Another Tower Wiring Thread

[1BadTundra]

I want to mount a light bar on my 2016 212x tower. I'm worried about weakening the tower tubing by drilling a 1/4" hole in the top and bottom for threading the cabling through. Any thoughts on this?

 

[zipper]

Different tower than mine, but a 1/4" hole will not weaken the aluminum. I drilled a few holes larger than that to run antenna cables thru my tower.

 

[1BadTundra]

That's exactly what I have in mind. Was it a PITA to fish the cable through?

 

[ripler]

Tip to fish wires. Tie a small piece of a cotton ball on a piece of sewing thread. Use a vacuum cleaner hose on the lower hole and feed the sewing thread from the top, the vacuum should pull the cotton ball into the lower hole. Once you get the lightweight string through you can use it to pull a heavier string through that you will use to pull the wire.

 

[zipper]

Not too bad on my style tower. I drilled the holes and then fed big dia. grass trimmer string between the holes and retrieved it with a small hook. Taped the wire to the trimmer string and pulled back through.

I first tried the cotton ball and vacuum trick but found slag in the tower that snagged the cotton. The trimmer string pushed thru. I have pictures somewhere, of the hook and the slag.

Found them...

 

[1BadTundra]

Great ideas guys, thanks. I'll report back when I'm done.