[blaze2100]

Hey all. I've had my JBL basshub trunk sub for a good while, but only recently got an OEM spare. I finally went to put the spare in, and found out that putting the sub inside the spare, it will no longer sit anywhere near flush with the rest of the foam, thus the trunk floor will not sit flat. I went bac \k to my sub + cutout foam to maintain the flat, supported trunk floor. kind of bummed, i thought it would fit flat.

Wondering if anyone else prioritized keeping the spare in the car, and how they're dealing with the uneven floor. I had an uneven floor in my last car due to putting a full sized spare, instead of a donut, and always regretted not investing in building out a whole new trunk floor. For now, I'm prioritizing the sub, and ill just toss in the donut for long trips.

 

[drdreyno]

Pictures please. I have been thinking of putting the JBL in also. Thanks

 

[blaze2100]

Pictures please. I have been thinking of putting the JBL in also. Thanks

I don’t have great pictures right now, there’s another thread or two for guidance on how to install with better pictures, but here’s a pic showing the gap from the center of the spare to the floor, then a pic sort of showing that the sub will sit higher than the floor.

 

[drdreyno]

Thanks for the pictures. I see now

 

[TaLLy]

I ran into the exact same issue. I got a spare from a 2010 legacy which is slightly bigger than the 1st gen spare size but still fits in the spot (145/80r17). I saw this video

which has a spare tire and subwoofer fitting under the floor mat, the thing to note is using a shallow spare tire subwoofer, specifically the cerwin vega VPSTX12. Its the only spare tire subwoofer I've found that is shallow enough to fit but it's like discontinued or something since it's sold out almost everywhere.

Here's a picture of the jbl basshub + spare tire for drdreyno and anyone else following the thread as reference of how much it protrudes above the trunk floor, I'll post a picture tonight of the shallow one to show the current fitment

 

[TaLLy]

Edit: Here are my pictures of the Cerwin Vega Shallow Spare Tire Subwoofer VPSTX12:

 

[Vtor]

Does sub fit more flushed w tire flipped around ?

 

[TaLLy]

Nope, I assume blaze2100 has the spare concave up like I do as well, which is already the side with more space available

 

[MidloHalo86]

Semi relevant here...but does anyone have the 10" sub that comes as a POI? I've got it coming on mine, and was wondering if it's worth it...love it, hate it, so-so?

 

[SkyDog]

I don’t have a subwoofer sitting in my spare — I keep jumper cables there instead — but I just took some measurements to share.

With a 135/80/16 donut spare, there’s about 3/8” clearance between the tire and the underside of the trunk floor, if you don’t use any foam spacers at all.

With my spare, which came out of a Legacy sedan, there’s almost exactly 4” between the wheel’s retaining washer and the underside of the trunk floor. That’s not much space for a sub.

The specs for the Cerwin Vega VPSTX12 “slim” subwoofer say it’s 4.7” deep. Even that would be deeper than I could fit in my donut spare, but I could probably lay something down under the trunk floor to raise it a little and make that sub fit.

 

[GR86Talk]

You would need to build a subfloor with circle cutout for subwoofer to lay the factory trunk floor liner on top. You could probably use some foam board they sell at lowes/home depot, but it may mute some of the sub’s output. You may also be able to make a frame instead, but then you have the risk of it vibrating. You could line the tops/edges with velour tape etc. But either way you will loose some vertical room in the trunk. The other thing you could do is cutout the factory trunk floor liner and have your sub stick out of it In the middle. I saw someone do this before (not a GR86/BRZ though). I would check to see what the price is on a new trunk floor liner before cutting the one you got with the car, that way you can weigh the risk trying it out (cost of going back).

 

[blaze2100]

@TaLLy great pictures, thanks for adding. Exactly the issue.

I was going to try flipping the tire, but as @TaLLy said, I realized flipping it would just raise the center part meaning even less clearance, so didnt actually try it.

The spare itself does sit a little lower than the floor covering, so you would need different top and bottom foam inserts to support the flat floor, I guess if there is a sub that sits low enough, then you would sit the floor on the sub, and that's probably not ideal for lugging things around anyway?

At least i know the problem wasnt just me laying something incorrectly. I'm fine going back to my sub + foam for now, just need to remember to grab the spare for trips.

 

[TaLLy]

I don’t have a subwoofer sitting in my spare — I keep jumper cables there instead — but I just took some measurements to share.

With a 135/80/16 donut spare, there’s about 3/8” clearance between the tire and the underside of the trunk floor, if you don’t use any foam spacers at all.

With my spare, which came out of a Legacy sedan, there’s almost exactly 4” between the wheel’s retaining washer and the underside of the trunk floor. That’s not much space for a sub.

