# 2015 Ram build log



## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

This is a install I did for a very nice guy. Definitely made a friend through all the pains of the install . 
SQ build for a bunch of very nice equipment, 

2. Sets of focal Be Utopias , brax amps . It goes on. Amazing build. 


Disclaimer - adding a 2nd set of utopia 3ways was the customers idea, I was against it . In the end the tears actually sounded very nice and helped reinforce the fronts . It actually worked out pretty good except I wouldn't have used the tweet in rear , but he can tune them off with the be crossblock for rears 

Way more than my shop normally does on average. Had car for three months. There's no way I can get all pictures up so I'll do it in stages over the next week. 


First full tear down. Including head liner. For the entire sound deadning showdown install.


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

Stock wiring no good. Used OFC 12ga separate run for each speaker. Had to make a add on door boot. 




3 runs in each door


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## Lycancatt (Apr 11, 2010)

I love beautiful overkill..


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

A little MLV 












uploading pictures


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

Just the sound deadning was a huge undertaking. Did CLD , MLF, closed cell foam, And acoustical padding throuout , everywhere I could dismantle got treated. The customer brought a truck bed full of sound deadning and I used all of it, 
I also lined the panel joints with extruded byutl rope. Pretty amazing project for sound deadning .


adult image sharing


gifs upload


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## Lycancatt (Apr 11, 2010)

how much weight do you think you've added to that truck?


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

Lycancatt said:


> how much weight do you think you've added to that truck?


160lbs in deadning and about 250 lbs in custom work and audio


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

Some HDPE plates 

how to screenshot on windows


how to screenshot on windows

Rear speaker housed a 6.5" and a be tweeter , a 3.5" is going in custom door panel above the 6-tweet in rears 

Reinforced the door plastic internally , and added a 6x9 foam insert. Than cut a hole in foam and added a down firing breather so the foam won't seal up and speaker can breathe in to door. That way speaker is 99% moisture safe and the foam won't vibrate like a mother in there , before I cut the hole the foam make a air tight seal to plate. I fastened the plate with long screws and had clips on back side to thread into so plate can't work its way loose

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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

Owner didn't like white so added some grill cloth over the HDPE 


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

Got to run store , brb more to come in about 20 min


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## Basshertz1 (Jun 17, 2011)

Great start of a good build looking forward to seeing more


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## palmerosa (Jan 27, 2006)

Yes, please keep them coming.


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

Basshertz1 said:


> Great start of a good build looking forward to seeing more


Thank you


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

Time to start some dash pods


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

Ended up lining the inside of pods with duraglass to make über stiff and than thick carpet with rubber backing to stop any resonances


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

Vyniling the pods for the 3.5" was beyond me, I sent them out to get Vynil to my guy, he stitched up very nice around the handles. I did Vynil on sail pods for tweets tho. The Be tweeter looked so hot in the sails next to the dash pods. I was very please with end result 

I kept everything as much on axis as I could for imaging , was a smart move ended up sounding amazing!!! Pointed the pods slightly down torwards the listener to steer the power responce away from the glass. Was a good call there. Aiming up would have cause a lot of unwanted reflection . 

SQ was the primary focus and cosmetics took a 2nd place, otherwise I would have made a much smaller pod. 




























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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

I didnt use the phase plug for the dash tweeters and did for the rear tweeters, the rear tweeters were very much off axis so it was in order,


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

Truck stock has storage boxes in the floor on each side when you open back doors, I removed the storage part retained the factory cover and made bigger boxes for battery's and capacitors . They ended up getting lineX and had plex covers with LEDs inside









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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

After lineX 












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screengrab


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

Okay tired of posting pics for the night , stay tuned for more tomorrow. Lots more to come !


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

Wait till you see this sub box, it's off the chain !


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## Niebur3 (Jul 11, 2008)

So far it looks good.....but 3 months?????


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## palmerosa (Jan 27, 2006)

I'm in the process of finishing up a build for my 2015 ram 3500. I am almost speechless with what I've seen so far. The storage containers for example is thinking outside the box to say the least. Man you got some skill. Can't wait to see some more.


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## Martin1430 (Jan 31, 2015)

Subbed


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

Niebur3 said:


> So far it looks good.....but 3 months?????


Wait till you see the sub box, yes three months, I am also a install manager in a very high volume bay, so I only worked on it about 6 hrs a day.


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

palmerosa said:


> I'm in the process of finishing up a build for my 2015 ram 3500. I am almost speechless with what I've seen so far. The storage containers for example is thinking outside the box to say the least. Man you got some skill. Can't wait to see some more.


Thank you! Yeah we decided to keep as much of the back seat area for passengers as possible , so we ditched the under seat box and went for a port through ( 4th order) and used under seat for amps , helix pro and bit play. and still had to jack the back seat up 1.5"

Was crazy , ill post more of it tonight when off work. 

In the end I was very pleased with imaging and the overall sq it sounds very good, the helix is very nice dsp and the brax amps were amazing sq , and there was more bass than any underseat box could ever give .


