Not very many photos today, in fact, none really.
A mid-morning start, I finished the rock light installation by placing the four front lights, two in front of the wheels and two behind, wired them together and tied them into the SPOD.
After that, I ran the new wire for the lightbar to the SPOD.
A remnant from the prior electrical work, a CLA was hastily wired with an inline fuse that directly to the battery, and grounded at the fender with the battery. I originally put this power port in to plug the tent in so we could open and close that, but it has also been used as a constant hot port for charging phones, as well as where I would plug in my solar panel controller for quick and easy charging. I've grown used to it being there, and we definitely need it for the tent still, so I kept the location the same, but redid the power and ground over to the fuse block to keep the wiring at the battery clean, even though the port is literally one inch from the battery.
Lastly, I chose the location for the SPOD HD Control panel and mounted, and programmed it.
We're going camping this weekend, so with all the electrical finished, we're wasting no time testing it out! I'll be watching Apryl as she does her tasks around the truck (making her coffee with her aeropress, mainly), and while helping with cooking, cleaning, etc, I'll be taking notes on what she wants changed, if anything, or seeing if there's something that needs to be done differently. I doubt we'll need to change anything, we've both put so much thought into this, and I think we've knocked it out of the park for the lighting and other little conveniences.
Things that Apryl wanted changed/added that was completed with this rebuild:
Constant hot charging ports at the front seats and rear of the truck (A)
Better lighting at the tailgate for cooking, making coffee, etc. (B)
Put the water pump back in! (C)
Ability to turn on/off lights and water pump from the back. (D)
A) Mission accomplished on the charging ports.
B) Lighting is now overhead from the hatch in both red and white providing plenty of light.
C) The water pump now has a more reliable power connection.
D) And finally with the addition of a rear control head for the SPOD, we can now turn on the rack left and right camp lights, the water pump, the rock lights (providing light for things you might have dropped under the truck was taken into consideration when placing the rear rock lights), and air compressor from the back, eliminating the need to always back to the driver seat like we used to have to do.
Items I wanted corrected with this rebuild:
Get rid of that damned switch pro. (A)
Properly power each device separately and correctly, and remove the fridge from the switching system. (B)
More power ports than we could fill between the both of us (room for friends to charge their stuff too!) (C)
Make sure that devices get their power as close to the actual device as possible. (D)
Be able to show off the 4Runner to potential customers without having to make excuses for how it looks. (E)
Expandability. (F)
A) Now that the switch pro is gone, I can reliably use the bluetooth app and not worry about other devices I want left on losing their power.
B) Prior to this build, one of the switches called "Rear Power" operated a 75 amp relay that powered the fuse block that lived in the back of the 4Runner powering the ham radio, cell phone booster, rear USB port and the Fridge. So if that switch lost power, all of those items shut off together. I should have never put the fridge on a switched power source. Yes, it's nice looking down at the switch panel and knowing immediately if I forgot to turn it off when it wasn't being used, but it just wasn't worth losing a switch over. Now the fridge, ham radio, and USB ports have constant power. The water pump and cell phone booster now have their own switches on the SPOD and will only be turned on when actually needed.
C) Before, we had four total usb ports in the truck, two switched with the ignition, and two hot in the back, we would sometimes have to wait for the other to finish charging something to open one up. Not anymore, with six easily accessible constant hot USB ports, and two more when the water pump isn't in the truck, there'll be room for all of our stuff plus a port or two for friends that need something charged.
D) The last setup with all power in the back coming from the rear passenger storage pocket, the fridge power cord ran across the truck out in the open and it was just messy. Now, the fridge power port is within 10" of the fridge, the water pump power is within 12", and the charging station will have convenient pockets above to hold phones and other things while they're charging.
E) This has already been discussed, but I'm very excited for these changes. Apryl's smile while I showed her around the new conveniences and features made it all worth the work, and I think I know how my customers feel when they see the work I've done and think about how cool it will be to use it in the wild. And it's finally done with the same care and thought I put into my customers vehicles, so I can be comfortable showing it as a proper example of how I do my craft!
F) Within the harnesses are spare power and ground wires. And now that the wires are cleanly run through the factory channels, there's room for more if need be. Also because I tied the new wires to the factory harness behind trim panels, there's no wires criss-crossing around things back there, moving the panels to add more things down the line won't be such a nightmare.
Doing it right the first time is so important, removes so much worry and stress. When you have to pull it all apart again later to perform a fix or add a new item, you'll thank yourself. I guarantee it.
The only casualty: The rear hatch plastic trim panel. $75 at a local junk yard for a new panel because I drilled the holes for the lights to close to the window area, and the spot I chose to mount the switch was directly over the metal of the hatch, and there was no space for the wiring. There was no way I was going to leave three holes in the panel, so I replaced it. Live and learn, LOOK BEHIND before you cut, and measure measure measure.
