Featured Nice Lil Pods

[Blackout67]

Picked up these nice cheap pods by Recoil Audio off Amazon for like $30. Used NVX 90 mil CLD on the door cards.

Then I cut out the grilles and screwed the pods over the hole where the grille was. Comes with a nice thick gasket on the bottom of the pod to seal it to the door card.

Installed on both sides in my 98 Cherokee

Speakers are Recoil Audio RAX (Rose Gold) Coaxial 6.5s. Jeeps of this era didn't have great options for aftermarket speakers. I believe Wranglers only had tiny speakers in the dash and Cherokees and Grand Cherokees door cutouts were tiny and had tiny mounting depths.

These are replacing a set of cheap infinity Primus 5 1/4 speakers. I've been having issues with both of them and I suspect the crossovers are cheap garbage and are breaking down

I went with coaxial this time because there is not any good place to mount a crossover behind the door cards or anywhere really in this Jeep (also these were laying around so no extra cost). I got angled pods to make the speakers not beam into my legs and the middle divider wall.
This helped a bit but what really helped was my headunit has a feature called "sound lift" (btw anyone know how this works?). I almost always leave all the extra settings off but this really helped. It sounded like the sound stage I got from my components with the tweets in the sail panels.

Overall I'm happy with it and they sound good and are loud on just HU power. I have a recoil 80.4 ready to throw on there too so I'm sure they'll sound even better. If you need a cheap way to install bigger speakers, this was def easy. Hardest part was scraping the almost 30 year old glue off the door card that held on the factory sound insulation so I could roll on the CLD.

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[marc2112 10+ year member]

You should bolt them directly on the frames, not on the cards. You're risking coil rubs.

 

[Jimi77 5,000+ posts]

Picked up these nice cheap pods by Recoil Audio off Amazon for like $30. Used NVX 90 mil CLD on the door cards.
View attachment 63992

Then I cut out the grilles and screwed the pods over the hole where the grille was. Comes with a nice thick gasket on the bottom of the pod to seal it to the door card.
View attachment 63993

Installed on both sides in my 98 Cherokee

View attachment 63994
View attachment 63995

Speakers are Recoil Audio RAX (Rose Gold) Coaxial 6.5s. Jeeps of this era didn't have great options for aftermarket speakers. I believe Wranglers only had tiny speakers in the dash and Cherokees and Grand Cherokees door cutouts were tiny and had tiny mounting depths.

These are replacing a set of cheap infinity Primus 5 1/4 speakers. I've been having issues with both of them and I suspect the crossovers are cheap garbage and are breaking down

I went with coaxial this time because there is not any good place to mount a crossover behind the door cards or anywhere really in this Jeep (also these were laying around so no extra cost). I got angled pods to make the speakers not beam into my legs and the middle divider wall.
This helped a bit but what really helped was my headunit has a feature called "sound lift" (btw anyone know how this works?). I almost always leave all the extra settings off but this really helped. It sounded like the sound stage I got from my components with the tweets in the sail panels.

Overall I'm happy with it and they sound good and are loud on just HU power. I have a recoil 80.4 ready to throw on there too so I'm sure they'll sound even better. If you need a cheap way to install bigger speakers, this was def easy. Hardest part was scraping the almost 30 year old glue off the door card that held on the factory sound insulation so I could roll on the CLD.

I had a Cherokee, you don't need that pod. A 3/4" MDF spacer on the door panel is enough to clear a ~3" deep speaker and looks much better. I stuffed ~1/2 - 1" polyfil batting behind to absorb the backwave and road noise. It's a nice upgrade for a couple bucks.

 

[Blackout67]

You should bolt them directly on the frames, not on the cards. You're risking coil rubs.

Not enough mounting depth and the cutout is too small on the actual metal panel. I didn't feel like messing with that. This was much easier

 

[Blackout67]

I had a Cherokee, you don't need that pod. A 3/4" MDF spacer on the door panel is enough to clear a ~3" deep speaker and looks much better. I stuffed ~1/2 - 1" polyfil batting behind to absorb the backwave and road noise. It's a nice upgrade for a couple bucks.