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

Now for the 3.5" utopia for the rears 
































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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

Had to jack the back seat up 1.5" , so truck owner just so happened to be a metal guy , he fabbed up some nifty brackets for the back seat. He also made some aluminum blocks to jack up back seat and machined the to fit seat rail perfectly I don't have pics of the blocks. 















I riveted on the new mounts for the back seat holder 



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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

So the sub box we decided a 4th order band pass. JL 13W7 , the truck has a slide out tray in the bed , so the customer needed that to work, so I had to build a box make it fit , and keep his tray working. So the box had to float above it and be mounted in the bed. Metal cage had to be fabbed to attach to box so tray would still slide out. Cage was custom made and custom mounted to the bed frame, the slide out tray was cut so it would go around the box. It turned out awesome!!! 







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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

All the framework had to be pre assembled for the sub box , the removable panel went on after sub was loaded and frame was bolted on the box


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

image upload no limit


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

jpg images


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

The amp rack I made to go under the seat, the customer wanted sorbathane sheets to isolate the amps and sorbathane grommets . I cut holes in amp rack so cooling fans on amps can breathe from storage bins under seat where the helix and bit play were installed
















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## palmerosa (Jan 27, 2006)

I would have paid money just to been there and watch you work. Dude this awesome!!


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

The be cross block was only used for the rears, the helix had "only" ten channels of dsp, so was already using 6 for fronts and 2 for rears so that left 2 for rears, so we had to go passive on the rear three ways , so being we HAD to use passive on rears , might as well make it look good with that shiny crossover that comes with the be Utopias 











print screen


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

palmerosa said:


> I would have paid money just to been there and watch you work. Dude this awesome!!


Thank you, yes it was a lot of hard work. Brain racking for sure. But the end it sounded so so good.


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

The helix remote aka the director I built a nice little place for it in factory. Storage next to cup holder














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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

I also added a dual gang USB in there under so you can connect to bit play and helix directly from the dash, don't have to pull anything apart and no pig tails hanging out 
I moved the stock power port (lighter) next to it in the small tray in front of helix display. I also added a momentary switch to switch from front camera or bit play through the stock screen using a crux interface 
















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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

Overall build was awesome ! It sounded good , looked good, I love the be tweeters they sound super nice, the be Utopias have sterling silver spider wires, what a nice speaker. All the venting you could want. The build had very good spectral balance and staging . I was very happy there was a good center that is well defined and far forward , usually in wide trucks that's hard because you loose so much energy from the right side and the polar responce from left to right is so uneven, this build really did sound like a small car would and had all the good things of near field . I think I gained about100 more grey hairs from it , but they were well earned . Lol. 






upload pics


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## palmerosa (Jan 27, 2006)

As I have said before I also have a Dodge Ram truck. But I would be willing to bet money on the fact your customer and myself are not in the same profession. There is no way this dude could do all that with my pay check. 
But man your work is freaking awesome.


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

palmerosa said:


> As I have said before I also have a Dodge Ram truck. But I would be willing to bet money on the fact your customer and myself are not in the same profession. There is no way this dude could do all that with my pay check.
> But man your work is freaking awesome.


Thank you ! 

He's in oil and gas . A very very kind awesome Dood ! He works on metal when he's on leave from his normal work.


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## DavidRam (Nov 2, 2014)

Awesome job man, killer build!


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

DavidRam said:


> Awesome job man, killer build!


Thank you.


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

The customer also made custom metal plates that mount under truck and secure the stash boxes , that was there's no chance of ever dragging battery's down the road


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

.... Posted sorry... Edit


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## #1BigMike (Aug 17, 2014)

BRAVO!!!


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## rockin (Sep 13, 2012)

The only thing that could make this build log better is if I could put my monitor down instead of holding it rotated 90 degrees clockwise.  What a different experience viewing this would be with the pics rotated 90 degrees clockwise.


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## 1FinalInstall (Oct 13, 2013)

Great job, very nice build.


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## Coppertone (Oct 4, 2011)

Holy freak, just when I didn't think a Ram build could go to the next level lol...


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## ruizal (Aug 4, 2015)

This is phenomenal! I nearly purchased a Dodge pickup and had a blowthrough in mind but you went well above and beyond! 

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

rockin said:


> The only thing that could make this build log better is if I could put my monitor down instead of holding it rotated 90 degrees clockwise.  What a different experience viewing this would be with the pics rotated 90 degrees clockwise.



Lol, I know ! I used a free image hosting site that rotated them because I don't have "premium subscription " . I had so many to load I just did one big group load. Sorry for that .


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

....


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## adrianp89 (Oct 14, 2007)

Really wish these pictures loaded for me


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

the727kid said:


> Really wish these pictures loaded for me


They work just fine, try another browser . 

What are using now?


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

Coppertone said:


> Holy freak, just when I didn't think a Ram build could go to the next level lol...


Lol. Yeah when he came in we had the plan to do the subs under the seat.

And that left no where for the amps to go. 

It's crazy how much the build changed from the original game plan.


