New Build - Doing a Show from the Van

[Marcello7777]

Hey there, I'm new to the forum and overall new to car audio. We've just converted a 1996 Dodge Ram Van into a Tiny Home. We did all of the carpentry work, and just finished up the electrical work to hook up some appliances. The biggest one being a Whynter 65 Qt fridge that has a 4.5 amp draw(doesn't turn on all of the time - great efficiency). I've been doing a lot of research and looking into the ins and outs of everything, but I figured I could ask one of you guys with much more experience than I have in what is the best way to go about setting up what I have in mind...

In short, I am a Musician traveling around the US. I'd like to be able to open up the side doors of the van (2 doors that open out), have speakers built in to the doors so I can play a Solar Powered Show. The shows I'll be doing will consist of an acoustic guitar, a microphone or two, and the occasional collaboration with another musician. We'll be playing in local farmers markets, small outdoor events, and as a side stage for larger festivals. I'd like to be able to play for at least least 2-3 hours before getting to the point where I have to charge my batteries (preferably more). Quick side note, in the very near future is when we are getting a large enough Solar Set up to charge my deep cycle batteries 215AH 12V total. >Perhaps this will need a upgrade?

Some other things to note:

-Most of the music will be with an acoustic guitar and a mic or two for vocals, with the occasional collaboration here and there. It will not be very bass driven although it would be great to have some lows in there.. I'm looking for a great balanced sound.

My current setup includes:

-2x 215AH deep cycle 6V batteries in series (12V) - Charged by the Alternator

-Stock 1996 Stereo System

-Lots of love into it along with hard work

I am doing lots of research into what kind of gear to get. I'd like to do all of this in the most effective way possible, nothing extreme like they have in car shows, but something that will sound great for what we're using it for. Back in the West Coast, I've used a Fender 250W PA (P250) and that worked well for this application - if that helps in any way. I'm willing to do whatever it takes to get it done!

Thank you in advance for the time, thought, and effort, you put into helping the dream come true. Your help is very much appreciated!!

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[BOOMINGRANDPA 5,000+ posts]

Hey there, I'm new to the forum and overall new to car audio. We've just converted a 1996 Dodge Ram Van into a Tiny Home. We did all of the carpentry work, and just finished up the electrical work to hook up some appliances. The biggest one being a Whynter 65 Qt fridge that has a 4.5 amp draw(doesn't turn on all of the time - great efficiency). I've been doing a lot of research and looking into the ins and outs of everything, but I figured I could ask one of you guys with much more experience than I have in what is the best way to go about setting up what I have in mind...
In short, I am a Musician traveling around the US. I'd like to be able to open up the side doors of the van (2 doors that open out), have speakers built in to the doors so I can play a Solar Powered Show. The shows I'll be doing will consist of an acoustic guitar, a microphone or two, and the occasional collaboration with another musician. We'll be playing in local farmers markets, small outdoor events, and as a side stage for larger festivals. I'd like to be able to play for at least least 2-3 hours before getting to the point where I have to charge my batteries (preferably more). Quick side note, in the very near future is when we are getting a large enough Solar Set up to charge my deep cycle batteries 215AH 12V total. >Perhaps this will need a upgrade?

Some other things to note:

-Most of the music will be with an acoustic guitar and a mic or two for vocals, with the occasional collaboration here and there. It will not be very bass driven although it would be great to have some lows in there.. I'm looking for a great balanced sound.

My current setup includes:

-2x 215AH deep cycle 6V batteries in series (12V) - Charged by the Alternator

-Stock 1996 Stereo System

-Lots of love into it along with hard work

I am doing lots of research into what kind of gear to get. I'd like to do all of this in the most effective way possible, nothing extreme like they have in car shows, but something that will sound great for what we're using it for. Back in the West Coast, I've used a Fender 250W PA (P250) and that worked well for this application - if that helps in any way. I'm willing to do whatever it takes to get it done!

Thank you in advance for the time, thought, and effort, you put into helping the dream come true. Your help is very much appreciated!!

sounds like u need to look at parts express.com some of the speakers are very inexpensive and nice dayton subs like $150

 

[Marcello7777]

For a decent system, how long do you think I'd be able to run the system? Also what wattage speakers do you recommend?

 

[BOOMINGRANDPA 5,000+ posts]

u mean how long can u play the stereo at a time? is that with motor off? if so u need to look into lithium batterys they are very expensive., u can do a bank of big agm batts cheaper fs., and i have no idea we don't run systems with car off for fear of voltage drop can hurt speakers/amps, so u talking about doing stuff not many of us do.. let me see if i can get u some help or maybe they know who can help u if they can't.. @Jeffdachef, @gotgixers, @kr15 they compete at least, so they have some idea of how long batt will last

 

[Marcello7777]

Awesome thanks man!

