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Chris Hilbert (right) is presented an award from the Air Force recruitment office for his efforts in completing the build.
Force of Sound
By decking out an Air Force recruiting vehicle, Sound Decisions gained widespread attention and new avenues for business. WORDS BY TED GOSLIN
Every now and then a build will come in to a shop that plants major seeds for the future. That scenario happened for Chris Hilbert and his shop, Sound Decisions, out of Racine, Wisc. After completing a stealth box build for a client, he returned with a bigger job. That client was Master Sergeant Chris Moore of the 347th Air Force recruiting squadron out of Oak Creek, Wisc.; the job was to turn a 2014 Ford Expedition into a recruiting tool for the Air Force. According to Hilbert, it’s working. “Moore has trucks similar to that in Texas and had great success with that. He was really happy. He asked us for estimates and went with it,” Hilbert said. “It needed to be loud, visible on the outside
20 Mobile Electronics November 2016
and have lots of lights. The truck got tons of exposure at Oshkosh. The biggest thing was to get them more recruiting. Chris gets paid commission for the more people he signs up for the Air Force. He said this has made his job incredibly easy.” But the job was anything but easy for Hilbert and his team, comprised of installers Ian Glacio and Dave Northart. Due to the truck being leased, anything installed had to be easily removable once the lease ended. The build included a 20-inch flat panel screen and Xbox that were supplied by the Air Force. Audio equipment included one JL Audio XD1000/5v2 amplifier, four JL Audio 12-inch subwoofers, one JL Audio MM100S (marine control center) and two
JL Audio MX650-CCX-SG-TLD-B component coaxial systems. Stinger, Compustar, iDatalink and Cobra rounded out the mix with various accessory products. Overall, the build took 10 days to complete. Although creating a custom build that is easily removable is a rare feat for the shop, they were well prepared thanks to their previous training with Sonus, learning techniques that would come in handy with this and other builds. “I paid for my guys to go through training at Sonus two years ago. They implemented lots of techniques from that in this truck. There’s fiberglass in the rear panels where the speakers are. Two screws hold each one of those panels in place completely. Using what we have there, it’s easy to come out if we have to work on it,” Hilbert said. “We knew the Xbox had problems with overheating, that’s why we made mesh compartments so it doesn’t overheat. They say they’ve run the system for as long as 12 hours without having to start the vehicle. Being in the back of the truck, it’s important so you don’t gas people out when hey