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## adrianp89 (Oct 14, 2007)

Ok got on my compute at home and the pictures worked. This build is awesome. What did you use to match the front tweeter pods? I am looking to make some for my Ram as well and want a factory finish.


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## truckguy (Sep 2, 2013)

How did you hookup the helix to the head unit? Did you get a good signal?


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

truckguy said:


> How did you hookup the helix to the head unit? Did you get a good signal?


I've been meaning to do a write up on that, 

Basicly the factory radio has a line level output. It is a fixed output and does not change with the volume control. The volume control for the radio and steering wheel controls. Those are done over a data connection inside the amp.

So I tapped into that signal but left it hooked up to the factory amp, you have to leave it hooked up to the factory amp as well. The reason for that is you still want to have Bluetooth hands-free end navigation monologue (nav voices) 

I left the center channel speaker hooked up because the Bluetooth hands-free calling and navigation go through that speaker. And then ran that low level single right into the helix when using the factory radio as a source for music just used the volume control on the director (Helix screen)

The sound quality was very very good for a factory radio that is , and still had all of its functionality . Taking the signal after the amplifier would sound awful .

Overall it turned out very good and with the bit play we are able to play the high resolution tracks . The helix has the Bluetooth Card in it , that way he is able to connect his phone directly into the Helix over BT if you wanted to use his phone as a music source . Thus bypassing the factory system for BT audio. Better sq again. No 2nd conventions of d to a . 

I need to get off my butt and do a write up on this because a lot of people ask about it I need to take pictures and get the wire colors for everybody


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## autokraftgt (Aug 28, 2012)

oabeieo said:


> I've been meaning to do a write up on that,
> 
> Basicly the factory radio has a line level output. It is a fixed output and does not change with the volume control. The volume control for the radio and steering wheel controls. Those are done over a data connection inside the amp.
> 
> ...


^^yes, you need to do a write up if possible, Iam assuming this Ram came from the factory with the Alpine system in it? There are a LOT of Ram owners with the Alpine system that are holding back on aftermarket improvements simply because of that factory system. Great build man! I would have needed a few shots of liquid courage to cut that big hole in the back wall for the blow through....i'm sure the results are worth it though.
Again, great build!


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## adrianp89 (Oct 14, 2007)

I still trying to get word from PAC if they are going to produce something like the C2A-CHY5 for these trucks. That would be by-far the best solution.


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

autokraftgt said:


> ^^yes, you need to do a write up if possible, Iam assuming this Ram came from the factory with the Alpine system in it? There are a LOT of Ram owners with the Alpine system that are holding back on aftermarket improvements simply because of that factory system. Great build man! I would have needed a few shots of liquid courage to cut that big hole in the back wall for the blow through....i'm sure the results are worth it though.
> Again, great build!


Yes alpine .

And thank you


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

the727kid said:


> I still trying to get word from PAC if they are going to produce something like the C2A-CHY5 for these trucks. That would be by-far the best solution.


IIRC PAC is coming with a uconnect retention piece that has a low lev out


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

Just had a few PMs on the low level splice out of the factory head. 
Did anyone check with PAC and find out about the retention... Should give you a RCA output that is clean


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## adrianp89 (Oct 14, 2007)

It still isn't out yet. I have been in contact with our Pac rep over the past few months and I keep getting the run around. He said supposedly he could get something in my hands after knowledgefest but I am not holding my breath.


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

the727kid said:


> It still isn't out yet. I have been in contact with our Pac rep over the past few months and I keep getting the run around. He said supposedly he could get something in my hands after knowledgefest but I am not holding my breath.


Gosh dang , yeah our rep said it was in beta like almost a year ago...wth 

Well..... I guess we be waiting till than get the DRCs and directors and tap the low level like we been doin 

That will make it so much better when that's available


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## captainobvious (Mar 11, 2006)

Great work, really nice and clean.


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

captainobvious said:


> Great work, really nice and clean.


Thanks buddy


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## MKnopfler (Jun 29, 2016)

Really sick build out, overkill done beautifully. I'd love to demo it.


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

MKnopfler said:


> Really sick build out, overkill done beautifully. I'd love to demo it.


He's local to us, it sounds awesome , I have about 10hrs in tuning into it 
I'll try and have him come out to the next meet. 

His rta is perfectly flat and sounds good. Not all systems sound good flat flat. His does. 
And he has rears like yours . Yeah I'll try to get him to come for sure. Super cool guy too


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

the727kid said:


> Ok got on my compute at home and the pictures worked. This build is awesome. What did you use to match the front tweeter pods? I am looking to make some for my Ram as well and want a factory finish.


Vynil shopping. We found one that matched perfectly and the thread we used matched the dash threads on the stitching


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## dengland (May 25, 2014)

Absolutely amazing build.

I was stubborn and did not want to give up on my factory volume controls. I never felt like I got a good summation after the factory amp due to all of the variability (I was mixing front and a % of rear to get a "full" signal). 

I really like how and where you mounted the Director.

I recently got the PAC AP4-CH41 and installed it. Now I have to stop blaming the input signal Helix Pro. I think I am still dealing with some cabin issues and the factory speaker locations.

Again, great job.


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