Custom SPOD and OTRATTW rocker switches write up

[BW_Hummer H3]

I thought I share how I built my switches and custom SPOD set up since I couldn’t really find anything about it already. My reasoning for wanting to do a set up like this was because I already had a front light bar on my roof rack and a winch hooked up to my battery and I was about to add rear facing lights in the rack. The engine bay was really starting to get cluttered with wiring and fuses and looked really messy. Not to mention not the safest to have a bunch of different wiring hooked up to the battery. So looked into different rocker switch set ups. 4x4SPOD makes really nice set ups for For all kinds of jeeps/trucks but as usual nothing for Hummers. Not to mention they were very expensive for even a generic set up. I thought about building my own fused relay box, but that seemed like a lot of time and possible errors. So I looked into off brand spod set ups and found Apollointech switch control system for a JK. Looked into on different forums and found out that it was legit and identical to the 4x4SPOD. Bought for a $160 off of Amazon. Here is a write up on how to use this kit on a H3. My phone broke in the middle of building this so I am missing some pictures so I’ll have to use some stock photos of some stuff.

Here is the link to the kit and apparently they have changed the name of it but it is the same one I bought, but with a different name.
https://www.amazon.com/WATERWICH-6-Switch-Overhead-Control-2007-2018/dp/B07KLG5GJX

It comes with 6 single din back lighting to the switches and a battery gauge reader.

It comes overhead switch mount for a JK and a bunky mount for all the fuses and relays for the engine bay. Which are totally useless to the H3, but I’ll post the pics anyway.



Basically all you need was the wiring harness for the switches that goes from fuses and relays to the switches and of course the fuse and relay panel. I don’t really have a good picture of the wiring harness but here it is


I mounted the fuse/relay panel in this area of the engine behind the battery. Basically the only spot in could fit(sorry for the bad stock photo)


For I got some cardboard and drew of a template of what was going to mount the fuse/relay panel on and cut it out from some scrap metal


Finished up all the holes needed to mount the panel with how I mounted it in the engine bay


Here it is with the fuse/relay panel mounted on with the wiring harness attached.


Drilled in the mounts with metal screws. Wish I could have found a better way to mount but this was the best way I could see


Mounted up without the lid on yet


To fit the wiring harness through your going to have to drill a hole in the firewall. I was using the hole for the emergency brake for all my wiring but I need just a little bit bigger hole. So I drilled a 1 1/4inch hole where the clutch would be in a manual H3 in the firewall



Bought a daystar firewall boot for the whole to keep fit wall shut other than the wire. And fixed the e-brake boot




Once you put the wire to from the fuse/relay panel to the switches in the cab put a zip tie around the boot to keep everything out.

On to the interior. All the interior stuff I got from OTRATTW and highly recommend there products.

Bought a 6 switch mount


Decided to mount it in front of the shifter where the change holder was


Get to cutting



Had to notch out a part under the console, but it doesn’t effect the clips


Here is is with the switches in( not sure why my console around the shifter looks dented because it’s not.



I’ll finish how I wired it all up in the next post along with how it looks all finished.







Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Ghostbuster]

That is amazing. Thanks for sharing!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Korby7]

I’ve seen these and wondered how well they work. I like the way it turned out. Looks very clean.

 

[BW_Hummer H3]

So unfortunately most of the pics I lost when my phone broke was wiring pictures. However wiring them are pretty simple. The switches that came with the apollointech kit were 3 pin single din. Which means they are only one color when switched on or off. The OTRATTW rocker switches I bought are 5 pin double din lighting. Meaning when the h3 is on they light up in an orange color and when the switch is turned on the upper part lights up a different color. In my case it’s green. So do make the apollointech kit work a little modification is needed to make it work. Also I am not using all six switches or the battery gauge. I eventually am going to wire the 12 volt charge in the last spot of the switch holders.

Here are the switch bodies I ordered


Here is a good thread on how I wired my switches. It is step by step and I found it to be very helpful
https://www.wranglerforum.com/f274/spod-and-otrattw-switch-tech-review-248059.html?amp=1

Noticed the difference in the pins. First the switch bodies that come with the apollointech kit (3 pins)

Compared to the OTRATTW 5 pin double din lighting switch bodies


So the wiring harness provided in the apollointech kit comes with the wiring for 3 pin switch bodies. To make a the harness work you must solder a jumper to the other top pin


These next few pics I am using from the link I posted above. Basically after you solder the top pins together you need to make wire with connectors to the other pin that is added in the 5 pin switch bodies



Here is a picture of my 12 gauge wiring(the black wire) I used to wire the last pin of the switches. Also you can see the extra wiring for a 6th switch which im not using. As well as the connector that connects the switches to the fuse/relay panel. The other end of this wiring going to a wire in my rear wiper switch in my dash to power the bottom lighting of the switch


Next you gotta take the dash part off that covers the radio. So I wire tapped the power to the bottom of the switches (which is the wiring that I added to the 5th pin) into the wiring harness to the rear window wiper. I used the yellow wire because it was labeled as accessory power.


Once you do this you can pin your dash and your center console back in. Basically your finished. So the lid that came for the fuse/relay panel I reused on my mount. To make sure it was somewhat air tight I used some seals that you would use on a window. I did this just to make sure dirt and water wouldn’t splash onto the panel. I’m eventually going to change the seal to a black one but for now it is going to be white.




And added a foam seal to the bottom of the panel



To wire lights up there are many videos and write ups online, but basically you cute all the relays and fuses that come with the lights where all you have left is the the positive and negative wire to the light. Connect it to the panel and it your done. Like this.


Also make sure you connect the positive and negative wiring that comes with the kit from the fuse/relay panel to the battery

Here are pictures of it finished with the cover on the fuse/relay panel



Interior pics


With light bar on


This gave me a ton of headaches when I did this to my H3 so I hope I can save others from some of the headaches I had from this. If anyone has any questions just let me know and I’ll answer.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[BW_Hummer H3]

I’m going to get some better pictures tomorrow in the day so that you can see the switches better


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[cgalpha08]

This is awesome, thank you!

Im planning in doing something similar, I also picked up a switch panel with wiring from amazon some some otrattw switches.

My question is, even with the fise block under the hood, dont you still need a set of wires coming into the cab to run each accessory? So if you have 6 sets of switches, 6 wires coming into the cab?

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

 

[BW_Hummer H3]

This is awesome, thank you!

Im planning in doing something similar, I also picked up a switch panel with wiring from amazon some some otrattw switches.

My question is, even with the fise block under the hood, dont you still need a set of wires coming into the cab to run each accessory? So if you have 6 sets of switches, 6 wires coming into the cab?

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

Yeah technically I guess it is six wires. But it’s in a wiring harness that plugs into the fuse/relay panel and the switches inside the cab



I’ll get some better pics of that harness later today, but those pics give you the idea


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[cgalpha08]

Ok I think I understand what you're getting at. So you spliced/connected the switches up into the harness the spod came with?

I can see how that would make for a clean pass through the firewall vs 6 random wires.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

 

[BW_Hummer H3]

Ok I think I understand what you're getting at. So you spliced/connected the switches up into the harness the spod came with?

I can see how that would make for a clean pass through the firewall vs 6 random wires.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

So the kit is plug and play for a rocker switch with 3 pins. The fourth wire is for the dash light where you splice into a wire in the dash. No splicing required for the harness itself, just the extra wire you need to add to the switches for the dash light. It comes ready with all the wires in the connector to connect to the wiring harness.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[alrock]

Nice job and writeup!

 

[rascole]

Nice job.