Looking for insight on running cables through the headliner from the compression post to the electrical panel. There is a cable tunnel molded into the headliner to join these two locations but the cables keep getting hung up in the tunnel. From the cabin this tunnel looks plenty large enough to accommodate all of the cables but there are two bends that seem to pinch points especially when trying to pull the large VHF cable, and the radar data cable that has a connector on the end. I am almost ready to cut a hole in the center of the tunnel to have an intermediate pulling point, and then cover it with an inspection plate when we finish. Any other suggestions?
Running cables through the headliner on a 2001 Hunter 380
- Thread starter CAVU
- Start date
Can you get from the post to panel outside the tunnel? Been a long time when I ran some wires up there but may not have used the tunnel.
I suppose if you wanted them exposed in the salon. The tunnel is definitely designed to carry wires since before the refit this is where they were. We tried using the old wiring to pull the new wires, with limited success. The most troublesome ones are the new radar data cable that has a connector already installed. (Which you cannot cut and re-splice per the manufacturer), and the massive VHF cable. In a couple of days I’m going to push an inspection camera down the tunnel and see what I can see. I’ll post a couple of photos, and you can see it certainly looks big enough from the outside to handle any cables you would need.
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Ok, mystery/problem solved! The tunnel in the headliner has three corrugated conduits embeded in it. Looking at it from the outside it looks like the tunnel itself would work as a great conduit to run wires. The issue is those corrugated conduits don’t come out close enough to the edge to use them. We used an inspection camera to look into the tunnel, and then steered the fish tape into the conduit. We were then easily able to pull the necessary wires. Without the camera you would have no idea if you, just by chance hit a conduit, or were, like us, were trying to push wire along side all those corrugated conduit's, which is impossible. On to the next challenge.
You should have strings pulled in each conduit from the factory. If you use one, ensure you pull a new string with the new wire.
Using the inspection camera we did see a messenger string in one of the three conduits. Unfortunately it was unreachable without a grabber tool, and since the conduits were in a position too deep in the tunnel we had no idea it was there until we saw it on the camera. I’m guessing the others were used by previous owners and not replaced. We did run new lines in each while we were pulling wires.