The specs for the Cerwin Vega VPSTX12 “slim” subwoofer say it’s 4.7” deep. Even that would be deeper than I could fit in my donut spare, but I could probably lay something down under the trunk floor to raise it a little and make that sub fit.

Idk if my spare has a different offset or maybe the subwoofer height isn't quite 4.7" or something else, but the subwoofer fits nearly flush with the foam on the sides (see measuring tape picture for straight-ish level). In a perfect world I might shave down the protruding bits of the wing nut, but between the carpeted floor piece and the covering mat, I'm just not bothered to have a perfectly level floor.

 

[blaze2100]

Edit: Here are my pictures of the Cerwin Vega Shallow Spare Tire Subwoofer VPSTX12: View attachment 23044 View attachment 23045

question, did you get the jack off the 2010 legacy too?

 

[SingleMalted]

Hey all. I've had my JBL basshub trunk sub for a good while, but only recently got an OEM spare. I finally went to put the spare in, and found out that putting the sub inside the spare, it will no longer sit anywhere near flush with the rest of the foam, thus the trunk floor will not sit flat. I went bac \k to my sub + cutout foam to maintain the flat, supported trunk floor. kind of bummed, i thought it would fit flat.

Wondering if anyone else prioritized keeping the spare in the car, and how they're dealing with the uneven floor. I had an uneven floor in my last car due to putting a full sized spare, instead of a donut, and always regretted not investing in building out a whole new trunk floor. For now, I'm prioritizing the sub, and ill just toss in the donut for long trips.

I'm just curious, what is the size of your donut/spare tire?

Thanks

 

[TaLLy]

question, did you get the jack off the 2010 legacy too?

No I think it came with my car

 

[SkyDog]

I'm just curious, what is the size of your donut/spare tire?

The tire included with first-generation BRZs was 135/80/16, which is a near-perfect match for the diameter of our cars’ 215/45/17 or 215/40/18 tires.

The wheel has to have a 5x100 bolt pattern and 56.1 mm center bore.

I found a match for all the above at my local pick-a-part. The spare from a Subaru Legacy sedan was a match. The bolt & washer to hold it down came from that donor car, too.

question, did you get the jack off the 2010 legacy too?

The current BRZ, unlike the GR86, comes with a jack and lug wrench. Cross-referencing part numbers on Subaru’s parts site (parts.subaru.com), our jack & lug wrench was used in first- and second-gen BRZs, but no other Subaru models. Based on that, I think it’s unlikely the jack from a Legacy will fit the cutouts in our cars’ foam trunk liners.

…but if you want to take that foam piece out and test-fit jacks from other cars at the yard, you could potentially find something. (Maybe the jack was originally supplied by Toyota, which would explain its uniqueness among Subaru models?)

In case anyone wants to source the Subaru jack & lug wrench, here are the part numbers:

jack: 97032CA002
(supercedes 97032CA000, 97032CA001)

jack handle: 97033CA000

lug wrench: 97017AJ000

 

[GR86Talk]

@TaLLy How do you like your Cerwin Vega sub? Does it sound good, more hard hitting, or boomy? How low in Hz does it go with actual output (real world performance, not cutoff spec)? Also is it sealed, passive radiator, or ported? One spec said it has a passive radiator (It may have been the full size version).

 

[TaLLy]

@GR86Talk I really like it. The jbl basshub is rated at 200w rms and with a flat eq from the stock head unit, and if u turned it past like 20% gain it would be uncomfortably unbalanced and start rattling things. The cerwin one is listed at 150w rms and I have the gain around 50% or so and it's more than enough for my usual mix of alt rock and edm, I'm sure even this shallow unit has more than enough power for any basshead in this small of a car cabin.
I would best describe it as pretty hard hitting which is what I was going for. My intention is for the door woofers to handle the mid bass and the spare tire sub to handle the sub bass and make it so that i really felt the bass drops in the music i listen to, which it does very easily.
I'm planning to write a walkthrough/guide in the next week or two of my full speaker install and I'll have some videos w/ and w/o the sub for comparison, or at least as good as a Samsung S23+ microphone can pick up.
The sub is active and I think ported, there are a bunch of small vents on the underside that you can see in the product listing page: VEGA Shallow 12" 150W RMS Spare Tire Powered Subwoofer

To tell what frequency the sub goes down to, is playing something like this good enough? If not, do you have a recommendation for what I can use instead?

Also disclaimer, I'm no audiophile, just a dude that likes his music to sound "good"

 

[remywizard]

If you want to test the frequency response of the sub I recommend getting a umik and use that with REW. I use that for my theater and it is great. If I end up getting one of these subs I will be using those things to setup and measure the system.