NOTE: In post 24 below I added pictures of another installation of the speaker boxes, color-matched, with a flush mounted grille on a red 2005 CVO FLHTC--the look is fantastic, and the owner reports that the sound is better than the 5.25" speakers he had installed in the lowers previously. Also, since posting this original thread, I've wired the speakers (the Arc 125.2 amp drives the fairing lower speakers, the HK head unit drives the front speakers and Hog Pod tweeters and the fader control is operational) and am very pleased with the sound improvement; definitely know there are speakers in the lowers for a fuller sound.

November 18th added Note 2: In post 55 below are pictures of my installation using the HD speaker grilles to replace the Infinity speaker grilles initally installed. That post also has the part nos. for the speakers, grilles, etc.

NOTE 2: If you are considering using HD's OEM 2011CVO Street Glide speakers in the fairing and/or lower fairings, they are 1 ohm impedance speakers and may cause problems if you wire them to the HK radio or an add-on amp since the HK radio is 2 ohm impedance and most add-on amps will be 2 or 4 ohm impedance. I'm not a tech or audio expert, but I've read about impedance matching between the speakers and audio source (radio or add-on amp).

Ever since I saw the 2011 CVO Street Glide's fairing lower speakers and learned they are 6.5" speakers, I was interested in seeing if the speaker housings would work with regular, vented fairing lowers--THEY DO!!! In HD terminology, the "speaker boxes" replace the glove boxes in vented lowers. Simple really, just remove the glove boxes and install the speaker boxes.

The part nos. for the speaker boxes, unpainted black plastic, are:

57410-11 Left primed Speaker box
57419-11 Right primed Speaker box

List price is $31.40 ea. Zanotti's price is $21 and change, plus shipping of course.

Here's a picture of the boxes pre-installation:

http://

Since I already had Infinity Reference 6.5" speakers in the fairing, I went with the same in the fairing lowers, but also purchased the speaker grills for them. Happily, HD's hole pattern for mounting the speakers was the same as the Infinity speakers, so no drilling required.

In the picture above, you'll notice a couple of wiring harnesses. These are from the CVO Street Glide parts book for the fairing lower speakers. They're part no. 72676-11 and list for $7.65 ea. The sealed end uses a GM Delphi/Packard GT 150 mating connector. I bought them here:

http://www.bmotorsports.com/shop/pro...roducts_id/861

I bought the HD harnesses because they have a weather seal and conduit. I cut-off the pin ends you see and used regular insulated female spade connectors for the speaker connections. Ordinary speaker wire would probably be adequate for the purpose.

Here's a picture of the right side speaker and speaker box installed:

http://


And another of the right side showing how it mates with the rest of the fairing lower:

http://

Here's the left side:

http://

And another view of the left side:

http://

Because of the raised grills, I didn't use HD's mounting screws and used, temporarily, stainless sheet metal screws. Also, because the speakers need to rest on the speaker boxes, I'll need to install spacers. Of course, these issues are avoided if you use HD's speakers, grilles, and screws:

HD parts: 6.5" speaker, p/n 77034-11 includes grille and screws, $177.78 for two, list price.

I haven't looked at the Service Manual for the '11 CVO SG, so I'm not familiar with how the speaker wiring exits the speaker box. Since I'd previously installed and removed (sold) the Hog Tunes faring lower speaker kit, my fairing lowers had already been drilled per HT's directions, but because the speaker boxes hadn't been drilled, I used the HT holes as a guide. However, because of the shape of the speaker boxes, the holes were drilled (one for each speaker box) at an angle relative to the previously drilled HT holes. Here are HT's instructions for their fairing lower speaker kit. The instructions for drilling the fairing lowers for the speaker wires are Step #3:

http://www.hogtunes.com/manuals_file...14_English.pdf

The orignal HT holes through the fairing lowers, and the new holes through the speaker boxes, work well; accommodating the wire harness and its conduit running inside each speaker box. The harnesses are very long relative to the distance from the speakers to the center of the engine guard and up a few inches where I intend to connect the weather sealed connectors to an as yet unassembled harness to carry the signal from amp/HK radio to the speakers. So, the excess harness is pulled inside the speaker boxes behind the speakers.

