Switch panel in bed for accessories - what's your setup?

[chorky]

I'm interested in seeing what others have done for mounting location / style of their switches for 'house' accessories. Pictured below is the passenger side of course. The portion forward of the ARB is spoken for. Also the portion rear of the ARB is spoken for.

I have a small panel (maybe 2.5" x 4") that I need to find a solution and place to mount. As well as a voltage readout, cigar lighter port, and usb charger port. I am thinking of just getting a simple plastic box (like even a junction box if nothing else) and bolting it to the bottom lip of the canopy for now. Another option would to mount it at a 45 degree angle in the right rear corner so it can be seen/accessible from the tailgate area or the passenger side canopy door.

I do not have fabrication abilities due to lack of tools and a place to fabricate - so unless someone wants to make something for me (which would be super awesome) it has to be something easily found on amazon or a local hardware store.

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[HooliganActual]

My use case may be a bit different than yours but the device is still pretty slick. In my overlanding setup I'm using a Trigger Controller 4 Plus to manage all the house loads. (pictured to the right of the fuse holders)

It's nice because you can really mount it anywhere (mine was originally mounted under my hood) and control it with either the buttons on the front, the provided RF remote or via BT with an app on your smart phone.

They do make a 6 channel controller as well. Also the app will allow you to operate multiple Trigger Controllers if you wind up needing more and don't want to deal with multiple RF remotes.

I also run one of these for accessories on my Wrangler as well.

 

[chorky]

Thats pretty darn cool! I would be worried if losing it though lol

 

[HooliganActual]

Thats pretty darn cool! I would be worried if losing it though lol

Losing what? The RF remote? It comes with a mount that can be put anywhere. The remote and base are magnetic. Originally I had it mounted like this (the base has two screws into the metal):

But after I redid the whole bed setup, I put velcro on the back of the remote and mounted it to the rear canopy door:

You can just mount it on your dash or wherever. Not to mention, there is an app for your phone. I literally almost never use the remote because I use the app.

Sitting at the campfire and want to turn on scene lighting? - phone app

Middle of the night "business" and need to climb down from the RTT - phone app

And so on.

 

[Jaxmax]

I have a switch panel on dash that is wired to be always on , with a Voswitch switch panel to turn it all off, currently hooked to main battery but thinking of other options along with adding at least a 100 watt rubber mat solar panel on top of Cap. I control the air compressor, ARB fridge, cap lights, water pump and GMRS radio from the panel, wanted the GMRS to be on battery not ignition in case stopped with engine off can still talk and listen. I have a heavy duty cord running from Voswitch panel under the hood to the grey plastic box, and bottom of the box is an ARB fridge 12v power outlet, there is also a ARB power outlet on passenger side of bed for the kitchen slide I am going to build with phone charger, water pump and prep lighting. There is a two position center off switch on the grey box that feeds the two white marine grade cords up is going to recessed white lights in cap and down will be two red lights for surf fishing in morning and night to save night vision. Planning on insulating the roof of my RSI cap with 1” Dow foam board covers with white plastic wall board. The ARB Element fridge is going to be mounted up off the floor above wheel well on a frame that will be easily removable, the fridge location will allow access through side window or rear , it will be up against the ARB compressor. I have all the stuff including a small porta pottie but time, really looking forward to it. Spring turkey season, kayak fishing in Jamaica Bay , NY and surf fishing Island beach state park in NJ are reasons for sleeping in back of bed. NJ let’s you sleep in parking lots off beach if you are self contained, which I hopefully will meet that requirement with porta pottie……Jack

 

[chorky]

Losing what? The RF remote? It comes with a mount that can be put anywhere. The remote and base are magnetic. Originally I had it mounted like this (the base has two screws into the metal):

But after I redid the whole bed setup, I put velcro on the back of the remote and mounted it to the rear canopy door:

You can just mount it on your dash or wherever. Not to mention, there is an app for your phone. I literally almost never use the remote because I use the app.

Sitting at the campfire and want to turn on scene lighting? - phone app

Middle of the night "business" and need to climb down from the RTT - phone app

And so on.

Thats a nice setup. Yeah i just sorta drew out how the storage will go in mine yesterday and the best location seems to be the right rear corner of the canopy but tht requires some minor fabrication. My neighbor might be able to help me with that. It would offer the ability to see and access from either the tailgate area or right side canopy door.

