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It was pretty easy.
It's not hard at all, lots of open space behind the various cockpit and bow locations. The only difficult part for me was running RCA cables from the head unit at the swim deck to the battery compartment for my amp as there isn't a lot of space to work without removing the transom access cover. Took out my swim deck speakers to run wires and found I could reach in the hole and pull the wires. I ran speaker wires across the forward section of the engine compartment and was able to do all of it without drilling - lots of little nooks to fish the wires through. Take your time and figure out what/where you want to go and you should be able to do it without "fiberglass rash". Wearing a long sleeved shirt may help if needed. I have a fish tape, but found I didn't need it as there was lots of room to reach the areas. I used plenty of zip-ties to keep everything neat and out of the way.
Did you use the factory wiring harness? did you add an amp to your system?
Used the factory wiring and did not add an amp. Ran wires to the speakers for led lighting. Plenty of room to get the wires around. Used a fish sick to get around the anchor locker. also added a lighting controller for the speaker led. lights. Plan to add tower speakers in the future and will add an amp then.
I have a 2020 AR240 and starting to lay out my plan for my stereo upgrades. Thinking we might do it in sections like yourself (replace stock speakers first/add tower/possibly add 2 more at the cockpit next to captains chairs later).
Running wires is fine but where do they hook into? The courtesy lights?
If you are adding speakers you'll want to add an amp. I'd run the leds to their own switch....you probably don't want the courtesy lights on with the color lens. And yes, you will need an led light controller.
Hello... Okay.. I would not try to connect to the boats current lighting system. Since most of these are RGB, you should wire to an LED controller.
Thanks, that’s awesome glad you are happy with the system.
When just replacing the speakers, then there is no wiring that you have to worry about. The wiring comes into play when you add an amp to those speakers as you have to wire them all. The stock configuration has both types of wiring configuration (series and parallel).
Thanks again, yeah would be reusing the existing wires for a swap. Was more thinking when adding the amp for the tower speakers how I would then add the 4 existing speakers into the amp.
Did you complete your upgrade? I'm getting ready to do the same upgrade AR240 2019, where id you place the amp? Did you run all new speaker wire. Any issues with the Stern radio hook up?
