How hard is it to pull wire on a tracker boat?

[ron buffington]

I am going to be running some wire on my boat here after christmas and I am wondering how hard it is run wire on a an aluminum tracker boat I have a pro team 165. I would like to run my wire from the front to the batteries in the back.

 

[Donnie Matney]

What Year?? Here is what I did on my PT 17 (1996). To run to the console:



* First reomve the screws that hold the shifter to the side should be about 4.



* Pull the shifter away from the boat and you will see the existing wires from the Factory



* I strarted from the cosole and ran a fish tape to the back - taped my wires and pulled the back to the console (its easier to pull them than push them)



Thats the easy part if your going all the way to the front Its a little harder..



*Remove the plate underneath the TM (where the TM plugs

into)

* Push the fish tape fromthe cosole to the front and hook to your wires and pull them back to you. Once you get it near the front you may have to reach for the fish tape to pull it the rest of the way.



Going to the front is the hardest because you only have a small area to work with once you get a few feet from the conole. If I remember right you want to keep the fish tape close to the top next to the rail.





Thats how I did mine someone may have another idea but go from the back to the cosole then from the console to the front. Deffinatley get a fish tape its alot easier. Shoul take a few hours but its not really hard. E-mail me if you have questions.



Donnie

 

[Steve Rizza]

Trackerron,I hate to be the bearer of bad news,but there is no easy way to go from front to back.I tried to run a new wire for my trolling motor on my pro17.The old wire was too small for the new tm.After alot of trying I ended up removing the front deck,unscrew the console and slide it to the center of floor as far as cable and wires will allow,remove seat and base on right side,and then take off the side panel on the right side.From there it is just a matter of fishing it through with the other wires back to the battery.Its really not as hard as it sounds,except for the rusted and stripped screws.Im currently putting in all new carpet and using all stainless hardware.

 

[ron buffington]

My boat is a 2002 I have a fish tape. Steve when you took off your deck how did they have the wire ran? Was it ran through a channel? was it just snaked through the boat? It seems from the way you guy's talk it is easy to go from the console to the rear but getting from the front to the console is the hard part. I am going to add another depth finder and a set of gauges with battery power meter's up front so it's gona take atleast four wires running to the back they won't be the size of tm wires but still not easy.

 

[ron buffington]

My boat is a 2002 I have a fish tape. Steve when you took off your deck how did they have the wire ran? Was it ran through a channel? was it just snaked through the boat? It seems from the way you guy's talk it is easy to go from the console to the rear but getting from the front to the console is the hard part. I am going to add another depth finder and a set of gauges with battery power meter's up front so it's gona take atleast four wires running to the back they won't be the size of tm wires but still not easy.

 

[Larry Harp]

Ron,

I have a 2001 Pro Team 185 and I'm not sure how simmilar the two are but here's what I know. I re-wired my trolling motor cables to 6ga. I tried to fish the new with the old 8ga. but could not get it to budge. The problem is the wire runs through floatation foam under the port side storage bin behind the passenger seat. I had to cut some pretty big chunks to get the cable through. Also had to remove the port side rod locker door and side panel. Not too hard just a lot of screws -- be sure to have your screwdriver battries charged up. I also brusied and skinned the devil out of my forearms so think about some carpet pad or an old blanket. GOOD LUCK

Harpo

 

[Donnie Matney]

It took a couple hours to get to the front from the console It was hard but I would try that first. I tried removing the deck but I could never get it off, I kept finding screws that I never removed. Also it would help if you had a buddy to tell you if you were getting close to the front...we listend to the side of the boat to tell how far we had to go. Hope this helps...Its not hard just flustrating plan on taking a few hours to goto the front of the boat...also I would pull all the wires at once..your gage wires wont be big enough to make it that hard to do them all at once. Good luck..If you have any questions give me a shout.



Donnie

 

[TrepMan]

TrackerRon - On the fishfinder you don't need to run any additional wires. Your 165 should have an extra set of wires pre-wired behind the bow panel for the fishfinder. If it doesn't check out the diagram in my Grab Bag fish finder project. My 2000 175 did not have the pre-wired wires and it was a sinch to wire up after John Foster drew the picture for me!!

 

[Mark Hofman]

Ron, I didn't find it hard at all once I figured out how to overcome a couple of obstacles. I could see how it would be difficult if you were trying to route thin wires, since that would be like pushing and pulling cooked spaghetti. Try to use stiff wire or, like I did, a multi wire single cable.



You can look at my project "Installing a Garmin 240" in the Grab Bag section. I took photos of how I ran the wire from the battery compartment up to the bow.