How quiet or loud in your Jeep? Armorlite Carpet Replacement install with Sound Deadening.

[wibornz]

So I wanted the carpet gone and hoped that I could also quiet the Jeep down some at the same time.

I installed Armorlite Floor Replacement for my JLUR. It took about 4 hours to do. Mind you we were kind of taking our time as it was a nice day out. I think it could have been done faster, but hey it is what it is. It I was only installing the Armorlite product, I think it would have been about 40 minutes. Laying out all of the sound deadening material and rolling it, and piecing it all together was time consuming.

Armorlite for the JL flooring.

Sound deadening from Amazon

So I took the seat out only because I was putting in the sound deadening stuff. Otherwise the seats can be worked around. I wanted the seats out anyways so that I could do a nice Job of cleaning the tub of the Jeep.

I ordered the Armorlite product and the sound deadening on Monday. The Armorlite was ordered from my local off road shop and the sound deadening from Amazon. I have amazon prime. Armorlite shipped it faster than Amazon. Armorlite was in Wednesday morning and the sound deadening was in Thursday.

Stripped the seats and the carpet out. This is super easy to do.

Cleaned up the tub and started installing the sound deadening.

I laid the sound deadening material out on a black blanket in the sun to warm them up. Then you just lay it out and roll it to make it stick to the tub. The instructions called for using a wood roller. I didn't have one so I used a big socket.... Note, I was not done at this point, this is just one of the pics that I snapped.

A quick shot of the Armorlite product

With it installed. Front seat area.

The rear seat area.

So I downloaded an Decibel recorder and grabbed screen shots prior to the install at idle,

then at 35 mph

Then at 60 mph

After the install, I did the same thing. The idle was the same.

At 35 mph

Then at 60 mph

So the Jeep was quieter. I am not a sound engineer, so I am not sure what the numbers actually mean as far as how much quieter the Jeep is, but it does sound quieter.

The biggest thing for me is the easy of cleaning by getting rid of the carpet. Now I can just pull the drain plugs and wash the inside of the Jeep out. We will be living and traveling for approx, 11 months next year and I figured this will help keep the Jeep cleaner and less stinky...

The sound reduction in my opinion was just a bonus.

So the only thing I did't like about the Armorlite product is there is only 4 drain plugs. The Jeep has eight drain plugs...... Not sure why they did not include the other four drain plugs in their design.

So to wrap this post up, I am wondering how loud other Jeeps are. Download a DB reader and post your decibel readings for 35 mph and 60 mph. I run Cooper STT PRO 37x12.5R17 with almost 50,000, a hardtop with the freedom panels replaced with a Bestop Sunrider.

When you post, include the tires and your top setup.



So note

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[SH556JL]

I really wish they made this for the 2 door. This looks sweet and probably a lot more livable then the bed liner option.

 

[Martial Fartist]

3 or 4 db doesn’t seem like a significant trade off for the amount of work you put into this. Not sure how accurate apps are either. A real db meter has a few different setting to accurately read levels.

Either way the washout idea with the drain plugs is nice though. That’s cool

 

[LittleDog]

Was the phone hand-held or mounted during the reading? It was probably picking up more wind noise than anything else at 60mph. I'd try the test again, with a passenger holding the phone near the floorboards, microphone pointing downwards.

Also not a sound engineer, but 2-3 decibels is enough to notice. It'll be extremely subjective, though; since you're blocking lower frequency road noise, (mostly tire hum and exhaust) higher frequency cabin wind-noise may be more noticeable. Luckily, higher frequencies are more annoying the younger you are.

Looks like that Amazon layer is also aluminized on top. I've been interested in doing something like this more for the thermal insulation. That might serve you well in Alaska.

Did the bottom panels fit well with both the Armorlite and extra padding? I heard poor fitment afterwards with the Armorlite alone.

 

[AnnDee4444]

The delible scale is logarithmic. A three decibel decrease is literally half the sound energy.

 

[conFUcius]

@SG19JLUR

Scott can provide input. He’s a sound engineer.

