Shar's 2019 AR 240 Build Thread

[shar]

@Austin-BR Why did you leave? finally had enough of the heat? Lol. I’m originally from NJ, moved here about 8 years ago. Miss the change in seasons but enjoy the lack of snow and wearing shorts in January

Good luck on the install! I’ll be posting an update later today... Had a bit of a setback after a teacher at my kids daycare tested positive for Covid. Our family is safe/healthy but they closed the school for 10 days. Needless to say, managing them, work, and trying to keep the wife sane, left little time for anything else!

 

[Austin-BR]

@Austin-BR Why did you leave? finally had enough of the heat? Lol. I’m originally from NJ, moved here about 8 years ago. Miss the change in seasons but enjoy the lack of snow and wearing shorts in January

Good luck on the install! I’ll be posting an update later today... Had a bit of a setback after a teacher at my kids daycare tested positive for Covid. Our family is safe/healthy but they closed the school for 10 days. Needless to say, managing them, work, and trying to keep the wife sane, left little time for anything else!

This is kind of scary for sure.

The heat didn't bother me. The humidity is not like Houston, easier to handle. I moved there in 2010 (from overseas, 3rd intercontinental move) to start a new branch of the company where I used to work for. In 2016 the HQ in Europe went south and the opportunity came in NC. We were planning to go this year to SXSW and meet some friends... eh, you know what happened. I will be follow your install and get inspired.

 

[shar]

Finally, an update! Last two weeks have been hectic

Got the batteries relocated, giving me a little more storage space in the compartment. I'll have to run new ground wires to the switches If I want to move them back further (which I do) but I'll save that effort for another day. Still, an improvement overall.


JL fuse holder installed, amp power/ground wires run, battery charger installed. Finished product.


The boat was starting to look like a war zone. I ran some speaker wire for rough lengths, before moving everything back into the storage unit for SHADE.


Pulling wires and crimping terminals. I went through (around) the anchor storage locker for this run.


Starboard side. I'll need to go back and zip tie both runs to the existing wires to clean it up.


SUB time measure twice, cut once


Slow and steady. Was able to get through the entire cut with a single bit. What a mess though.


Test fit, side profile, no screws yet. I was a little worried about the ever so slight curvature there, but it sits flush all said and done.


looks good. No spacer needed with the M3 sub in this location.




Port side rear storage compartment all closed up. I think it turned out pretty clean. From this angle you can see the loom for the sub and mid-cabin speaker wire, tucked away.


Not pictured are the rear speaker runs, but they were pretty straight forward, again going through the engine bay for the port side.

I wrapped up with vacuuming the carpet with our Dyson hand-held and wiping everything down.

Still some cleanup up work to be done with hiding wires, and finalizing the amp connections, but overall its coming together nicely. Hoping to have some photos of the finished product in the next day or two. The wife and I are planning on hitting the lake on Monday. All of the ramps are closed this weekend due to worries of Covid spreading over 4th of July... So i've got a deadline to finish Really looking forward to getting out on the lake, its been several weeks for us!

 

[shar]

Oh! also bought a new truck. Loved my previous F150, but got tired of spinning wheels when fetching the boat at the ramp... Really needed something with 4x4. Wife said she was tired of being embarrassed, having someone stand on the rear bumper to get help us get out lol. Our ramp is just insanely steep, otherwise I don't think I would have upgraded. Anywho, here are the new wheels!

 

[Austin-BR]

Nice truck! I saw that you install the amp under the helm. I saw a lot of other boats here with the same setup. Did you thought about install it close to the batteries? Have HTX6 waiting here and not decided where to install it.

 

[shar]

@Austin-BR I went back on forth on where to mount it. Ultimately, I went with the helm as that area is less likely to get wet, and I didn't want to further reduce the available storage space in the battery compartment.

 

[Inthrustwetrust]

Nice truck! I saw that you install the amp under the helm. I saw a lot of other boats here with the same setup. Did you thought about install it close to the batteries? Have HTX6 waiting here and not decided where to install it.

I went battery compartment but my amp is only for towers, made it easy as there is hole in the tower mount that drops into the bat compartment. I would do helm If your amp is powering cabin speakers, more of a central spot. My amp gets some water on it when I open to seat after my wash down to turn the batteries off. Working on some sort of vented enclosure for it.

 

[tslayton]

New anchor arrived! Got really tired of dragging the box anchor across the bottom of Lake Travis. It never held well for me, so I’m hoping this one does a better job of keeping the boat in place.
View attachment 122201

Does this anchor fit in the anchor storage compartment on the boat?

 

[shar]

Does this anchor fit in the anchor storage compartment on the boat?

