Need some help routing radar cable through hardtop supports.

[tubbyama]

Our electronics installer says they cant get the radar cable to fish through the pipes at the top of the hard top on our new Pursuit 2570. Their solution is to route the cable to the top of the support and then run it along the outside of the pipe that forms the perimeter of the hard top until the point where the radar antenna will be mounted. Does this sound acceptable? Thanks

[FireFly]

You'll get quite a few suggestions on how to route a cable through a hard top support such as magnets, shop vac, weed wacker cutting string... and I would exhaust all options before routing it outside the pipe.

Call Pursuit and ask them for help and I'm sure they offer a couple of suggestions.

[capt. thunder]

I have the same problem on my 23' Proline. The factory even installed a pull wire. But it gets caught up in the pipes. I tried an electricians "snake" and this didn't work either. I just wanted to run speaker wires from the electronics box to the speaker cutouts at the helm. Pretty much given up.
You can alway cut the pipe and the have it re-welded.

[FireFly]

capt. thunder - 4/18/2006 8:38 PM

I have the same problem on my 23' Proline. The factory even installed a pull wire. But it gets caught up in the pipes. I tried an electricians "snake" and this didn't work either. I just wanted to run speaker wires from the electronics box to the speaker cutouts at the helm. Pretty much given up.
You can alway cut the pipe and the have it re-welded.

If there is a pull cord in there then that's sometimes 1/2 the battle. Take your connector/wire and connect to the pull cord and then use a generous portion of vaseline on the pull cord (as far back as you can get it) and then on the connection. You may be able to slide it through. Vaseline definitely made my rigging job a heck of a lot easier.

Good luck.

[Wolakrab]

Do you have an overhead electronics box? If so, then put the radar display there and your problem is pretty much solved. It will be very difficult to fish a radar cable through the legs of the hardtop.....especially when there is a 10 and/or a 6 pin connector on the end of it.
I am not saying it's impossible, but you're paying the intaller by the hour; if he takes more than a day or two just pulling a cable for the radar, then you are just wasting money.
I had a BW Conquest 295 and had the radar installed in the O/H box.....my electronics rigger said he would've charged another grand if I had wanted the cable run to a display on my console.....it was that much of a PITA. That was if all cabling was concealed in the hardtop legs.
A radar cable run exposed would be ugly......

[jdfnav69]

I'm with Woola on this one. My radar antenna is mounted directly above my electronics box and the cable drops straight down into the box. I've used dish detergent before to lubricate wires before fishing them through a hard top leg and it definitely helps, but I can't see dragging a wire that big through.

[Doc of the Bay]

Same here, mine is directly over the electronics box, the cable goes thru the radar stand pipe and directly into the box. Doc of the Bay

[FireFly]

Great advice Wolakrab! And if he has a support tube going from the E Box to the console then he can have a display on the console to boot. Not sure if your 28 Abaco has one but my 242 Abaco has one and it made rigging a heck of a lot easier. Put the GPS antenna above E box so I would not have to fish as many wires.

[saltyseadog]

Sometimes you can unplug the cable at the radar scanner end (the connectors are smaller to plug into the PCB`s) , tape these up and pull it up rather than down.

You could also install another stainless tube if all else fails, or even some flexible conduit.

[hpcast]

I pulled my Furuno radar cable thru 1 1/4 aluminum t-top tubes from the dash all the way to the tip top. I disconnected the wires from the plugs. Fished a 16g solid core wire thru for my pull wire, and had to push pull quite a bit as well as add coulple of access holes to the top at some corners. I used some needle nose pliers to also help with the push pull. After it was all over about 2 hrs. Would have been 1 hr if I would have had help. I had to "fix" 2 wires that broke, but it all works great and the wire is in the tube!!!

ZAch

[total mayhem]

I just did the same thing disconnected ends from cable after some good advise from here and taped them up and but some dish soap on it and pulled it through

[offshore3144]

When I pulled my radar cable through my arch I pulled it from the bottom up. There were 4 plugs that were to be conected to the dome. I staggered the plugs and used a large piece of heat shrink around everything including the pullcord. The heat shrink really tightens everything up. Just do not over heat!! I used 100lb single strand wire with a small loop on the end to run the pull cord. Mark.