 

[wibornz]

Was the phone hand-held or mounted during the reading? It was probably picking up more wind noise than anything else at 60mph. I'd try the test again, with a passenger holding the phone near the floorboards, microphone pointing downwards.

Also not a sound engineer, but 2-3 decibels is enough to notice. It'll be extremely subjective, though; since you're blocking lower frequency road noise, (mostly tire hum and exhaust) higher frequency cabin wind-noise may be more noticeable. Luckily, higher frequencies are more annoying the younger you are.

Looks like that Amazon layer is also aluminized on top. I've been interested in doing something like this more for the thermal insulation. That might serve you well in Alaska.

Did the bottom panels fit well with both the Armorlite and extra padding? I heard poor fitment afterwards with the Armorlite alone.

I had it mounted on the dash with a 67 Design mount.


I did not run the sound deadening all the way to the edge of the Jeep, I kept it about 1/2 inch from the plastic trim so the the Armorlite stuff would fit better.

The Armorlite stuff fits very good in my opinion.

I think it is noticeable different as far as sound goes.

When I have the time, I am also going to add the sound deadening to the rear tub and rear fender wells.

 

[LittleDog]

I did not run the sound deadening all the way to the edge of the Jeep, I kept it about 1/2 inch from the plastic trim so the the Armorlite stuff would fit better.

See, now that's smart. I guess the other reviewers I saw didn't think of it.

Adding some soundproofing to the front footwells up towards the firewall would probably help a lot to mitigate engine noise. Maybe cut some slits to get up behind the pedals and even back around to the front onto that white frame piece there:

Still not sure were the lower fan vents are though.


Is the Armorlite material more like sticky rubber, or slippy plastic?

 

[BlackGenesis]

Trunk has the least amount of sound isolation. I would start there for those who want best bag for the buck. Wheel area night the #1 culprit, no sound insulation on metal or plastic.

Sprayed few layers of rubberized undercoating followed by truck beadliner onto the Trunk floor and plastic tub (from underside)

 

[SG19JLUR]

The delible scale is logarithmic. A three decibel decrease is literally half the sound energy.

You are correct that the decibel scale is logarithmic, but 3dB is equal to halving or doubling the ELECTRICAL power, not the ACOUSTICAL power. In other words, if a speaker is producing 100dB and you want to increase the output to 103dB, it would take double the power, in watts.

10dB is said to be the approximate equivalent to doubling (or halving) in loudness based on human hearing. There isn't an objective measurement for this. Also, 3dB is said to be the minimum level difference that all humans can perceive. Some people - usually with a well trained ear - can perceive changes as little as 1dB or less, but for most people it takes a 2-3dB change to hear the difference. There is a major difference between a 3dB change and a 10dB change.

The screenshot of the dB meter shows he's using Z weighting, which is basically flat in frequency response. This means that all frequencies are weighted equally. For an analysis such as this, A-weighting would be preferred as it more closely matches the sensitivity of the human ear.

All of that being said, it's apparent from the readings that SOME level of noise reduction was obtained. Whether or not it's worth all the cost and effort would be up to the end user. I have a soft top and run 37" K02's and I don't have any complaints about the noise at highway speeds.

 

[Chupacabra]

3 or 4 db doesn’t seem like a significant trade off for the amount of work you put into this. Not sure how accurate apps are either. A real db meter has a few different setting to accurately read levels.

Either way the washout idea with the drain plugs is nice though. That’s cool

I used an old Radio Shack DB meter along with a NIOSH app on my iPhone before/after my Hotheads install. The app was dead nuts on with the RS DB meter, it seems surprisingly accurate.

Also guessing losing the carpet offset the gains from the sound deadening. If it had the carpet back in with the sound deadener I'm guessing he'd have lost a few more DBs.

 

[Rangemaster]

So I wanted the carpet gone and hoped that I could also quiet the Jeep down some at the same time.

I installed Armorlite Floor Replacement for my JLUR. It took about 4 hours to do. Mind you we were kind of taking our time as it was a nice day out. I think it could have been done faster, but hey it is what it is. It I was only installing the Armorlite product, I think it would have been about 40 minutes. Laying out all of the sound deadening material and rolling it, and piecing it all together was time consuming.

