Pulling new speaker wire - Best Way

[suprasam]

I am installing my new radio/head unit soon, along with new amp......since I am doing this I thought I might as well run new speaker wire(better gauge). I have three speakers on each side of my boat, anyone have a good way of pulling the new wire through? Here is what I was thinking.....tie or tape the new wire to the old wire end and just pull at one end? I am guessing this will work and won't get hung up on anything, but if anyone has a good process let me know. Also what is a good gauge wire to use for the speakers to my amp?

[pap]

Not to diss the idea, but given how low wattage the inboats are, I'm not sure I'd go to the hassle of pulling new wire. Tower cans, sure. Maybe I'm wrong.

Use a bit of dishwasher soap in water on the wire as you pull if you do it, it makes it slide a lot easier.

[Wylietunes]

If the old wire is fished through a PVC race-way, then you can easily fish new wire through with the aid of a fish tape. If the old wire is in split loom, then forget it, you will be all but pulling the OEM harness out of the boat to get the new wire in. Now, if you notice, I did not mention using the old wire to pull in the new, nor did I mention removing the old wire. leave it. Its going to be taped and tied up will all the other wires in the OEM harness. Cut is back on both ends up to the harness, tape the ends and tuck it in the loom or tape it to the harness. Then run your new wire along the harness and zip tie it as needed. Dont use tape to hold it as it will let go in the summer heat. For $5 male deer, you can get a bottle of IDEAL silicone wire pulling lube at your local box home improvement store. Easier and better then dish soap IMO.

[pap]

And there is the voice of experience!

[EarmarkMarine]

If the boat has from factory between 14 and 16 gauge two-conductor running to each individual coaxial speaker destination, given the power and distance, then I do not see the benefits of an upgrade wire. Subwoofer to 12 ga? Sure. Tower HLCDs to 12 ga? Sure. From 18/2 in the boat to something larger? Sure. Do a simple test with a DPDT switch to one speaker with both wires. No way will you be able to detect a difference.

David
Earmark Marine

[suprasam]

The wire looks old and thin, so I am definitely putting new wire. It's from 1986..... So it's time for new wire and a better gauge.
Michael should I be taking all the speaker wire down the captain side and around? Or is there space in the boat to just go left and right with the wire? Does that make sense? Thanks

[Wylietunes]

Sam,

Here is how i kinda approach running speaker wire:
1st, where can I run the wire.
2nd, is it safe from moving parts, hot engine components and sharp edges.
3rd, distance. Its will take a LONG run of speaker wire to even equal a degrade in SQ and wattage, so running all the way around the boat is not an issue and speaker wires is cheap int he grand scheme. If I have 2 routes that meet 1 and 2, I go the shortest.

[NorCalPR]

Use a tool like this and run it in wire loom...

http://www.amazon.com/Wire-Loom-Inst.../dp/B001PZ9BZY

You can get the tool, wire loom and wire cheap at Delcity.

[Cusefan78]

I just installed a new head unit, amp and speakers in my labrisa. I ran all new wires to the amp from the speakers. First thing I did was cut out the old wire from the speakers and pulled them through. The drivers side ones were easy but the left side was harder. Supra ziptied them somewhere so i just cut back as much as possible. Now for the install. There are PVC tubes along both sides and the back of my labrisa I'm pretty sure most boats have this. You aren't going to be able to fit 4 thicker guage wires in the tubes as I found out so what I did was use the tubes to run the wire around to the opposite side of the amp and just fished wires on the other side. I then zip tied the wires to the tube anywhere I could reach in through the speaker holes. I mounted my amps to the storage compartment behind the observation seat where my batteries are. All in all it's wasnt bad, took me around two hours to install everything. One thing to watch out is the amount of room you have between the speaker and the hull. The kickers I installed where a little thick so I'm going to order some led trim rings to go around them so they sit in there better without hitting the hull.

[trayson]

It wasn't too bad on my 92 Sunsport. I have the wire fishing tool that I got for a whopping $9 at Harbor frieght. I when I am pulling the wire back, it made a HUGE difference to wrap the hook in electrical tape so I didn't catch new wires as I was pulling my other wires through.



And just because the manufacturer ran wires a certain way (with the top cap off) doesn't mean I had to follow their path. For the bow speakers, it was a lot easier to go along the starboard and just do two runs and loop around the bow to get to the 2nd speaker.

Also, you mentioned LED speaker rings. Rememember that anywhere you're gonna run LED's that you'll likewise need power. The good news is that LED's consume so little power that you can use a thinner gauge (I just grabbed some inexpensive 18 gauge) and you can run them parallel so just one run of wires to power both the bow LED strips that I used on my speaker grills.

I ended up having to make a few runs along the same path to get from my deck to where I'm putting my amps (under the passenger seat), because I had to do RCA's and speaker wires both.