Ideas for speakers covered when pontoon doors are in open position

[newcomlr]

When my 1997 Party Barge has the doors in the full open position, the speakers in the arm rest bases (stock OEM position) are covered by the door panel which mutes the sound and causes rattles.

Looking for ideas or products that would allow speaker sound to come through door panels with out rattling. Thinking some type of vent like a larger speaker cover grill. Ideally it would have louvers so as not to allow rain in when doors are in the closed position and boat is covered.

Thoughts?

 

[EricJRW]

Re: Ideas for speakers covered when pontoon doors are in open position

Pictures?

 

[Pjaudon]

Re: Ideas for speakers covered when pontoon doors are in open position

Close the doors...

 

[airdvr1227]

Re: Ideas for speakers covered when pontoon doors are in open position

Close the doors...

Beat me to it :laugh:

 

[newcomlr]

Re: Ideas for speakers covered when pontoon doors are in open position

Close the doors? Weeelllll golllly, I'd nubber thot o that there idear.

Seriously. We open the doors sometimes so the dog can look out easily and when other boats tie up.

Below is a pic. I was thinking about finding a few big (10") matching speaker grills, cut out a 9" hole in the door panel, then mounting the speaker grills back to back over the hole. Then when the door is open and against the stereo speaker (I think they are 6") the sound will travel through. But I want some thing will be kinda louvered, so when the boat is covered and doors in the closed position, rain won't come in the new openings.

I'm sure someone out there has tackled this before.

Pic is from above the door looking down at the door. I left not open all the way for clarity. On the right is the arm rest and you can see the white speaker cover. When the door is all the way open, the door panel covers the speaker. Today we wedge a chunk of float noodle under the door to keep it in this position, but they tend to work loose.

 

[Malibu Rudder]

Re: Ideas for speakers covered when pontoon doors are in open position

I would not want to cut holes in the doors for exactly the reason you stated about rain getting in etc. I can think of a few options with the first being the easiest and cheapest. 1) Buy rubber door stoppers(household). I use them all of the time on my boat and they are cheap and VERY handy. I open the front door to mine in order to see my automatic anchor. I do not like my door rocking so I merely slide a door stopper under from each side of the door. This allows it to stay at the position like in your picture. I love this quick cheap option. 2) Move the speakers to another location on the boat. Once again I like option #1 best.

They are called wedges . Master Caster Company Master Caster Giant Foot Doorstop MAS00964 | CleanItSupply

 

[Malibu Rudder]

Re: Ideas for speakers covered when pontoon doors are in open position

I do not use the giant ones, I merely placed the link to a larger sized one to give you an idea. I think a pack of two little ones is $2-$3. When not in use I throw them in a cup holder near the location of use. I hope this helps. I use them to hold the doors open with the mooring cover on if I need air circulation to dry the boat out a bit. They keep the wind from blowing the doors around and possibly causing damage.

 

[BigDfromTN]

Re: Ideas for speakers covered when pontoon doors are in open position

I think I would move the speaker to the front of the seat box just under the seat....

 

[newcomlr]

Re: Ideas for speakers covered when pontoon doors are in open position

Moving the speakers under the seats is possible, but complicated by the fact that all the seat bases in the front are the pull out, convertible-into-a-bed type.

I'm kinda doing the wedge thing now, but it still muffles the sound. I think I'll look into some sort of sliding panel for the doors.

Thanks for input!

 

[KRISTIAN1979]

Re: Ideas for speakers covered when pontoon doors are in open position

Could you put the hinged side of the door on the other side so the door latch is on the side where the speaker is at

 

[Grub54891]

Re: Ideas for speakers covered when pontoon doors are in open position

Could you put the hinged side of the door on the other side so the door latch is on the side where the speaker is at

That's what I was thinking. If its hinge is rivited,just drill em out,reverse the door. Fill old holes with new rivits,or ss screw's.
Grub

 

[bav/270w]

Re: Ideas for speakers covered when pontoon doors are in open position

How about just adding another speaker higher up on the arm rest so it will be inline with the opening in of the door panel and upper rail. Just run the wires from the bottom speaker to the top one.

 

[britisher]

Re: Ideas for speakers covered when pontoon doors are in open position

If you do not want to move the speaker, don't want to cut the door panel, need it to be waterproof when closed and the dog to be able to see through the gap, then you are simply looking at devising a way of making the door removable. Some form of lift off hinge. They make split hinges for boats. Iboats have some chrome take apart hinges for $27.00 each. I hope the dogs gonna pay for all these modifications. LOL

 

[newcomlr]

Re: Ideas for speakers covered when pontoon doors are in open position

I can't move to the hinges to the other side of the door since the other side is not square (doors are square on the bow side and angled on the stern side). removable hinged are an interesting idea. I'm thinking also of either replacing the aluminum panel with plexi. Also going to look around home supply stores to see if there are any gable louvered vents that might come in a size that could be made to work.

 

[britisher]

Re: Ideas for speakers covered when pontoon doors are in open position

I can't move to the hinges to the other side of the door since the other side is not square (doors are square on the bow side and angled on the stern side). removable hinged are an interesting idea. I'm thinking also of either replacing the aluminum panel with plexi. Also going to look around home supply stores to see if there are any gable louvered vents that might come in a size that could be made to work.

I don't see how replacing a solid piece of aluminum with a solid piece of plexi will achieve anything. Both will block sound. If you don't want to consider lift off hinges, then what you need is a panel that the dog can look through and will also let sound pass through. A mesh of sorts would do it. Two suggestions.... first is to find some of the metal mesh material that you see on the grilles that are put on Chrysler 300's to make them look like Bentleys. The other is to consider using the screen mesh material for screen doors. It's not expensive, easily cut to size and will handle outdoors. You would have to construct a panel frame to hold the mesh and you could do 2 layers for extra strength, but once again 2 layers may act as a sound muffler. The dog would be able to see through as well.

 

[KRISTIAN1979]

Re: Ideas for speakers covered when pontoon doors are in open position

Why can't you move the hinges my doors are all rounded both sides and I've moved hinges to the other side of my side doors to not block a seat