If you’ve been on my Instagram or watched my youtube video, you’d know that I drive a third-gen Toyota Tacoma(specifically 2017). I take my truck on long-distance travel, camping, offroad, and everywhere in between. I listen to a lot of different types of music between destinations and wanted to enhance my audio experience. The non-JBL audio sounds decent enough for stock but it can use a bit more bass. I wanted to add an amp and sub but I wanted to spend as little as possible. This lead me to down a rabbit hole of research on sound upgrades available for the Tacoma.
I looked at systems by OEM Audio and Tacotunes. I contacted Tacoma renowned, Mr Marv. for custom boxes. All these systems appear to be great but were way out of my budget. I just wanted more bass and didn’t need a full speaker upgrade. I decided to piece together a system to save on cost.
Total Cost: ~$250 and 3 hours of my time. This is everything you need to add an amp and sub to your second(2005-2015) or third-gen(2016-2021) Toyota Tacoma.
The install process was very easy. I followed Jesse Rizo’s instructions on Youtube and it was fairly straight forward. I did the job myself so I had a bit of trouble feeding the power through the firewall using Jesse’s method. Instead, I followed RobTacoTunes tutorial of removing an existing plug to get the power cable through. I think this was probably the hardest part of this project and definitely the most frustrating doing it alone.
The sub fits perfectly behind the back driver side seat with the plastic cubby removed. I originally saw an amazon review of a second-gen owner with the sub install so I figured it would fit in my third-gen – it did. This gave the appearance of a custom hidden box without the huge premium. The seats lock back without any issues whatsoever.
I left the larger middle seat/passenger-side cubby in place and stuck the amplifier on using double-sided tape rated for 10 lbs.
Unlike other installation videos, I did not drill any holes into the cubby, nor did I drill a hole for the ground wire. I ran the wiring behind the cubby into the existing factory opening. The ground wire was attached to a n existing nut and bolt behind the cubby.
All in all, it was a pretty easy project and you can totally do it on your own. I’m very happy with the results. I’ve added the right amount of bass that I wanted. I have it configured to be loud enough to bump but not loud enough to rattle my truck like a tin can. The appearance look pretty much stock. The wires are all hidden away and no one is the wiser.
For around $250, the system sounds great. Especially for hip-hop, R&B, and EDM however, the bass is very subtle playing rock music.
Check out my other builds here.