My DIY sPOD
 

This is the same write-up I put on another forum. Only JK specific things to mention are that my panel now holds the two indicator relays for the ARB bar.

Finished off the auxiliary wiring (for the moment) yesterday.

Not much room under the bonnet for mounting fuses and relays so I had to get creative. Made a panel from 4mm aluminium that fits between the battery and the fuse box.

http://i40.tinypic.com/2r40t2x.jpg

The wiring's long enough to pull it out to work on. It's bolted on using the battery hold-down bolt and another existing bolt.

http://i42.tinypic.com/muyexv.jpg

http://i41.tinypic.com/2i9i3np.jpg

http://i42.tinypic.com/30t3pxs.jpg

All the interior accessories are powered from another panel behind the dashboard. This is fed by the fuse panel at the battery and the three busses are 12V permanent power, 0V (Ground, Negative) and 12V accessory, switched by the relay hooked up to the cigarette lighter.

http://i40.tinypic.com/2ujidmq.jpg

Again, the wiring's long enough to pull the panel out to work on easily. The glands are more for strain relief, but a side effect is that the box is fairly waterproof - the weak point being the seal on the Jaycar J-box.

http://i42.tinypic.com/2lsfw4z.jpg

The J-box stuffs up behind the glovebox out of the way.

http://i43.tinypic.com/dvsx0h.jpg

There's also no provision for accessory switches inside the Wrangler so again I had to get creative. The easy thing to do would have been to get switches to fit somewhere on the dash but I decided to get Carling Switches which ARB use for the Air lockers so that when I eventually get lockers all the switches will match. The boss also was not keen on moving the missile switches I had in the previous car to the new 4wd.

The Carling switches are very large and need a lot of room behind the panel for mounting. I would have liked to use the sPOD switch panel http://www.4x4s-pod.com, but my 7" LCD is on a Ram Mount where the sPOD panel goes. It looked like there was enough height above the driver's sun visor so I got to work on a panel out of some 2mm aluminium.

http://i43.tinypic.com/1zxpe80.jpg

http://i43.tinypic.com/10gwbi8.jpg

Since I don't have a folding machine all the folding was done in a (big) vice with steel plate and angle and a BIG ball pien hammer. Needless to say the fashion police wasn't too keen on the beaten up ally finish (and neither was I really), so I got some charcoal vinyl and contact adhesive and went to town.

http://i43.tinypic.com/2q9lykj.jpg

http://i41.tinypic.com/29uzt4i.jpg

With the bezel installed and all the bits ready to go in.

http://i41.tinypic.com/2cpx2ma.jpg

The switch panel is bolted onto the upper windscreen trim with some M6 stainless bolts and two nutserts in the switch panel itself.

http://i43.tinypic.com/av22vk.jpg

http://i40.tinypic.com/14o0qx0.jpg

Once all the wiring was run between the switch panel and the relays on the fuse panel (2 x 7 core trailer wire) all that was left was to fit off the spade terminals and snap the switches in.

And the end result.

http://i43.tinypic.com/6odkko.jpg

http://i43.tinypic.com/k1xdz7.jpg

Excuse the dirty hand marks, the green lamps for the driving lights and reverse light com one when the relay and consequently the lights themselves are on. The red lamp is connected to the Redarc isolator and is on whenever the solenoid is closed. The AUX switch is momentary for jump starting off the second battery. The Reverse switch is three position - 1, automatic when in reverse gear; 2, off and 3, on (anytime). The driving light switch is a standard on-off switch, fed off the high beam circuit.

http://i43.tinypic.com/o6ji82.jpg

A couple more different angles.

The only thing left to do is cut some high density closed cell foam to plug up the ends of the panel but there's no hurry.

http://i41.tinypic.com/2m7b3ad.jpg

From outside.

http://i39.tinypic.com/1so6dc.jpg

ten out of ten... nice work mate. I think you could sell these ;)

They would be very expensive if I was to make any profit out of it. I haven't kept and exact tally of costs but there's probably close to $300 in parts before I add the many hours of work. Could be quicker with a guillotine and folding machine, but the aluminium shop wouldn't fold the switch panel as it wouldn't fit in the jaws. I'd have to revise the design if I wanted to use a folding machine.

As others have said, the sPOD is pretty good value, it just wasn't suitable in my case.

very nice!!

very neat and tidy. I like the idea

Very impressive. Great work and great thinking. I definately want one. Is there any way it can be water proofed.

Yeah , great job very neat rather than having relays & wiring running everywhere.
Just a note on relays, for max reliability they should be mounted vertically right way up, cause the spring holding contacts open gets weaker with age.Ive seen vehicles with spotlights etc that wont turn off.