runing wire in tower

[Samsonite]

I have a 2014 242limited s that im trying to fish speaker wire from the existing hole where the stock wires come out of the boat into the tower up and over to the higher tube to where the tower speaker will be mounted on the starboard side. I tried the cotton ball trick and it wouldn't work. Any suggestions? see pics

 

[sunbyrned]

I don’t know the cotton ball trick. I’m not sure I have your issue down correctly, but here are two things that come to mind. 1) You can try catching the wire with a magnet and pushing the wire through while moving the magnet at the same time. 2) You can get a hand held metal snake from Lowes, designed to unclog kitchen sinks. Attach the wire to it and push it through the tower to point B.

 

[Samsonite]

hey sunbyrned, thank you for commenting... the tower has 2 main tubes that run from the port and starboard side, with one tube front and back. The stock wires come in at the front tube and I need to feed wire from that factor cut hole up and to the back tube where you can see the drilled hole in the pic attached. Hope that clarifies. I tried to use a strong magnet but I couldnt get it to grab my metal snake from lowes but my magnet might not be the right kind. its a plastic coated magnet you use for holding a handgun in a hidden place...

 

[DRock3d]

Curious about this as well, I was told there are solid sections of our towers that don't allow for it.

 

[sunbyrned]

I’m not sure I’m following your route. Are you trying to go through the brace bars? I would think they are just welded onto the solid tubing, so there most likely would not be an opening at that juncture. If it’s just the larger tubes you’re trying to navigate through and not the brace bars, perhaps try tying a small piece of metal to some fishing line and feed that through with the magnet. You can magnetize the piece of metal by rubbing it with the magnet for a little bit, which will help you not lose the connection. If you can get it through all the way, then you can tie the speaker wires to that line and pull it all back out or cut the line and tie your wires to that end and just keep pulling. It may be easier starting from the highest point in case you lose your connection with the magnet. Otherwise it will just keep dropping all the way back down. The magnet will probably need to be heavy duty. I hope this helps somehow.

 

[Samsonite]

Correct. I was hoping there was a way to fish the wire from the front tube through the brace bar into the the back tube. Fishing the wire in the front tube only without trying to fish through the brace bar works with a wire snake but since I’ve got to run wire into the the back tube and dont want to run wire into the back tube with another whole in the side of the boat I’m trying to figure this out without having to zip tie wire to outside of the tube/bracebar and/or have too many drilled holes in the tubes/brace bars.

 

[The Canuck]

Can you post a picture of the entire tower with some quick arrows or lines drawn to help show us what you are doing. I think I have a similar setup, and am curious as to how to achieve this.

 

[sunbyrned]

I got you! Maybe, if the brace is hollow, you could possibly drill a hole at an angle through the both ends of the brace and into the tubing to gain access through the brace, but you would really need to think it through where you would drill so not to lose your magnet connection. I don’t know. I think I may be in the way more than I’m helping at this point. Just trying to help brainstorm though.

 

[Samsonite]

Can you post a picture of the entire tower with some quick arrows or lines drawn to help show us what you are doing. I think I have a similar setup, and am curious as to how to achieve this.

I will try ;-), this picture has red marks indicating the location of the holes drilled for speakers and light bar. The blue circle is where the wires come out of the boat and into the front bar. Unless I can fish from the front to back tube inside the brace bar im not sure there is a way to avoid showing wires zip tied...

 

[sunbyrned]

I have this same design. I wish were at my boat to study this better. At the upper brace where the stock tower lights and speaker are, can you remove that speaker somehow and see if you can pass through that brace rather than the lower brace?

 

[The Canuck]

My guess is, and I feel like I saw this somewhere else... it is not hollow from the tube to the brace. Or there is no hole from tube to brace. Gonna have to poke either some additional holes or zip tie the wires at some point.

My tower is not the same design, but if I ever wanted to do something similar, I will have to have a few extra holes in the tower for the wires to pop out, and then back in.

 

[scokill]

I use a fish tape and works well. I tie some string on it to make it easy to hook and pull out of the hole and tie to wire to pull. you can also push the wire with fish tape. My tower is different, but I drilled through the solid end and went straight in the boat. However, the way my tower is designed you can't go all the way in the tower so I have a 6 pin connector (2 speaker sets and anchor light I added at top of tower wired to dash). This also allows me to remove the tower if I need without worrying about the wires. The exit point goes straight behind the helm so it's really perfect. I had drilled through the boat before and had a connector but moved my tower amp behind the dash so it actually worked out better.

 

[Samsonite]

I have this same design. I wish were at my boat to study this better. At the upper brace where the stock tower lights and speaker are, can you remove that speaker somehow and see if you can pass through that brace rather than the lower brace?

I pulled the lights and tweeters and tried to fish back to the back tube and there is not path just from the brace forward where the wires come in from. are you sure you were able to fish from the brace to the back tube or to the front tube?

 

[sunbyrned]

I pulled the lights and tweeters and tried to fish back to the back tube and there is not path just from the brace forward where the wires come in from. are you sure you were able to fish from the brace to the back tube or to the front tube?

Keep in mind, I’ve never done this. I’m just trying to help you figure it out. Could you use that tweeter hole to drill through the other tube with a flexible drill such as the one in the pic or another method of drilling? You’re so close!

Flex. Shaft With Chuck

With its ball bearing design and tough covering, this can be used with any power take-off drill press, portable power drill, or a grinder (if properly equipped

garrettwade.com

 

[1BadTundra]

I used 2 rubber coated magnets, one inside the tube with light fishing line attached, the other outside. Use the outside magnet to drag the inside one through the aluminum tube. I used this to drag light bar wiring through.