Looking to add amps and tower speakers to my boat, it appears the breakers are all prewired for amps but i can’t find where the leads go. Does anyone have any input or where to look for them?
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I did a JL 600/6 amp, JL tower speakers and a JL sub last summer on mine. I'll tell you there's a lot more work there than you think.
Unless you already have amps installed there will be no power or ground to the amp location for the amps, at least there wasn't on mine. The breakers are in place in the power panel under the driver's dash for both primary and secondary amps, which is what I used for my power source but the breakers were only connected to the main bus bar. I ran both power (from the 60 amp breaker) from the primary amp panel source and a ground from the primary ground bus behind the power panel around the bow seating using tie wrap wire hangers to the storage area on the passenger side as I saw no under floor conduit or better path to route the cable (I'd love to hear if anyone has a better way to do this BTW). Spent considerable time making/terminating cables, securing mount points for the cable tie anchors and making sure the installation was clean and secure. There's not a lot of room to work with at that panel and I had to bend the ear on the cable end up on a 45 degree angle to ensure clearance of the primary amp power connection.
I decided to forgo the amp board and mounted the 600/6 on the wall of the passenger walk through next to the sub but I may change this should I decide to install another amp. For now everything fits very well, the installation is very clean, solid and the system sounds very clean with no lack of power. My primary driver to install a second amp would be to add bow speakers but this is low on the priority list. Also adding the second amp and speakers would be close to a grand and I'm just not seeing the "juice being worth the squeeze" for that upgrade unless I can come across a smoking deal or some used gear to bring the cost down. But I digress.....
The Tower is pre-wired. There are rubber plugs in the tubing near the speaker mounts for both lighting and the speakers. The wires run through the tower and hang in the gunnel between the speaker pods on the passenger side. There is an inspection/access plate mounted under the gunnel between the speakers. I had no speaker wire runs past this point. I had to buy speaker wire and extend the runs from the tower to the amp on my boat.
You can get wiring diagrams for a 2011 that will be close enough to figure everything out here....
https://www.planetnautique.com/vb5/f...iring-diagrams
I've done quite a few upgrades and rip/replace installations over the years and one thing always seems constant..... They always take longer than you think/remember and cost more as well. I like doing these but I really wish I would have or could have waited for the spring/fall to do mine. Crawling under the dash in 90+ weather was not a lot of fun.
I bought most of the non stereo related materials from my "go to" source for these items here.....
https://www.genuinedealz.com/marine-wire
You can get real marine rated cable, speaker wire and other installation soft goods like expandable cable sleeving at a very fair price from them and their customer service is very good as well.Last edited by bturner; 07-17-2020, 07:05 AM.
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