[tubbyama]

Great advise, We have a E120 multi-display, so its gonna have to be in the dash. I'll see if we cant rig the wire without the plug. Thanks.

[capt. thunder]

FireFly - 4/18/2006 9:26 PM

If there is a pull cord in there then that's sometimes 1/2 the battle. Take your connector/wire and connect to the pull cord and then use a generous portion of vaseline on the pull cord (as far back as you can get it) and then on the connection. You may be able to slide it through. Vaseline definitely made my rigging job a heck of a lot easier.

Good luck.

Gonna give it a try.

[t_bare]

I had to lift my hardtop to run wires through the pipeing. Not sure where your problems are but the horizontal pipes are drilled from above where the verticle pipes travel downward. Hope that helps.

t_bare

[rwidman]

tubbyama - 4/18/2006 5:32 PM

Our electronics installer says they cant get the radar cable to fish through the pipes at the top of the hard top on our new Pursuit 2570. Their solution is to route the cable to the top of the support and then run it along the outside of the pipe that forms the perimeter of the hard top until the point where the radar antenna will be mounted.

If an experienced electronics installer is unable to pull the wires through then it's unlikely that a typical boat owner will be able to do it. You could try another installer for a second opinion.

..You can alway cut the pipe and the have it re-welded.

Welding after the wires are in would most likely melt the wires.

use a generous portion of vaseline on the pull cord (as far back as you can get it) and then on the connection. You may be able to slide it through. Vaseline definitely made my rigging job a heck of a lot easier.

Vaseline may damage the insulation on the wires over time. At the very least it will dry and make any further work difficult or impossible. You can buy "wire pulling compound" at an electrical supply house and possibly a well equipped home center. It's wax based and intended for this purpose.

As someone posted, if you can't pull the wires from one end, it's sometimes possible to pull them from the other end. Use string or fishing line and taper where it connects to the wires with tape.

[looneytunes]

Tubbyama,

Find a new installer. Any professional electronics installer that can't run a 3/4 cable through a 2" or even 1 1/2" hard top pipe is not worth his salt or your money. If you don't want to do it yourself, pay a dealer. They will run the cable in the pipe for you the right way. This crap about leaving it outside the pipe is just plain laziness or lack of confidence in the persons ability to do the job right.

On my new boat I installed all the electronics and ran sub panels (Dealer wanted 1,300 to do it). I can show you some pictures the work is neat and there is no wire mess and no leaks. I installed a fused sub panel, fuel flow meter, 2 gps (garmin 176c, 188c), x-97 fish finder, remote spot light (with dash mounted remote and spot light is back plated), am/fm stereo, VHF radio, VHF antenna with backplate, am / fm antenna with backplate, A two battery tester, and about a month ago my newest addition a windlass .

It's been two seasons so far. Not a single wire has become disconnected, no shorts, My electronics have worked and continue to work flawlessly since I installed them going over 2 seasons ago.

As we speak, maybe today if the rain lets up I will be installing my Raymarine radar and dome. What I will be doing is running the 3/4" wire in panduit conduit on the bottom side of the hard top to a hole that I drilled in the Aluminum tubing. Put a rubber grommett in the hole to protect the wire and protect against water getting into the pipe (not that water in the aluminum pipe will do anything but it's nice to keep everything waterproof as possible anyway). Take off my side panel and pull the cable through the base of the hard top mount to my helm area. It sounds very simple. For the most part it is. Not to say that the job is still not going to take me a good 6 hours to complete. In the end, I know the job is done right.

LooneyTunes
Dave

PS, I have to use the back tube because there is no more room left in the front tube. You have got to see all the wires I have in the front right tube. GPS antenna cable, NMEA cable, power cables for sub panel, navigation light, remote spotlight cable, and I also installed a drag line.