Note: HD just introduced an audio kit (p/n 76000209) that includes the speaker boxes, and the installation instructions provide directions on how and where to drill the hole in each fairing lower for the speaker wire. Here's a link to the instructions; see page 6 and figure 4:

http://www.harley-davidson.com/en_US...ts/-J05408.pdf

Apart from the harness to be assembled to mate with the harnesses already installed, the project is very straight forward. In fact, the HT instructions in the link above will serve you well if you undertake this project, at least intially, since you remove the fairing cap to access three screws that secure the glove box to the lowers. I found that I needed to remove the fairing lowers to access two of the three torx screws that secure the glove box to the lower fairing. Perhaps with a special or fabricated torx driver, the fairing cap can be removed and the lowers can remain on the bike. Frankly, the lowers weren't difficult to remove; the two screws that secure the fairing cap and secure the lowers to the engine guard are removed as mentioned, and the Torx screw and nut with the clamp at the bottom is easily accessible.

Also, if you want to retain the vents, you'll need to remove them from the glove boxes and reinstall them on the speaker boxes. It's not difficult since the vents are secured with a bolt and lock nut (3/8" or 7/16") with a couple of geared washer-type discs (which provide the "click" when the vents are moved), and a thick spacer and washer.

Wish I could report on the sound, but I didn't have the right connectors to complete the install. I have the Arc 125.2 amp which currently drives the fairing speakers. Based on my prior unsatisfactory experience with the HT fairing lower speaker kit w/ the HT amp (nice product, but I couldn't hear the speakers running down the road), I'm going to wire the fairng lower speakers to the amp, and connect the fairing speakers to the head unit. Basically, I'll wire the fairing lower speakers as "rear" speakers (with the Arc amp), the faring speakers as the "front" speakers, and use the fader control of the HK radio to adjust the volume between the two pairs of speakers. (Note: the 2011 CVO SG speakers are not wired for fader control; all speakers share the same left/right signal.)

The unpainted plastic looks better in person than in the pictures. If the fairng lower speakers work well, and I'm hopeful they will, I'll disassemble the speakers and boxes, and have the boxes color-matched this winter when I have some other paint work done on the bike. (Edit: I have since road tested the set-up and the sound is a significant improvement over the faring speaker-only set-up; very pleased with this project.)

Bottom line: the 2011 CVO Street Glide speaker boxes will fit vented lowers just as they do on the CVO SG; they will accept aftermarket 6.5" speakers; the removal of the glove boxes and replacement with the speaker boxes is an easy DIY project; the cost the speaker boxes is modest (actually, cheap) in the HD world; and, even unpainted, the speaker boxes look fine IMO.

I'll try to get the harness done in the next few days--I'm anxious to hear the speakers and will update the thread at that time or simply post a new thread.

Carl

Note: Since this original post I've wired everything up and the sound is great! Very, very happy with this mod.

 

Damn good write-up, Carl.

 

Carl, WOW another great writeup and those look sweet! Let us know how they sound!

 

Carl, will these fit the earlier non-vented lowers?

 

Unfortunately, no. The shapes of the vented and non-vented lowers for purposes of glove boxes are different. See page 342 for the non-vented glove boxes fitment information which states they're for non-vented lowers only.

Carl

 

Excellent write up... thanks!

 

Other than having vents, the lowers can't be shaped much different, externally. I have a friend who has the vented style and it will be an easy check to see if mine will fit his or vice-versa, or if it's doable. Good write up, thanks.

 

JohnnyD, apart from the shape for accommodating the glove box, the mounting hardware to secure the upper portion of the fairing lower to the engine guard is designed to work with the glove boxes; and, the speaker boxes are molded to accommodate the threaded studs of the fairing cap for the nuts that attach to the studs. Hope you can find a way to make the speaker boxes work on the non-vented lowers.

Carl

 

Excellant write up, thank you.

 

Thanks for this. I was debating on the Hog Tunes setup, but this looks like a great alternative.