DIY ice chest stereo???

Stereo for the river eh? Seems a little weird. This forum is more about quality sound reproduction, rather than compromised sound reproduction in wet outdoor conditions; you probably won't find much help here.

I really can't see this working out with externally mounted drivers. Perhaps you could stuff a boom box into an ice chest and create some sort of transmission line for the sound so they are not directly exposed to the elements. Past that I'd recommend talking to your friends or wearing a weatherproof iPod.

Good idea, one certainly wouldn't want to be distracted by the sounds of nature while floating down a river....

Heres some drivers if you want to build it yourself http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showd...number=310-075

Haha

basically what i was thinking...

and yeah, take those "waterproof" monitors armystud linked, some sort of battery powered amp... voila?

FIY IMO those girls next to the jamraft or whatever are paid to be in the shot... not to mention 16. If you're looking for girls and music I wouldn't advise a two thousand dollar floatie with some boat cones.

Listening to you partying with your friends isn't on the menu?

You could get some other parts and pieces from a shower radio/cd player...

And add this speaker:

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/pshow...TOKEN=24691649

Wow. That's interesting to say the least, I'm boggled by their target market v. demand and that it's available from PE. Something tells me the $600/ea price tag isn't going to go over well with Ben

I agree! Just depends on how important he feels those floating ladies are...

What we need is a remote controlled, self powered, wireless, submersible, 10" coax, with built in Ipod dock, and beer tap.

snag a marine battery, a couple of marine boat speaker and a cheap deck and encase it (or get a marine deck).
Since you are going down a river, musicality isn't too high a priority, just something that doesn't sound awful.

I used to run a complete marine setup in my 77 Bronco. normally ran it topless and it rains almost everyday in Gainesville during the summer and the stuff held up fine.

Just don't drink the river water - with all that beer and no one getting out of the water to go to the bathroom...

Very true, gotta pay to play

look into some marine speakers made by car audio makers such as alpine, kenwood, and so on, use a marine deck from one of those companies also usually has a cover for the face, then build enclosures behind the speakers, get a 10" marine sub and a marine amp and build enclosures into the ice chest. 2 for the speakers, 1 for the sub, thats about as basic as it gets nothing terribly hard.

If you are looking to diy, what is wrong with the monitors I suggested? They would work about as well as anything. You don't want a speaker to have its motor exposed to the inside of the ice chest, otherwise you will not only dump heat into the ice chest, but subject the back of the speaker to condensation that it was not meant to deal with. You will have to cut holes in the ice chest, but after you mount the speakers, you will have to put some sort of insulating foam around it to maintain your chests R factor. Other than that, it should work great.

Someday I would love to do an ultimate weatherproof hi fi system on a ski boat. Lambda woofers, PHL mids and some B&C tweeters, all totally weatherproof, insanely high output and spl.

Use plastic (poly) coned drivers, seal everything really well, and maybe a battery and a Sonic Impact T-amp. It should work for what you want.

Not sure how much bass you're going to get back from that single 10 inch in an outdoor setting, but I guess it's better than nothing when you're next to it...

I was going to do this, also my freind use to make them and i used to help him out. I also float the guadalupe. This is very simple to do and it still can hold beer not much but it can. I dont have plans for it but I cant help out as best I can it also can play your ipod

For the battery, go with one or maybe two (in parallel) Sealed Lead Acid 12v batteries like these....

http://www.zbattery.com/B-B-12V-8Ah-...&category=3031

They will not leak out any acid, even if flipped over.....


As for putting them in the cooler..... Just get a medium sized cooler and use a router or rotozip to cut out holes for two speakers in the lid, or high up on the sides... then use some waterproof silicone caulk around the rim when you seat them in the holes...

Waterproof Speakers...

http://www.rocktheboataudio.com/cart...&action=search

Waterproof Head Units:

http://www.rocktheboataudio.com/html/35131.html

Let your imagination run wild


You may be able to work with this floating cooler that I saw for $50 here...

http://www.coolfloat.com/

But it might be too small to fit all of the stuff you need for a stereo...

RMG

PS: If you live in Japan or have a friend there, you can just buy this cool waterproof media player:

http://www.digitaltechnews.com/news/...aw33_floa.html

Only $170!

i had seen a few of these at the river and a few other places so i decided to give it a try. i got the ice chest for $10 and all the speakers for $40. I think it turned out really well. i had a really nice deck from my last car and so i used it, which allows the ipod to charge while being used which is a big plus. i did alot of brain storming and tried to think of all the bells n whistles that i could add to make this the ultimate ice chest stereo. please give me feed back. i hope this helps you cause i couldnt find anything to use as a guide so i just made it up as i went....


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Looks pretty good. I'm guessing it's no longer useful as a cooler? How much play time do you get out of it? Have you thought of adding solar panels to the top to help with charging and extended play time?

Side note: The faitalpro woofers, including the 12pr300's that Augerpro is selling, are rated for all weather use.
*edit* And they weigh less than 6lbs each.

You should look into Lipo batteries over lead acid. Lipo are the best battery you can get now for power to weight ratio. I fly them in my helicopters and they have a TON of power for their size and weight.

The packs im using right now are 2200 mah and they put out a consistant 12 amps for 5 minutes. The packs i use only weigh 7 oz.

If you figure about how many amps the radio pulls and how long you need it to play for you could probobly get a better pack that weighs a whole lot less then a lead acid.

Another good battery is the type those drills builders use when building homes. Those are a little more heavy but pretty common you may have a charger and a few already in your garage.

Lithium Ion

With rubber surround, not foam, preferred.

When looking to soup up a power wheels, I came across those LiPo batteries. I found some the size of motorcycle batteries, but are pretty expensive!

I have built some stuff like this and the best battery power is to find an old battery and chager from an old bag cell phone. It will run a car radio for hours, then just add a couple of cheap marine speakers. These are easy to come up with and fit in most coolers with ease.