Armorlite for the JL flooring.

Sound deadening from Amazon

So I took the seat out only because I was putting in the sound deadening stuff. Otherwise the seats can be worked around. I wanted the seats out anyways so that I could do a nice Job of cleaning the tub of the Jeep.

I ordered the Armorlite product and the sound deadening on Monday. The Armorlite was ordered from my local off road shop and the sound deadening from Amazon. I have amazon prime. Armorlite shipped it faster than Amazon. Armorlite was in Wednesday morning and the sound deadening was in Thursday.

Stripped the seats and the carpet out. This is super easy to do.

Cleaned up the tub and started installing the sound deadening.

I laid the sound deadening material out on a black blanket in the sun to warm them up. Then you just lay it out and roll it to make it stick to the tub. The instructions called for using a wood roller. I didn't have one so I used a big socket.... Note, I was not done at this point, this is just one of the pics that I snapped.

A quick shot of the Armorlite product

With it installed. Front seat area.

The rear seat area.

So I downloaded an Decibel recorder and grabbed screen shots prior to the install at idle,

then at 35 mph

Then at 60 mph

After the install, I did the same thing. The idle was the same.

At 35 mph

Then at 60 mph

So the Jeep was quieter. I am not a sound engineer, so I am not sure what the numbers actually mean as far as how much quieter the Jeep is, but it does sound quieter.

The biggest thing for me is the easy of cleaning by getting rid of the carpet. Now I can just pull the drain plugs and wash the inside of the Jeep out. We will be living and traveling for approx, 11 months next year and I figured this will help keep the Jeep cleaner and less stinky...

The sound reduction in my opinion was just a bonus.

So the only thing I did't like about the Armorlite product is there is only 4 drain plugs. The Jeep has eight drain plugs...... Not sure why they did not include the other four drain plugs in their design.

So to wrap this post up, I am wondering how loud other Jeeps are. Download a DB reader and post your decibel readings for 35 mph and 60 mph. I run Cooper STT PRO 37x12.5R17 with almost 50,000, a hardtop with the freedom panels replaced with a Bestop Sunrider.

When you post, include the tires and your top setup.



So note

Nice write up TED, I will be ordering mine next month.

 

[Rangemaster]

3 or 4 db doesn’t seem like a significant trade off for the amount of work you put into this. Not sure how accurate apps are either. A real db meter has a few different setting to accurately read levels.

Either way the washout idea with the drain plugs is nice though. That’s cool

I have a sunrider top, and at 65 mph it really does create more noise then the freedom top.

 

[wibornz]

See, now that's smart. I guess the other reviewers I saw didn't think of it.

Adding some soundproofing to the front footwells up towards the firewall would probably help a lot to mitigate engine noise. Maybe cut some slits to get up behind the pedals and even back around to the front onto that white frame piece there:

Still not sure were the lower fan vents are though.


Is the Armorlite material more like sticky rubber, or slippy plastic?

I would not say that it is either. It is grippy but not sticky. Like stuff should easily wash off it but it is not slippy. Though If I sprayed it down with Armor All it would be a little slippy.

 

[wibornz]

I used an old Radio Shack DB meter along with a NIOSH app on my iPhone before/after my Hotheads install. The app was dead nuts on with the RS DB meter, it seems surprisingly accurate.

Also guessing losing the carpet offset the gains from the sound deadening. If it had the carpet back in with the sound deadener I'm guessing he'd have lost a few more DBs.

The back side of the Armorlite product has a heavy like felted thick material. I would think that the Armorlie would be far superior to the normal Jeep carpet as related to sound reduction.

Also as related to me. The quieting down the Jeep was just a bonus to me. I wanted the Armorlite stuff to easy the cleaning of the Jeep. We camp and Jeep a lot and at times it will take an hour or more to clean the carpet. Plus when the carpet gets muddy or wet, it can days to get it clean and dry.

As stated, we will be living out of the Jeep and camper for 11 months next year and I think there may be times where the Armorlite will be a big help in keeping the Jeep cleaner and stink free....er.

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