Motor Home setup

[HCVP]

WARNING*****LONG THREAD!!!!!*****LOL

Hey guys, a mate i work with has a 21 seat Toyota Coaster, which he has removed all the seats from, and fully converted it to a motor home. He knows i'm quite into car audio, and has asked me if i'd be interested in installing a stereo system for him. I'm fairly confident with the whole instalation side of things, but there's a couple of things i've mentioned to him, that i'm not 100% sure on, so i was hoping some of you guy's could help me out here.

To start things off, I've reccomended a basic entry level head unit to him,(<$100) as he is in his mid 40's, and isn't into to IPOD, bluetooth ect, basically all he would require would be radio, and CD, and obviously the less features, the less difficulty he would have navigating his way through it.

He currently has the factory front speakers, and a set in the rear which were installed at some stage by a previous owner. (I'm yet to inspect it to find out what size speakers, mounting depth ect..)

I've suggested to him we begin with replacing both set's of speakers, and that we should focus on the front speakers, with the addition of an external amplifier, and look at just running the rear speakers from the head unit's in-built amp. Main reason being, is that the rear speakers are at the very back of the bus, being some 20 feet? away form the cabin, and would only be heard once the vehicle is stationary, and therefore wouldn't need to be overly loud as there won't be any road/intrusion noises to overcome. Once the vehicle is stationary, he could simply adjust the fader to the rear, should he wish to listen to the radio ect...

Now for my questions,(laugh away...) is there a correct way to run 20 odd feet of speaker wire either side from the front of the bus, to the rear?

Should i consider installing a set of splits in the front, or keep it i simple with a decent set of coaxials, or even the possibility of a set of enclosed, overhead mounted 6x9's or similar? i was thinking as far as bang for his buck goes, a set of amplified 6x9's, enclosed, would offer more volume overall, remembering that it's a large vehicle. I think if installed neatly, i think he would appreciate the extra volume, as oposed to any SQ gain, not that i reckon he could pick it anyway, coming form his current setup.

Any ideas or suggestions you guy's might have, or any experience with a simialr install, would be greatly appreciated. Last of all, he has a budget of around $500, which i know isn't much, but i've told him we'll look around, and try to get our hands on some ex-demo gear..

[sweefu]

hey mate, sounds like fun haha
in my opinion you just run the speaker cable down to the back of the motorhome, but i could be wrong.. also, have you talked to him about adding another set of speakers perhaps in the middle of the cabin? Might be good if he likes to listen to music while he is in there, will sound more 'rounded' than just the speakers at the rear

[HCVP]

Yeah did consider adding a another set, then i started thinking about phase, being so far apart from one set to another, and then to the head unit? Phase is something i know very little about, and was something else i wanted to ask about..

[Philthy]

Is he going to listen to more music while driving or stationary?
If he will listen to a lot of music while hanging out drinking beer at the caravan park then I would suggest more of a focus on speakers in the living area.

Boxed 6x9s can go pretty hard from what I've listened to so they would be a cheap option.
You shouldn't run into any problems with massive runs of speaker wire as far as i know

[HCVP]

Well to begin with he was mainly focused on the rear sound, but i said to him, being stationary, even if you only had one set of speakers (most likely boxed 6x9's mounted in the corners of the ceiling, would offer adequete volume for most situations. Once underway, being in a bus, it's going to be pretty noisy, he's going to need some decent speakers, suitably amplfied, to overcome all the noise (pretty sure it's a diesal too..)

[Fonzie]

I'd be a bit iffy about long runs of speaker wire TBH... From no particular experience, I'd just assume there would be interference of some sort. Perhaps run it along the floor of the camper first and have a listen with the engine running? If it comes out bad, run the speaker wire through the roof.

[sweefu]

+1 for roof, if it has easy trim to get to i'd go with that. where will you mount amplifiers if any?

[HCVP]

Not sure yet on where i would mount the amp/s. I'm going to have a look at the bus after work some time this week, and then hopefully i'll get a few ideas.

[sweefu]

hopefully find a nice spot close to the h/u . i've spent some time in motorhomes and usually would be a spot behind the driver/passenger seat

[Tasmaniak]

run the speaker wires wherever the hell you please mate. But don't use the stuff that comes with them. It won't hurt to buy some stuff thats a little thicker. Failing that...whats wrong with the speaker wire thats in there?

[HCVP]

Well the Bus is around a 95 model, i think. So were talking at least 10 year old wiring. Even if we decide to not use an external amp, i'd still upgrade the wiring at the very minimum.

[bezz]

Long wiring shouldnt be much of an issue as long as its not run right next to rca or power wiring. People wire audio systems in houses using 'average' thickness cable (16-18awg?) with no problems.