 

[chorky]

I have a switch panel on dash that is wired to be always on , with a Voswitch switch panel to turn it all off, currently hooked to main battery but thinking of other options along with adding at least a 100 watt rubber mat solar panel on top of Cap. I control the air compressor, ARB fridge, cap lights, water pump and GMRS radio from the panel, wanted the GMRS to be on battery not ignition in case stopped with engine off can still talk and listen. I have a heavy duty cord running from Voswitch panel under the hood to the grey plastic box, and bottom of the box is an ARB fridge 12v power outlet, there is also a ARB power outlet on passenger side of bed for the kitchen slide I am going to build with phone charger, water pump and prep lighting. There is a two position center off switch on the grey box that feeds the two white marine grade cords up is going to recessed white lights in cap and down will be two red lights for surf fishing in morning and night to save night vision. Planning on insulating the roof of my RSI cap with 1” Dow foam board covers with white plastic wall board. The ARB Element fridge is going to be mounted up off the floor above wheel well on a frame that will be easily removable, the fridge location will allow access through side window or rear , it will be up against the ARB compressor. I have all the stuff including a small porta pottie but time, really looking forward to it. Spring turkey season, kayak fishing in Jamaica Bay , NY and surf fishing Island beach state park in NJ are reasons for sleeping in back of bed. NJ let’s you sleep in parking lots off beach if you are self contained, which I hopefully will meet that requirement with porta pottie……Jack

You know I thought about doing something similar and running the control panel into the cab. But then I figured in the future I might want the opportunity to turn on some camp lights without having to open the drivers door each time. So I figure doing a bed mount would make more sense. I also am going to do a main on/off switch. The switch pro (which will power my bed items) draws very little power but sometimes the Gladiator sits for several weeks. Although I am installing a hard mount battery charger/tender hopefully soon.

I think it would be cool to run a pair of wires though up to the cab and install a very simple and low power LED light just to reflect that the bed power system is turned on, just as a little reminder so I don't forget to turn it off lol.

 

[chorky]

So since the electric panel is in place now, I sat outside a while today with some scrap wood and a tape just thinking and contemplating how to set up the switch panel.

The panel itself is small - maybe 2" tall and 4" wide at best, and 1/3 inch thick. However, I have a few other things to also add in the same area. I have a button switch which will power the voltmeter to monitor voltage while camping, and I also have a usb and cigar lighter port to put somewhere. Those two items may or may not be used often but I want to keep them available.

So right off the bat I can think of a few ideas here. I could mount it on the back side between the fridge and the electrical panel - but this would require opening the tailgate to operate anything. Or I could mount it on top of the canopy lip there so it is lying flat facing up. It could be accessed from either the tailgate area or the side door in that configuration, although doesn't look super pretty. Or I could mount it on....something...and facing the side door but that would require opening the side door for access.

Another thing that has me a little confused is what to do about the electrical stuff itself. I had thought of building a box around it, but I want to keep the fuses easily accessible - you never know. And being to the side of the fridge there is little chance of things bumping up against all that stuff. It's not quite as clean as I would have liked but some of that is due to wires being shorter than desired, and I don't really want to add just a few inches of wire.

Anyway, just looking for suggestions if anyone has any. I was hoping (and still am) that I can find a way to mount it on top of the canopy lip on the passenger rear side with it angled at a 45 degree angle into the bed so it can be seen and accessed from either side door or back tailgate - however, I have not come up with a solid solution that is also clean.

 

[Jaxmax]

I think I would put the electrical panel board in a PVC waterproof box and then mount your switches and sockets on the side of the box towards the tail gate, all nice and clean can’t really hit switches with something unless trying hard. Electrical supply houses and Home Depot might also have Carlin brand boxes…. Jack

 

[chorky]

That's kinda what I was thinking too, my local Ace has plenty of options. The only downfall of that is the plastic used for those don't take paint all that well so I would have to be ok with a grey color - probably not the end of the world though.

 

[chorky]

I think I would put the electrical panel board in a PVC waterproof box and then mount your switches and sockets on the side of the box towards the tail gate, all nice and clean can’t really hit switches with something unless trying hard. Electrical supply houses and Home Depot might also have Carlin brand boxes…. Jack

So I decided to cut a few test pieces of wood from an idea I have toyed around with for a while. I think it might be a solid option. It could accomplish a few things - a source to mount the Switch pro switch interface, a place to mount a battery select switch, a place to mount the 12v power and USB power ports, give a flat spot to set something like a phone while it is charging, and also shade the wires from the sun and UV rays. The latter is very important I think since wires usually are not (to my understanding) UV stable. I could still mount the switches on a box in the corner or somewhere else. The whole thing is fairly 'waterproof' since the one under my hood is all exposed - so short of flat out being dunked in water, I'm not really that worried about it.