I have a bank of some Deep Cycle Batteries already at 215 AH, I also have a meter that lets me know where the voltage is on these batteries. I'd never let them run past the 50% point which is when the voltage starts to drop drastically and then start to run into problems...

Much appreciated my friend, I am planning on doing it with the car off. Perhaps the best question would be based on your experience, what would a decent effective system look like in terms of gear for what I'll be using it for? By knowing that, I can do the math on how many watts that is all together and work back from there to see if I'll need to upgrade my battery bank and if so, how much.

Again, all your help is much appreciated - thanks man for putting me in touch with the right people.

 

[wew lad 5,000+ posts]

there's a lot thats going to go into this and thats why some people arent jumping in to help, try to formulate some specific questions about where you're lost and maybe we can start there

i can tell you at first that you're going to need much more battery capacity if you intend to run things as long as you say without any significant charging current. how much is hard to saw without knowing what your current draw is

my first recommendations would be to keep the bass duty minimal (or efficient) as that will be a lot of your current draw if you have any serious power for subs, and to look at an amp like the ppi900.4 which will give you 4 channels and plenty of power to power mids at a relatively cheap price

from there PA (pro audio) mids and silk dome tweeters will get you some good output, but dont expert sound concert quality, just output. supertweeters will be even louder but much much harsher. ive heard good things about the prv pa mids:

https://www.amazon.com/PRV-Audio-6MB200-Midbass-Speaker/dp/B008Z16IZM

if you're building a custom location for these midwoofers i would highly recommend you go with an 8 or 10 inch midrange as it will give you a lot more kick in the midrange than a 6.5 (which we usually use because door mounting locations are small)

a rough estimate of where to start would be 2 midrange amps (ppi 900.4's), one bass amp, and possibly one smaller amp for the tweeters. from there you need to decide how to provide it a source of music, a headunit, aux to RCA adapter split out to the amps, bluetooth, etc and then decide how badly you want bass because that entails an enclosure and dedicated subwoofers

another consideration is tuning and setting gains, if you have never done it before id recommend getting a mini oscope for around ~60-70 bucks for setting your amps at a 0 db tone in hopes of avoiding some jackass blowing your speakers by screaming into the mic or cranking the volume knob

 

[BOOMINGRANDPA 5,000+ posts]

yeah i was think big mids like 10-12's and power those much easier to do u can even get amp like mine ppi p1k $169 to power maybe 4 low power subs even the cheap ppi subs (like $50) may not be bad they amp doesn't draw and much as some and is pretty strong yet very u small so u would be at exactly 2k with ppi 900 and my amp tested at 1162rms @ 1ohm, whole precision power system, except the mids and tweets.... but man idk how long that'll run on batts, i think u gonna have to idle more than u want or spend $2k on batterys..

 

[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

whats the budget here? Cant really recommend what to buy without one.

Are you going to have a proper sound mixer with RCA outputs? and have all the instruments/vocals amped and separate channels?

It'll need to be setup like a real stage rather than typical car audio unless you just wanna ghetto rig it with an aux cable from the mixer plugged into the head unit.

You might need separated chambers of speakers and multiple 4 channel amps to control each mid/tweeter desperately with the mixer so that each instrument/singer can have instrument separation rather than all the speakers trying to handle all the musical information coming in all at once.

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

My .02$

You really shot yourself in the foot not doing lithium batteries right from the start. Size and weight savings is enormous and dollar for dollar you don't sacrifice much energy storage with 1000$ worth of lithium vs. 1000$ worth of AGM battery. Shop around, if you're savvy enough to build the battery bank you have now you can search the solar power sites for good lithium options that shake hands well with your solar setup.

Next, with sound you have what is known as "Hoffman's Iron Law" which says that you can have:

1. High efficiency

2. Small box

3. Good low extension

But only two of them at one time.

Look at most PA cabinets and they're HUGE, big woofers and big horns. They're very efficient. If you want good full sound you'll need to either use some large cabinets or use a lot of power. Which is acceptable for you? Space is a premium, but battery to run high power amps won't come cheap, nor will the amps!

How much space do you have to work with even? Pics of the van?

For simplicity's sake I'd lean towards just buying a Crate, Fender, Marshall cab/amp combo and running it on an inverter, but if space is a super premium you may be able to rig up a nice array of full range PA speakers/horns/etc. in a door that could open and project well enough. Brazil makes some very small and efficient full range class D amps, I'd lean towards them if you are trying to use car amps to drive things. You will almost definitely want some EQ, crossover, and processing though. Just slapping a bunch of speakers in your doors can and usually does sound really awful, and you'll need a solution to convert your plugs into RCA at a proper input voltage to drive those amps.