Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

I am thinking of installing 2 rear facing speakers facing rearward in my pontoon.

The rear of my pontoon has the aluminum fencing on both sides with the entrance in the center (an Avalon Catalina)

Both sides have accessible areas in boat behind the wall (seating on one side and entertaining bar on other side).

Has anyone had experience putting speakers into the aluminum. Any issues? Cutting? Holding Speakers? Vibration?

Thanks,
Chris

I assume you're talking about flush mount (not box) speakers similar to what you've most likely got in other areas on your boat.

I think you'll be fine, but the aluminum skin is pretty thin, so I'd use some type of backer behind it to give added support and rigidity. If I was doing it, I'd probably have a metal fab shop make about a 12" square piece of aluminum with the appropriate cutout for the speaker. I'd mount that on the backside of the fencing so that the fencing is "sandwiched" between the speaker and the backer. You could do the same thing with a piece of starboard or marine plywood.

The backer idea is a good one, maybe even sandwich a thin rubber membrane between the backer and the skin for vibration dampening.
The other option, if you have any deck space to mount them is to get a couple of "poly planer" speakers and mount them to the deck facing backwards.
They are very weather proof, had them on my old boat off shore in salt water all the time and they were still working good when I sold the boat.
Just google poly planer and tons of options show up.

Some things aren't meant to be put in the rear...including speakers.

Thanks for the ideas guys. Yes flush mount them.

So I'm thinking the rubber/foam gasket material between speaker on outside and the aluminum. Then maybe I'm thinking same rubber foam material on inside and then a wood piece thats 3-4" larger then the opening to sandwich with on the inside. If I had to I could have the wood piece large enough to go all the way to the top inside aluminum railing - If I had to bold to that to shore it up.

Actually - I found this stuff I may put on the entire aluminum panel - sounds like it will stop any vibration and give the aluminum some extra support all the way across http://a.co/d/aVU4I7x

I purchased these 8" Infinity Speakers (as they are exact match to the 6" ones inside the pontoon).

https://www.infinityspeakers.com/infini ... nt#start=1

The reason putting on the rear is to get more sound out into lake when we are out floating (and would also be good for kids tubing). Right now you really have to turn up the speakers inside to hear music when in the water.

I'm going to install a dedicated amp for the 2 rear speakers https://www.crutchfield.com/p_049MA1440 ... 440-4.html
and one of these on the helm in order to independently turn them on/off/up/down vs. the inside speakers. https://www.roswellmarine.com/product/d ... e-control/

Have you considered a blue tooth speaker? Can you link one up to your boat stereo or phone and let it float near you where you swim? That gives you control for the volume while you are in the water and it should disturb others less and use less battery power. You should be able to hear it underwater as well. The cost should be about the same and it's portable and easier. The only downsides are that water skiers won't have tunes and it can be stolen or lost easier.

There are indeed some nice Bluetooth stand alone speakers out there, but it is important to me to be able too "fade" front to back.
When I am towing the kids/grandkids on the tube, I can crank up the rear facing a little, but mediate the onboard speakers - or the opposite.

We are not big on blasting the tunes wide open, but when are way out away from folks - you just gotta do it now and then!

Marc

Do you have a ski/tow bar? If you want rear facing speakers that people can actually hear when you are towing the tube/wakeboarding, etc. then I would look into some dedicated speakers designed for that and mount them to your ski/tow bar. You can go the JL/Wetsound/Excile speaker route but the cost is pretty high (I had the JL's on my Mastercraft boat)...there are some other similar speakers that are more reasonable.


Here is an a pretty good article if you want to consider that route:

https://pontoonopedia.com/speakers-pont ... imini-top/

I did look at possibility of mounting speakers on the tow bar but decided the rear walls would look a lot cleaner. Speakers mounted on tow bar would probably be better than the wall mounts. I look forward to how it turns out … when spring comes.

Holly molly - - Wiskey Trip on that link - - I'd be surprised if skiers can even hear the engine over the music with all those speakers.

cbl1 wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 20, 2018 5:14 pm

Holly molly - - Wiskey Trip on that link - - I'd be surprised if skiers can even hear the engine over the music with all those speakers.

Wow...a rig like that would have a few holes under the waterline in the morning at my quiet lake.