Bose 301's.

For the head unit, I used, by suggestion of blackvan , a JVC Arsenal. I really enjoy HD Radio and the quailty is excellent.

I am really happy how my sound system came out. If I add a sub, watch out!

 

dude, awesome to hear that 5.25 will fit in the dash location. Did you have to use any kind of adapter?

thanks.

ps. I do have a sub, a JL.

 

sorry bro, I had a brain malfunction...they are 4s not 5.25...