Tower Speaker Wiring - 2005 Tige 22V

[SeaCraft]

Hello, can someone with a 2005 22V with standard Tige wake tower describe how you wired your tower speakers? My boat has the anchor light wires running up through the starboard side leg of the tower and does not appear to have enough room for two 14 gauge speaker cables. I prefer to run my speaker wires up the port leg of the tower because my amps are under the port side console. However, there is no hole drilled through the top cap on the port side. How difficult is it to remove the tower and drill a passage hole on the port side? Or is there a better way?

Thanks...Doug

[chpthril]

If its the Tige "E" series, you will not need to remove the tower to drill the hole, just unbolt the leg. Having a helper makes it easier. Otherwise, route the speaker just how the anchor light wires are.

[co99tj]

If its the Tige "E" series, you will not need to remove the tower to drill the hole, just unbolt the leg. Having a helper makes it easier. Otherwise, route the speaker just how the anchor light wires are.

I'm doing this right now as well (thanks to Mike's help) but have hitting a stopping point unfortunately. My boat ('05 22v) is wired exactly like you described - lights wired up the starboard side of the tower and speakers on the port side. My tower has 2 tubular cross sections on the top of the tower - so the previous speakers were wired in the front (bow) tube and holes drilled where they mount. I'm now trying to install Wetsounds - but due to their size, I need to move them to the rear cross-member so they will (just barely) fit under the Bimini. I drilled all the holes, got the speaker wires out of the front cross-member, got both wires pulled into the first drilled hole on the rear cross-member and then as I tried to fish the second wire across the tower to the other side, I discovered that I'm hitting something solid right in the middle of the tower. Does anyone know if that section is not hollow all the way through? It looks identical in welds / construction to the front - so I'm not sure what's going on - but now it's looking like I may have to reverse the whole thing and go back to the front tube and somehow make my way to the back on the ends. Any ideas?

[chpthril]

Your fish tape is likely trying to turn into the forward hoop opening. If needed, come form the bottom up the tower

[skiguy]

If its the Tige "E" series, you will not need to remove the tower to drill the hole, just unbolt the leg. Having a helper makes it easier. Otherwise, route the speaker just how the anchor light wires are.

Mike, is the hole big enough where the Nav light wires are run to feed a pair of speaker wires? Also, which leg of this type E tower has the Nav wires?


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[ern]

I would try to vacuum a string (I use brick line) from one hole to the next, then use the string to pull wires. If there is a passage by the nav light, the vacuum will find it.

[skiguy]

I finished my tower speaker project and sharing the results.

The tower was originally powder coated navy blue to match the boat. After years of use and exposure the coating was flaking off in numerous places and the aluminum was heavily oxidized.


I used the original formula Aviation Paint Stripper (with Methlymene - sp?). Bought it off of eBay as it can’t be found in stores anymore. Stripped and scraped all the powder coat off. Not a trivial job. Took roughly 9 hours.


Then using multiple passes of sand paper I used my dual action sander with 5” discs and a soft pad to sand and then polish the tower. I started with 60 grit to get rid of as much of the heavy oxidation as possible. Even so, some of the metal was so pitted I couldn’t completely eliminate it. I worked from 60 to 1500 grit and finished with a Mother’s Mag Wheel Aluminum polish and a terry cloth ball on my drill. The end result was very satisfactory:



Next I marked the location of my future tower speakers, drilled a couple holes, and ran 14 ga speaker wire up rear port leg. I ran a pair of 18 ga 4-conductor wire up the rear stbd leg. These were my LED wires and it was a tight fit with the wires for the Nav lights taking up space. I used fish tape and a LOT of patience. I had to enlarge the hole in the fiberglass on the stbd side to fit all the wires through the deck when I was reinstalling the tower.



As I was on a budget, I went with the white Rockville Audio cans and the Kicker KM8 speakers with swivel clamps. I powered them with the Kicker 300.4 amp.

I ran a 6 conductor RCA cable from the amp compartment to the helm where I installed a Roswell Marine dual zone controller. (Will hopefully be able to swing the WS-220BT next year).
With this cable run being 40 ft total distance, I had to install a signal driver just after the pre-amp output on my CMD5 head unit. This got the signal levels up to where amp gain adjustments are minor.

I will post a pic of the finished install soon. A fun spring project!


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[chpthril]

I ran a pair of 18 ga 4-conductor wire up the rear stbd leg.

A little late for you, I know, but for those following along, a single 4 conductor can service all the tower LEDs. Multiple 4-cons would only be needed if you wanted to split the tower LEDs up on a multi-zone RGB controller.

[skiguy]

A little late for you, I know, but for those following along, a single 4 conductor can service all the tower LEDs. Multiple 4-cons would only be needed if you wanted to split the tower LEDs up on a multi-zone RGB controller.

I thought about only doing the one run but it would have required a splice that would have had to have been tucked in the tower. Not a big deal, I know, but since I had the tower off the boat I had good access, I chose to run the 2 4-cons and save the ability to do multi-zone at a future date if desired.