Pre-wire tower for speakers a good idea?

vegasvec · Newbie Joined: 30 Jan 2005 Posts: 7 City: Las Vegas

I am looking at getting a new boat and the dealer wants like $2,500 for two Titan speakers...wired and installed. That seems really steep for an amp and two speakers.

So I'd like to try and buy some aftermarket tower speakers myself. Is it important to get the tower pre-wired when I buy it from the dealer? How hard is it to do it myself? The boat I am looking at doesn't have the holes in the tower, so there needs to be some drilling done....but I don't want to pay through the nose.

Any suggestions?

mneal · Outlaw Joined: 28 Jun 2003 Posts: 120 City: St. Petersburg

Wiring the tower is not rocket science....drilling asnd deburring the holes. Plus benifit of doin yourself is you might be able to pick the location for the holes you like rather then wheer the dealer picks. Tip: drill the holes and use a shop vac to suck thin thread (dental floss) thu the tubes and then use the floss to pull thicker string tied to the wire.

Fishmaster · Posted: Mar 27, 2006 8:42 pm Post subject:

You can get NVS speakers and correct amps for that price and have proaudio, over the top, impress or bother everyone stuff and still stick enough to cover some gas in your pocket for that money. But you need to do the work and buy all the stuff to make it happen. www.diyTower.com and people around here can help tons if you want to do it all yourself.

If you want a turn key system the dealer is the way to go but remember he has to make a buck and the wiring could be quite a few hours. "Adding an Amp" can mean a lot of other things like adding batteries, output splitters, large guage wiring, fuse blocks, mounting everything, etc. I typically do it all myself and was blown away with the cost of the stuff I bought after I got "all" the audio stuff that was going in the boat.

kmagnuss · Posted: Apr 01, 2006 7:11 pm Post subject:

Swass · Guest

Unless you plan to remove the tower first, cover seats, carpet, etc. with a drop cloth before drilling. The shavings are HOT and will melt right through vinyl and carpet.

Brass Balls · Newbie Joined: 29 Apr 2006 Posts: 25 City: NorCal

With car wiring, when going through metal holes, I've always used a rubber grommet which keeps the wire's insulation from chaffing off. fwiw

dyldebus · Newbie Joined: 18 Apr 2006 Posts: 13 City: Tempe

If it's not a huge price difference go with the pre-wiring, I just ran my tower wire and it was a b*tch to snake 2 seperate channels without creating too large of a hole.