Has anyone thought to (or have done), motorizing their back seat so that it folds down. Say you have some subs in the trunk. As we all know, if you do have subs in the trunk, they sound like crap because of the seat that doesn't fold down.

You could put a motor back there with a shaft that goes through the back of the seat and a controller up front. The back could be up or down with a switch in the front. I know that the rear suspension bracket is there, but that could be covered with some sort of composite material to make it look better. I'm definetly looking in that direction, just wondering if anyone else has done this and/or has some pics.

Some might say to beef up the speakers and amp, but I've got two JL 10w7's and an Xtant 1001D at 1kW. It just doesn't hit like it did in my last car, a measly little 97 Escort!

 

Very cool idea. Most on this forum are performance oriented. I am from so cal so I understand your problem. Needs beats!

 

that is a kick *** idea. you could use the motor from those motorized sliding doors on minivans i would think. definately pursue that. i hate having to pull over to put my seats down to let the beats out of the trunk.

 

I had to do that with my old mustang.

 

Yeah we are more performance orientated... Seems like it would add a lot of weight... Just dont go ricing it out.

 

But the rear seats do not fold down at all in the Evo. So there would be alot more to it than just getting the fold down to operate mechanically.

SC~

 

just take out the panel that behind the arm rest

what i do is oput down the armrest and between there and the trunk is just a cloth

i could cut the cloth out and get a hole if i wanted to

 

i wonder why they made the rear seats so they don't fold down

 

cheaper / stronger /lighter ?

thats just my guess

 

theorectically, putting subs in your trunk doesn't affect the sound. Bass is a very low frequency and therefore on average has a wavelength of ~40ft. This is much bigger than the size of your car. With this in mind, one wavelength will oscillate around the inside of your car several times. The more important factor to how bass sounds in a car is how the car accoustically performs. Since the interior and trunk of cars vary greatly, this accoustic performance changes from car to car. The 97 escort probably has better accoustic performance for bass as opposed to the evo.


However, the folding down rear seats sound like an awesome show factor for any system.

 

just get a bigger amp

 

Rear seats do not fold down because there is a support brace that runs through it.

 

Because there is a huge 'Y' shaped brace in that area. Fold down seats are useless if there is a huge structural member blocking the opening.

SC~

 

sounds like a monster garage project.

 

Thanks for the replies. I was hoping someone might have done this, but I knew it was a longshot.

First off, I know as well as anyone that bass will carry through objects, but when you are looking for the best sound quality, that seat has got to go. If I wasn't so used to the bass in my old
Escort, maybe I wouldn't even know the difference. And as far as additional weight, my sub box and all the other audio stuff I have back there is around 125 lbs. What's another 5 or 10 lbs. for a motor and shaft to go through the seat? I'm not looking to dust everybody off the line. I can beat most chumps out there good enough, and if I can have better bump than anyone else, I happy.

Also, as I said, I know that the rear suspension bracket is there, but that could easily have some fiberglass coated over it and painted. As far as getting the seat to fold down at all, much less electrically, here's what you do. Run about a 1 inch thick shaft through the bottom of the seat, say 3 or 4 inches above the bottom. Granted, getting a hole in it and getting this thing though could be tricky. Then remove the three brackets at the bottom that bolt into the chassis. Mount the bar on something (sorry, details are sketchy, this is just in my head) that will allow the bar to rotate. Voila, the seat goes up and down. Now if it is a motor that the bar is mounted on, the bar can't move unless the motor does, keeping the seat from falling down if it is supposed to be up.

Here's my biggest concern right now, what to do with the seat belts that come down from the rear deck??? Any ideas on that?

Xtant 1001D and Xtant 4180C above (w/o cover on it)