Come take a ride on the lake with Scott Erickson and his 2007 Supra Launch SSV.
Sales representative Scott Erickson has worked in the mobile electronics industry for almost a score of years. That said, when it came time to outfit his '07 Supra Launch 22SSV wakeboard boat, this lucky Arizonan had all the hookups. If anyone deserves a tub like this, it's Erickson-he and his family use the boat frequently on weekends, simultaneously enjoying "wakeboarding, scurfing and tubing" while showing off its mainly Kicker gear. "It has been a great promotional tool when out on the lake having fun," Erickson says.
As a demo boat for Kicker, the gear is pretty one-sided, but that doesn't mean Erickson didn't put any thought into his choices. Gerry Shanks of GS Customs in Tucson, AZ, oversaw the one-month install. Starting in the front, a Clarion DXZ765MP serves as the source unit. This water-, sun- and salt-resistant product is an ideal choice for this heavily used water toy. Also upfront is a pair of Kicker RS652's. Mounted as coaxials in the bow, "the RS652's are a very bright, loud speaker producing plenty of midbass," Erickson says. They also "sound very good off-axis," he adds.
Further back, two more pairs of Kicker RS652's are mounted as coaxials in the midcabin. Overhead in the tower, Erickson departed from Kicker and opted for a pair of Fusion Wake's Phoenix 3-way Combos. These were chosen "for their sound quality and loudness." For subs, Erickson returned to Kicker for a pair of S10L5-2's. With 0.8ft3 allocated for each sub, the LED-illuminated fiberglass enclosure tucks behind the amprack in the passenger-side storage area. An additional S10L5-4 sits in another 0.8ft3 fiberglass enclosure underneath the cockpit.
Three Kicker amplifiers sit in an amprack in the passenger-side storage area. The ZX1500.1 drives the two S10L5-4 subs at a 2-ohm load. A ZX700.5 drives the two pairs of RS652's in the midcabin with two of its channels, while the remaining two channels drive the pair of RS652's in the bow. Lastly, the fifth channel covers the additional sub in the cockpit area. For the tower speakers, a ZX550.2 has amplification covered.
For this Kicker boat only Kicker accessories would do. Kicker KS16 16-gauge speaker wire and KS12 12-gauge wire runs beneath paneling along with SI series interconnects, PWB050 and PWG050 1/0-gauge power cable as well as PWB8250 8-gauge cable. Three batteries provide power: two Kinetik HC2000's in parallel and the factory marine-grade Optima BlueTop, all of which are wired to the selectable marine battery isolator. Selecting between the two battery sources allows Erickson to drop anchor, crank the system and still be able to start his boat when it's time to head back to the docks. In the passenger storage area behind the woofer enclosure (which Erickson points out is the driest possible location), the Kicker fuse holder and distribution block were installed.
Other than cruising the lakes on weekends and going on camping trips with the Erickson family, this Supra has been seen at the Kicker Big Air Bash during the 2006 SEMA Show. If you hear it on a lake when you're next in the Southwest, you could get a taste of any genre of music. "I like everything but rap," Erickson reveals, "but my son is starting to listen to the hip-hop." Those subs should come in handy.