how to pull wires for tower speakers?

wanting to add some tower speakers to my 03 moomba LSV.
the right side has the nav light wires, the left side has nothing, it does have the opneing at the base of the tower(no opening in the hull though)

after drilling the hull hole, whats the best way to feed the wires up to the top of the tower? and then how do i get them to the rear bar of the "rad-a-cage"?

pick of tower

Once you have your in an out holes tape a vacuum cleaner over one of the holes. Switch it on and feed some string in the other hole. Hold on to the string tight because you will be surprised how fast it will disappear through he tower and into the vacuum. Takes 5 mins tops from start to finish

Once you drill your hole on the bottom and top, get a kite string and a vacuum. Start feeding the string in the top, and put the vac on the bottom. it'll suck that string through in no time.

Darren, you beat me to it.

Make sure to deburr the drilled holes really well.

hmm unique. i figured a pull wire/string would work best but coulnt figure out how to get one in there. nice idea.

any others? anybody do something different?

thanks!

No need for any other ideas Cory, it works great. I had a 01' Mobius V. We ran the wires like that. Your going to have to leave the connectors in the front tube though. I have no idea how you would get the wires to the rear tube on that tower.

yeah thats what it was looking like. i guess they wouldnt be so bad on the front tub.

i thought about runing the wires out the top of the front tub just in front of the front to rear braces. run them on top of the front to rear supports/braces and into the cans.

if you mount the cans on he rear, drill the holes in the front right by the can so the wire will be right there... the can will cover most of the area between the front and rear tube...

also drill the holes on the bottom or the tube, so water wont get in...

I have an 08 LSV and although my tower is different i had the same dilemma. You have to run the wire up the front tube as there is no way to run it though the rear tube and make it look nice.

Next is you need to think about where you really want the cans, Pods excedra.

What would look best is not the easiest.

Mount the cans on the rear bar, its the best looking spot and allows the most headroom in the boat, also this generally wont interfere with the Bimini or a Z5 if you go that direction later.

If you have cans that wont allow a wire less look then you should drill 2 holes in the tower. Left and right respectively. Drill these holes close to the center braces that go from the front tube to the rear tube. Feed each can threw these and then use plastic wire cover and it will look very clean and mimic the factory Nav light on the tower.

If you have wireless looking towers such as the Sampsons/ Exile XM7s then you would put 1 hole right next to the nav light hole in the tower. Feed both lines threw this to the back tube. Then drill for each speaker in the rear tub feeding the lines in the tube to a single hole by the nav light on the rear tub and jump it to the front tube. Then cover it in plastic wire cover and zip tie it to the nav wire and it will appear as 1 line.

Vacuum is the easiest way, lots of experience.

I second the vaccum and string. I used fishing line, worked like a charm.

i used string and fished it out with needle nosed pliers, string is by far the best

i also used the vaccum after drilling the holes, but i used dental floss for my string.

I tried string, twine, fishing line, tape, weights, etc, etc, etc...and could not get the vacuum to pull the string through the tower. Ended up borrowing some wiring running tool from a friend who is a pipe fitter and it worked first try!

Yeah, can't do it. I tried for 3 hours today. I used a fishing line, wouldn,t work. So i got stuff attached to the line, ended up with a small screw and tried to get it to the bottom by gravity. Still nothing, i seems the be stuck halfway, probably near the weld of the tower.

I have a proflight tower.

Any hints?

You have to tie something that catches wind to the fishing wire, I use clear tape, but you could use a grocery bag or something else. The vacuum way is the only way I would ever be willing to do. Takes a few seconds once you get the setup right.

I tried that already. The string goes inside the tube with the vaccum no problem. But at some point inside the tower, it doesn't want to get trough. I'll try with something bigger, but i probably need an other technique and don't know what to do.

I take solid wire, like the kind you use to run power and ground lines, its firm enough to push threw tubes, then tie some string to that. Once i get the string threw the tube i can attach my speaker lines and re-pull them.

Its the not the fastest as you really are fishing line twice but the solid line is real easy to spin to reach the holes you drilled.

I have always just used a fish tape, the type electricians use. They have small ones that are 1/8" or 1/4" thick Have been pretty sucsessfull with that.

I would just go to lowes and pick up a wire fish tape for $10 and get it over with.

johnathan

try using the vacume again but this time tie a small piece of wadded up plastic bag to the string. works like a charm.

Well i got a fish yesterday. The damn tower has something inside blocking, i even had a hard time getting the fish trough. Now i'm getting to the second hole, and i tried many times and still would go through. It's blocking at the same place.

I'm starting to think there is a curse on my boat... Everything seems so simple at first, but it take for ever!

i use bailing wire... pulled it thru no problem