MattH's Boat Project (It begins...)
 

Hey all. Figured now that I actually own the boat I'll make a thread of what I am doing to it. After buffing it and giving it a good scrub down its time to get my fall/winter project going.

First up: Finish the stereo. Nice to have some good tunes going while I do everything else this winter right??
I've got the speaker wires now and the amp should be here any minute from UPS. Here's a question for you guys: Does it really matter if you mount the speakers on the front or rear bar of the tower? I went to mark where I was going to drill and inspected the inside of the gunwale and its kinda narrow if i were to drill near the rear attachment and go up that tube but it may be doable. Just wonder if the angle would be too sharp for the wires and maybe cause a short later down the road. Here's a pic of the inside of the gunwale by the rear base of the tower
http://i890.photobucket.com/albums/a...6B7A4054E6.jpg

Has anyone ever had the speaker wire go up the front tube and then transition to the rear tube via the crossbars at the top? Or would it be fine to just install the speakers on the front of the tower?
Here's what im talking about. Orange is the last option i mentioned
http://i890.photobucket.com/albums/a.../boatwires.jpg

Kind of a dumb question but oh well. Just don't wanna be the tard who installed the speakers all funky :-P Amp just arrived, gotta go do some inspection now!!

I am not sure you can keep the wire inside the tube and transition from the front tube back to the back tubes. Are you planning on having to fold the tower back or forward? IF you are going to fold rear(disconnect the front legs) than I would run the wires up the rear legs. Also, if you mount the speakers on the back tube they are closer to the rider and have less of a chance of blasting the passengers in the rear seat out.

Yeah I kinda thought that. Think that gunwale is too narrow for that harness? I mean with the outer insulation and each wire being insulated too itll probably be fine with a sharp corner like that. Just don't want to drill the hole and have it not work. Then again theres the thickness of the fiberglass and the thickness of the top mount i could keep in mind. It'll probably work at the rear base. I'll give it a shot and post pics when the stereo is up. Just checked out my amp and think im a little short on power wire and need a fuse and another RCA cable. It's been a really long time since I've done a stereo install, so when I go to ground the amp, where would you attach it to in the boat? Would you just run it back to the battery?? Pics to follow! Thanks Brett!

Matt are you in Sonoma County? Most of the towers connector tubes are closed, you can run wires through them so we always run them on the blue path you drew out in your photo.

No I don't live there but I bought the boat from there. You seen it around? I was just wondering if that wiring option was a possibility because the tower is not one piece. At the top there is a separate piece which contains the cross bars and connects the tower pieces together. Was thinking i could pull it apart and feed the wires through maybe. That's what i did with my dads boat because the vacuum and fish line trick just wasnt working and it had a separate top piece. I usually keep the tower up during storage because i keep it out at the airport in the hangar and theres plenty of space but since ive been house sitting at my parents place i put it in the garage and had to fold it forward instead of backwards. How much space should I give between the tower base and the thru-hull hole?

A service connector at either of your proposed locations would allow for the tower harness to be disconnected so the tower could be folded either forward or rearward. So from that perspective, I do not see an issue with either location.

Real quick before I drill the thru-hull. How far from the tower base should I put the terminal? I don't want to jeopardize the strength of the glass it's mounted to

The amp ground goes to the (-) side of battery.

Hey all. Got most everything out in except when I went to put the wire through the tower, it started bunching up so I took a section of the tower off and found this...
http://i890.photobucket.com/albums/a...2682161B11.jpg
This section has a solid connecting piece instead of hollow tube. So would you guys just make a hole on each side of the solid piece to jump from from tube to tube or make an external wire??
I tested the speakers and they're LOUD! :)

I think that is your only option isn't it?

im just full of dumb questions lately lol. lack of sleep does crazy things to dumb people. guess external wire would be kinda ugly. jump holes it is :p

If the tower disconnects there you may want to put some disconnect fittings in your wire, too.

just jump the wire before the tower break. Then dress it with some black flex loom.

http://www.princessauto.com/hlr-syst...09/8209249.jpg

Man I would see if you can remove that solid insert and drill a hole through the center to run your wires through.

ew! Nothing says ghetto install like flex loom (and believe me I've got some too, but not hanging off my tower).

I'd use techflex if the world is going to see the wires.