I actually have a set of MDF rings but I figured I tried this instead. The pods were cheap enough. What I was worried about with the MDF rings is that are not angled and even with these ones I still have to fade to the drivers side about 40% cause it's so off axis compared to the passenger side.

I like the way these sound and I don't think they look that bad. Only thing I would change is shorter screws. I had to use the screws with the threaded side going into the cabin. Might have to take a bolt cutter to them and then sound it down for a cleaner look

 

[Jimi77 5,000+ posts]

I actually have a set of MDF rings but I figured I tried this instead. The pods were cheap enough. What I was worried about with the MDF rings is that are not angled and even with these ones I still have to fade to the drivers side about 40% cause it's so off axis compared to the passenger side.

I like the way these sound and I don't think they look that bad. Only thing I would change is shorter screws. I had to use the screws with the threaded side going into the cabin. Might have to take a bolt cutter to them and then sound it down for a cleaner look

You should have to fade to driver's side, that's normal in car audio. Alot of the typical issues you have in car audio get exaggerated in the old Jeep Cherokees. It's a hard vehicle to get sounding good and dumped tons of money into Cherokee trying improve the sound.

 

[Blackout67]

You should have to fade to driver's side, that's normal in car audio. Alot of the typical issues you have in car audio get exaggerated in the old Jeep Cherokees. It's a hard vehicle to get sounding good and dumped tons of money into Cherokee trying improve the sound.

Yea I don't have a whole lot in this one. I was gonna add CLD to the floor boards but I started pulling up the carpet in the trunk area and apparently my rear body corners on both sides were crumbling away under the fender flares and the truck floor panel was very moist.

 

[Jimi77 5,000+ posts]

Yea I don't have a whole lot in this one. I was gonna add CLD to the floor boards but I started pulling up the carpet in the trunk area and apparently my rear body corners on both sides were crumbling away under the fender flares and the truck floor panel was very moist.

That's a bummer. Mine was the same color. What year is yours?

 

[Blackout67]

That's a bummer. Mine was the same color. What year is yours?

It's a 98. Looking to replace it tho. Ive had this Jeep for a year and half under the impression that there was only a few rust spots that need patched (I've been under this jeep many times to do work) but I was taking off the flares and bumper caps Sunday cause they are ugly and lo and behold I found those massive holes. They only became visible when I pulled the pieces off or I wouldn't have bought it if I'd known it was this bad. Very upset cause I don't have the money/time/patience/tools to fix all that.

 

[Jimi77 5,000+ posts]

It's a 98. Looking to replace it tho. Ive had this Jeep for a year and half under the impression that there was only a few rust spots that need patched (I've been under this jeep many times to do work) but I was taking off the flares and bumper caps Sunday cause they are ugly and lo and behold I found those massive holes. They only became visible when I pulled the pieces off or I wouldn't have bought it if I'd known it was this bad. Very upset cause I don't have the money/time/patience/tools to fix all that.

View attachment 64033

I had a 99. I'd probably drive it into the ground. Those inline 6s go for 250K + miles. Easy to work on too.

 

[Blackout67]

I had a 99. I'd probably drive it into the ground. Those inline 6s go for 250K + miles. Easy to work on too.

Oh yea the engine still runs great and gets terrible mileage but these Jeep XJs are one of 3 of my favorite vehicles. This is my second one and likely not my last.

Here is my old one. It had 270k on the clock, then unibody was in shambles and the auto trans wouldn't shift so you'd have to run up the gears manually but I loved it. So much I bought another one

 

[Jimi77 5,000+ posts]

Oh yea the engine still runs great and gets terrible mileage but these Jeep XJs are one of 3 of my favorite vehicles. This is my second one and likely not my last.

Here is my old one. It had 270k on the clock, then unibody was in shambles and the auto trans wouldn't shift so you'd have to run up the gears manually but I loved it. So much I bought another one

I miss mine. It was great in the snow. Only slid out on me one time, but that one time I hit a light pole and unfortunately it was right at the firewall and buckled the firewall, so it was totaled.

 

[Blackout67]

I miss mine. It was great in the snow. Only slid out on me one time, but that one time I hit a light pole and unfortunately it was right at the firewall and buckled the firewall, so it was totaled.

If you're in the Cincinnati area and are hankering for one I'll sell it to ya