It does not... I place it under one of the bow seats

 

[shar]

I was able to get everything installed more-or-less before hitting the lake yesterday! Didn't stop to take many pictures along the way, but the mid-cabin speakers are finally in. Nerve-racking to cut 5" holes in the middle of your boat


While I like this location for the speaker on the passenger side, I wouldn't recommend it. The speaker does fit in depth, but doesn't sit 100% flush due to the curvature of the fiberglass. It probably sits 1/8" off the glass on the furthermost left and right screws/sides. Not a big deal as its still secured and not going anywhere. Nobody can tell but me, but if you're the OCD type, you'd probably be better off mounting your speaker above the cup holders IMO.


Con of the MV800/8i? Stupid water tight connectors for the speaker wires. It adds a lot of additional crimping/connecting, as well bulk to the install. I need to go back and clean up/figure out how I want to route everything. But for now, we've got


Positive of the MV800/8i? Everything cane be tuned and adjusted from a laptop


JL's TuN software allows me to see the voltage (and temp) at the amp. I need to monitor further, but the voltage drop does not appear to be an issue (12.5 @ the batteries).


I set my volume to 75% (18/24 using the Fusion iphone app) and used the software to mute most of the speakers (purple arrow) so that I wasn't blasting out the neighbors. I adjusted the input levels for each zone until they were green/flashing yellow, but never red. I had to turn the sub level to max output on the Fusion head unit, on the swim platform. I also had to turn the bass all the way to max output, again at head unit. I noticed that the Connext screen only allows you to adjust the bass to +4, where as at the head unit itself, you can adjust higher. If you go back to the connext screen after making the adjustment, you'll see it at +8. (However, if you adjust the bass or treble down from +8 on the Connext screen, you can't go back - you'll have to go back to the head unit to reach that level again. Stupid design!) Finally, you can see the gain had to be set much higher for the sub inputs. I was surprised at how much turning of knobs to the right it took to get decent bass.


I set some baseline high/low pass filters, so that we could be on our way and enjoy the day. Still more work to be done here on the EQ side.


And the verdict?! I can FINALLY enjoy music while underway! The difference is night and day Can't wait to get everything dialed in. A much needed beautiful day on Lake Travis.

 

[jim1]

View attachment 124502

Clean install...looks great! Are you getting any rattles from the cup holders when the stereo is on?

 

[shar]

Clean install...looks great! Are you getting any rattles from the cup holders when the stereo is on?

Thanks man! No rattles that I can hear or that I am aware of, when everything is going. If I mute the speakers, and turn the sub up all the way, I can make stuff rattle in the cabin. but that’s not exactly a real music listening/playing scenario.

 

[captainhook]

Neat shots of the JL tuning software. I was afraid to look that up because then I’d want to buy it over the M400 I bought.

In the JL tuning instructions I read, it said to keep all levels flat. Specifically in step 2 of the 9 step procedure it says this: “Turn off all processing on the source unit and the amplifier (bass/treble, loudness, EQ, etc.).” Is the MV series different? I plan to set mine (M400/4) today.

 

[shar]

Neat shots of the JL tuning software. I was afraid to look that up because then I’d want to buy it over the M400 I bought.

In the JL tuning instructions I read, it said to keep all levels flat. Specifically in step 2 of the 9 step procedure it says this: “Turn off all processing on the source unit and the amplifier (bass/treble, loudness, EQ, etc.).” Is the MV series different? I plan to set mine (M400/4) today.

haha, thanks. I'm probably in over my head with the tuning capabilities of this thing though

I actually did start off that way, adjusting everything to "flat". That worked for everything except bass. With the bass flat at the head unit, volume at 3/4, and the input sensitivity set to max (11), I could barely get the input to register. It wasn't until I turned the bass to max (+8) that it started to come alive, but as you can see in the screenshot the input sensitivity is still incredibly high (10/11). I need to play around with it some more, but I tried everything I can think of. Maybe I'll mess around with it tomorrow. Right now I'm in the middle of another project, "fixing" the truck Good luck with your tuning though, interested to hear your experience....what are you running for the sub, if anything?

 

[captainhook]

No sub for me until next season for now. I've only been out twice so far with this setup and the second time I completely sold myself on a sub, until I then realized my house battery was low (and subsequently died halfway through the outing) and the amp just wasn't getting enough juice.

We'll see how it goes today after tuning and having proper voltage! I probably won't know for sure until tomorrow because for some reason the audio sounds way better on the water than it does in the driveway.

 

[jim1]

Thanks man! No rattles that I can hear or that I am aware of, when everything is going. If I mute the speakers, and turn the sub up all the way, I can make stuff rattle in the cabin. but that’s not exactly a real music listening/playing scenario.

Thanks.

My port side bow cup holder rattles if I crank up the bass beyond 12 (depending on the song) on my stock system. It’s driving me nuts and I’m not sure how I should approach fixing it...applying downward pressure on it with my hand is starting to wear on me ;-) !