Where to install Radio in '76 Ski Nautique

Put it in a cooler, put the battery and amp inside, cut holes in it for the speakers. Throw it in the boat when heading to the sandbar

Everything Joe said, (one of the CCF guys has a "cooler radio" many of us have seen and it certainly is "cool". )



But/or, as a possible alternative, instead of putting a battery in the cooler, plug it into the boat with an inconspicuously mounted power socket, like for a phone plug.



Only caution with that vs the self contained battery is running your boat battery down, but you would have to watch that with a boat mounted radio anyway.    

quinner wrote: I just bring my boom box, have a waterproof one that fits right on the dash, use it also when not running at speed. So many great options for portable docking stations out there, that and your IPod/IPhone and you are set!!

I plug my phone/ipod directly in to my JBL amp which powers two rear 6" speakers. Works and sounds great, with the hidden amp by the driver's feet and a long aux cable. Bought some speaker boxes from Amazon and cut to fit under the gunnel on my '82 SN. Wrapped and glued some outdoor carpet from Home Depot and they seem to blend in pretty well. Bought a deep cycle battery to run the whole thing so I don't need the key on clocking hours when we're parked listening to music.

I do the same thing with RCAs directly into the amp. Works great and the I phone has a decent EQ but really that's mostly in amp tuning low and high pass filters.

I will probably end up adding one of the Wet Sounds blue tooth knobs for convenience.. They work great other than I don't like the scale of how the volume goes up and down. They are also the same size to fit in the old systems alarm hole.

I also have a bose color sound blue tooth speaker. Great for in the house and on the porch but a little weak for outdoor activities if you like to jam.

I had the same issue with putting a stereo in the 72. Didn't wanna ruin the Original look and I'd rather listen to Radio Holman Moody anyway. That's a song I never get tired of no matter how many times you play it so I took a page out of reidp's playbook and went with a Bluetooth speaker. I went with the JBL Charge . It sounds great, came in Lime Green, doubles as a device charger, has a Mic if someone calls you while your jammin' and has a headset jack if you wanna connect an ipod to it. (or use the USB port) Bluetooth is the way to go as you're gonna have someone who doesn't like your taste in music and would like to play stuff from there phone. Streaming music is the way to go and its compact with big sound...... Add me to the list of I use it all the time, especially when I'm tinkering in the garage. Funny thing though.....the phone is almost always streaming Mr. Chesney when I'm doing boat related work and a beer is cracked open usually by the 2nd song. Can't figure out why but it does!   

Pete: wish you'd commented on this a few weeks ago. We just cut an aged waterlogged Sunfish into bite-sized pieces with a Sawzall. Quite fun actually, but are you saying a chainsaw may have been a more appropriate tool for such detailed fiberglass work?

You gotta know your limits with a boombox.

Boombox

trbenj just made a great radio in a cooler...I bet he can chime in for parts/cooler/dimension/costs -- if you want to go that route. it runs off a small lawn mower battery

Its times like these that we miss Radio Shack.

I made one with a Polyplaner Amp and two 6.5" speakers for my 80. I made leads to use the boats battery for power. Just ran the I-phone 5 right into the amp and the speaker off the amp all in the coleman cooler. I was getting ready to go with the blue tooth speaker when I changed to the Sport Nautique but it has a sound system in it.

I have a 75 SN and the radio is mounted under the dash between the spotter seat and driver seat. I put speaker is the side where the ski self is. It works great.I have two speakers on each side and a 10 inch sub behind the spotter seat and there is still plenty of room for gear in the boat.