Installed powered sub today

[Vikingstaff]

I mean.. it's screwed in to the floor deck.... I'm not too saavy on mechanical stuff

Bad news, they installed in a GREAT storage spot, or for you, intended installation area.

Good news, easy to change out, empty, etc... the fuel water separator.

My dealer tucked my darn fuel/water separator so tight in my transom that you have to remove the entire support bracket to pull it, replace it, drain it, etc... That is a different inconvenience all together.

 

[RodEarl74]

Well I got the boat today.. was ready to install this Rockford sub.. and when I opened the swing back front.. I noticed.. the Yamaha fuel / water filter tower thing was installed smack dab in the center.. can barely fit the sub in there now.. grr. Certainly not on the side that Renegade put it.. Mayne on the other side.? Wondering if it might fit in the back of the swing back.. Where the changing room thing is.?.

That’s too bad. Plenty of other places for Yamaha to place that! I have the Merc Verado 350. Only thing in the front part of the swingback is the Ski pylon. Plenty of room!

 

[Dmonnny123]

I made it fit!! And it turned on and worked the first try!!

I tapped Into both Stern speakers.. so interesting.. going into the speakers, there are red, green, blue, black (for the LEDs) and then just your average clear insulated copper/ silver speaker wire as well (for sound) as I couldn't follow back the wires.. I guessed that copper was + and silver was -. (Hoping I guessed that correctly?? Any way I'd know if not??

The sub.. It works. That said.. I have set to audio on the sub for turn on. And the blue light seems to always be on.

I switched to Dc offset and it works on and off. But each time I turn the head unit on.. the sub turns on and for 5 seconds rumbles. Then stops. So annoying. Any ideas ??

 

[Vpracer]

I have the RSB and my fuel seperator is in the way as well. Won’t go in corner so I just put the sub on the other side, not tucked up in the corner. Put a JL M400/4 and with the sub, kickers sound pretty good.

 

[Dmonnny123]

I have the RSB and my fuel seperator is in the way as well. Won’t go in corner so I just put the sub on the other side, not tucked up in the corner. Put a JL M400/4 and with the sub, kickers sound pretty good.

Nice.. how did you install? Tap into speakers or RCA cables?

Any insight as to the speaker polarity or the reason I'm getting the weird bass humming for 4 seconds when I turn on the kicker deck?

 

[Vpracer]

Same as you but only tapped into one speaker then pig tailed into the sub so that all inputs are covered. Humming is odd. I tapped into clear wires too. Do you have polarity correct and all the settings on sub are good? Funny when I first installed, I set to audio on and my blue light was on all the time. “Jiggled” that switched a bit and it turned off when audio was off.

 

[Dmonnny123]

Same as you but only tapped into one speaker then pig tailed into the sub so that all inputs are covered. Humming is odd. I tapped into clear wires too. Do you have polarity correct and all the settings on sub are good? Funny when I first installed, I set to audio on and my blue light was on all the time. “Jiggled” that switched a bit and it turned off when audio was off.

Good to know! For the speaker wires which did you used for + and -? I guessed and Used copper color as + and silver color as -

Also did you wire directly to one battery ? POS/ power and Neg / ground? I have a dual battery setup and used 1/2 combined for the power on the battery selector switch and then just used one of the battery's neg for ground. Wondering if that has anything to do with it?

Thanks for the help!!

 

[Folsom Dan]

Also did you wire directly to one battery ? POS/ power and Neg / ground? I have a dual battery setup and used 1/2 combined for the power on the battery selector switch and then just used one of the battery's neg for ground. Wondering if that has anything to do with it?

Thanks for the help!!

Are your grounds tied together? Grounds can be quirky. I always ground to the same battery I’m pulling power from. Even if the batteries ground to a common spot - I’d recommend trying to ground the amp to the same battery that feeds the positive side and see if that eliminates your problem.

 

[Comin In Hot]

Run it with RCA’ connected to see if it changes the sound at all.

 

[Dmonnny123]

Are your grounds tied together? Grounds can be quirky. I always ground to the same battery I’m pulling power from. Even if the batteries ground to a common spot - I’d recommend trying to ground the amp to the same battery that feeds the positive side and see if that eliminates your problem.

Only have one ground wire going from powered sub directly to battery 2's negative terminal.

The one power cable coming from powered sub is going to the battery switch: Combined. On the battery switch There is 1 - 2 - combined - OFF


Wondering if that is the issue.. or perhaps the speaker wire tap and the copper is neg and the silver is pos? Wonder what world even happen if that were the case? As it's working / sounding fine, I assumed that the polarity I chose (silver - NEG and Copper - POS) was correct..

 

[Vpracer]

I believe speaker polarity/wire color is the same as mine. I have the safety hub and wired into that vs the battery. Wanted to make sure sub shut down and didn't drain my battery all week long.

 

[Dmonnny123]

I believe speaker polarity/wire color is the same as mine. I have the safety hub and wired into that vs the battery. Wanted to make sure sub shut down and didn't drain my battery all week long.

So you think I did it correctly?
Copper +
Silver -

 

[Vpracer]

I do, but take that for what it's worth. I'm an accountant, not a stereo guru. Ha.

 

[Grasshopper]

Polarity of your speaker wires should have zero effect on humming. All it changes is the phase (basically is the sub in step with the in boat speakers). You should have a phase switch on the sub. This allows you to see what polarity sounds better (if the sub pushes out when the in boat kickers push out it will sound better!). I would try switching between the dc offset and the audio turn modes. If that does not help then run a wire from the remote turn on lead from the deck to the sub and switch to the the remote turn on for the auto on. Other then that then it could be a ground issue.

 

[Dmonnny123]

Working great now! Switched power line.. and ground to same battery.

As far as settings: DC offset seems to work the best. Audio just stays on.

I'm using the included bass level remote dial..

The strange thing is it's louder, crisper, and clearer when I switch to the low input.. and I'm definitely tapping into the speakers and using the high input plug.. hmmm


Whatever working fine now.. guess that's all that matters lol

 

[Renegade34]

If you want to check the polarity to make sure it’s correct you take a AA battery and touch one wire to the negative end of the battery and the other to the positive end. This will make the speaker move in or out. Whatever wire that’s touching the positive end of the battery when it moves OUT is the positive.
If you have the polarity backwards it will still work but be out of phase and sound “muddy”.

 

[Bennington7714]

I installed one of these Rockford Fosgate subs late last summer and it sounded great. When I started up my stereo in June the sub just made very loud rumbling noise that was at max volume even when the stereo was off. Looking at reviews on Amazon sounds like a lot of people are having these crap out after just a couple months. Has anyone else had issues? Luckily it's under warranty and Rockford Fosgate sounds like they will replace it.

 

[Michiman]

No problems thus far. Fingers crossed...

 

[RodEarl74]

One year in and I've had no issues.

I had mine installed directly to the kicker head unit for power and sound as opposed to tapping into a rear speaker wire. Wonder if that is causing some of the issues?

 

[DaveyJ]

2 years in with no issues. I'm direct wired to the battery switch with the power antenna wire providing on/off to the sub. One thing I do is remove the sub and store it in the house during the winter when the boat is wrapped and stored outside. Figured it can't hurt.....