I got mine when 4WD Hardware had a 15% off sale. Brought it into a more palatable range. It's a nice product. I wanted it because it made the wiring very clean and it's quite flexible. Nice product.

Worth it to you? If you need it, it may well be.

 

I think he meant its primary function it to turn things on and then off, not to turn something off that is on by default. Turning the switch off will turn off whatever accesssory it powers, but it's hard to wire the spod to turn something off that's always on by default such as the fan. Hard to explain, but to answer your question the spod will turn anything off that it turns on.


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I got mine in one of those Northridge 4x4 events after discussing the product with the owner (and designer) when he explained all details and why everything was the way it was. Great folks and awesome product.

It does not turn things off when we turn the Jeep off, but it is intentional. However, it has a voltage monitoring feature that shuts things down if battery voltage drops to a certain level.


Of course, getting a special price and a toolbag full of goodies helped the sale.


Would definitely buy it again.

 

This is a little bit confusing, so please bear with me and trust me that I know what I'm doing (retired USAF chief master sergeant with 27-1/2 years of avionics maintenance experience, not including my years before as a licensed technician class ham operator).

This is why I gave the example I did (engine fan switch). I wanted to turn off my engine fan. If the sPOD could support the current of the engine fan (it can't), it still wouldn't do the job correctly because I'd be forced to wire the sPOD to turn the fan off and on. I didn't want that, because that meant that I had to remember to turn the fan on every time I ran the Jeep, and turn it off every time I parked the Jeep (since sPOD power isn't ignition switched). There's no relaxed relay position to pass electricity through to the switch-controlled item. Only energized relay positions have current passed through. Therefore, it was necessary to wire in an additional relay to provide the correct functionality: Fan under engine control unless the sPOD "Engine Fan" switch is set to the on position. Then the engine fan is manually forced off. This is good to have when crossing rivers. Here's a diagram of how I wired it into my '07 (I have a friend who did it to his 3.6L and said it works fine; just ignore the extra wire to the fan on the 3.6s).



It's interesting to note that this isn't only a problem with the sPOD. You'll encounter exactly the same issue when researching that new relay: Many horn/fan relays are four pin, thus they are designed to turn devices on, but not to turn devices off. You need a five pin relay that passes the current through when in the relaxed position (pin 87a above). Does that make sense now?

 

These are the Contura V switches. Note how they are nicely backlit, unlike in my image of the Contura II switches. That's what silk-screen versus laser-etched gives you. On top of that, OTRATTW has to mass order the Contura II rockers, so he has what he has and nothing else. From what I understand, John (owner, I think) can custom laser-etch the Contura V rockers. But, I think the II rockers look better with the old interior, which is why I chose them anyway.

 

Got it loud and clear. I'm an electrician but still no 12v control guru. Appreciate the in depth description. And your off road video was sweet.

BK

 

We have installed tons of lighting and other electrical accessories, and ill tell you from experience that they are worth it.

Once you start to add more and more lighting or other accessories, you get a mess of wires that not only look ugly, could cause shorts, right by the battery.

It makes the install really simple, all you need to do is run a positive wire to whatever you are installing and you are good to go. No need to run wires inside the cabin everytime and what not.