[tubbyama]

looneytunes - 4/24/2006 9:33 AM

Tubbyama,

Find a new installer. Any professional electronics installer that can't run a 3/4 cable through a 2" or even 1 1/2" hard top pipe is not worth his salt or your money. If you don't want to do it yourself, pay a dealer. They will run the cable in the pipe for you the right way. This crap about leaving it outside the pipe is just plain laziness or lack of confidence in the persons ability to do the job right.

On my new boat I installed all the electronics and ran sub panels (Dealer wanted 1,300 to do it). I can show you some pictures the work is neat and there is no wire mess and no leaks. I installed a fused sub panel, fuel flow meter, 2 gps (garmin 176c, 188c), x-97 fish finder, remote spot light (with dash mounted remote and spot light is back plated), am/fm stereo, VHF radio, VHF antenna with backplate, am / fm antenna with backplate, A two battery tester, and about a month ago my newest addition a windlass .

It's been two seasons so far. Not a single wire has become disconnected, no shorts, My electronics have worked and continue to work flawlessly since I installed them going over 2 seasons ago.

As we speak, maybe today if the rain lets up I will be installing my Raymarine radar and dome. What I will be doing is running the 3/4" wire in panduit conduit on the bottom side of the hard top to a hole that I drilled in the Aluminum tubing. Put a rubber grommett in the hole to protect the wire and protect against water getting into the pipe (not that water in the aluminum pipe will do anything but it's nice to keep everything waterproof as possible anyway). Take off my side panel and pull the cable through the base of the hard top mount to my helm area. It sounds very simple. For the most part it is. Not to say that the job is still not going to take me a good 6 hours to complete. In the end, I know the job is done right.

LooneyTunes
Dave

PS, I have to use the back tube because there is no more room left in the front tube. You have got to see all the wires I have in the front right tube. GPS antenna cable, NMEA cable, power cables for sub panel, navigation light, remote spotlight cable, and I also installed a drag line.

You may be right about the salt and money, The problem is they cant get the wire to make the 90 degree corner from the longitudinal perimeter of the hard top frame to the transverse support that goes across the first third of the hard top. Does that make sense?

[looneytunes]

Tubbyama,

Can you show a picture of your hardtop? 90 degrees is a bit much to over come with thick cable. But with a thinner cable 90 degree turns can be a possiblility. How thick is the cable that you are running? With a picture I might be able to see an alternative way to route the cable. Look at Pursuits website picture of the 2570 offshore. I don't see any real sharp angles on the aluminum tubes.

All jobs have a certain degree of difficulty. This one may just need a little re-thinking.

You have to know that the folks at Pursuit know that there is a good possiblility of having radar mounted on the better percentage of the 2570s that they sell. These are top tier off shore fishing machines. Most off shore boats have radar for safety reasons. You can't tell me that Pursuit didn't design the hard top knowing radar may be mounted. Not for nothing, My mid tier Seaswirl even thought about a windlass being installed. They have a conduit from the helm to the anchor locker bulk head. They also thought of transducers etc going to the stern. They built into the hull three 1 1/2" conduits to run cables from stern to helm.

I just thought, try calling your dealer or Pursuit. The question had to be asked at least a few times.

Good luck,

LooneyTunes
Dave

If I get a chance I will head down to my friends marina this week. I know there are a few pursuits down there. Hopefully they will be similar to yours and I will have a first hand look and may be able to suggest a method of attack.

[looneytunes]

Duct Tape - 4/24/2006 10:26 AM

none of you have worked on this boat, so none of you know the circumstances. there could be a sloppy weld keeping the cable from pulling through. saying that the installers dont know what they are doing is a bit presumptuous, dont you all think? i have worked on brand new towers where there were sloppy welds that cut up the wires i was pulling, luckily i work at the factory while the boat is being built, so i have the luxury of having the tower company cut out the weld and do it again properly. i feel bad for installers that dont have this luxury because i can see it happening alot. you might try another installer, but i would be prepared to have the weld cut out and redone.

Presumptuous, NO. Sloppy welds are workmanship which is warrantied by most reputable manufacturers. If that is the case, get to the dealer and have them deal with the problem.

I personally can't figure any reason why any hard top install would not assume that the tubes will be use for running electronics to the top.

LooneyTunes
Dave