Now it does look kinda funny being a small little box like that as pictured above. So I had another thought of running the plywood further back to the end of the fridge slide which would also cover up the compressor. Or I could even run it even further to cover up the tank and just keep going to where the 813 mole panel ends so that I have something to tie into and don't cover up the tie down on the front of the bed. This might be even a better idea since it would 'hide' the compressor from thieves (makes me so mad we have to protect ourselves like that). But it wouldn't be really providing any sort of function other than covering things up - and adding weight. With either option, I really think leaving the front of the electrical panel as pictured below open (or some type of hinge system) would be critical so that fuses and things can be relatively easily accessed.

I honestly probably should have moved the compressor further forward and mounted the tank horizontally to offer more space for electrical wiring - I may end up doing this later as it would be nice to have a 2 gallon tank. Using extruded aluminum would be optimum for appearances, but I'm not sure I really want to go that route right now as the plastic panels used with them are quite pricy and I'm sure they're at least the same weight as the plywood.

 

[ttn333]

Old basic power box with switches, anderson power connector, 12v cig plug and usb. Using it to control lights, power for oven, diesel heater, water pump and instant hot water.

 

[Jaxmax]

I am no where as far as you, I have a Voswitch under the hood hooked direct to battery with no ignition cutoff, yellow cable is ten gauge extreme duty cable going to the grey box in back, bottom of the box has an ARB power outlet for fridge, and a two way center off switch to control ceiling red and white lights, opposite side of bed by tie down is another ARB outlet for the sink stove slide I am going to make in time for Spring gobbler season. Have all the stuff a small stainless sink, low profile drain, cook partner stove, and 48” slides. I want to put a Cascadia 100watt Toyota hood solar panel on the top of my cap and feed in through air vent. Thinking of the Genesis bare frame for two AGM batteries, and a Redarc dc/dc perhaps. I surf fish and have had to power wash all the salt out of the back after a stormy tournament so water resistant is important, whole inside of the truck was white with salt. The single air compressor airs my tires up fine if there are no ramp air stations, don’t see the need for a tank. Cutting up a ARB fridge slide to mount the fridge on top of driver side wheel well. Anyway so that’s it! Measure what size box would cover your electric, and how deep four inches? Might do you a solid. ….Jack

OMG, I posted the same thing about a month ago on this thread, don't get old boys, the memory is the second thing to go, but I can't remember what the first was!

 

[chorky]

Oh man I thought I had it bad with salt spray on the roads here in winter but your case sounds 10 times worse!! Sounds like a good plan though to keep it all well protected - that's really the key for longevity!

 

[chorky]

Bringing this up again. I am brainstorming ideas. The PDC in the bed is going to get a re-do this winter. I am changing around some electrical things and it's a good opportunity to work on this as well.

Here is a photo of the current setup. Well almost, it does not reflect the added Blue Sea battery selector on the bottom of that wood piece, nor the solar controller. I am running zamp - https://www.zampsolar.com/collectio...itional-battery-5-stage-pwm-charge-controller. For now the controller is just sitting on the top of the wood box to the right of the fridge.

Ok, so, the fridge slide is being modified. It will sit probably 4" higher or so. When the slide is pulled out, it can be a pain to get to the switch pros panel you see here. So I need to relocate it. This is a nice spot since it is out of the way, but when the fridge is out, I have to walk to the right side of the bed to operate anything. Not a huge deal, but that is also where the awning ends. The awning is being relocated to the driver side, so if it is raining out, or if I had the awning walls on, I really wouldn't be able to get to the passenger side of the tailgate easily.

I have thought about relocating the entire group of buttons to the left side of the canopy where the awning will mostly cover, but I'm not sure I have enough wire for that and I dont know if extending the wire for the switch pros will cause other issues. I have thought about making the wood box taller, so the switch panel can be above the fridge facing at an angle toward the left rear of the tailgate. But I also like it being below the lip of the tailgate so passerbys dont easily notice it. Although, it's hard to miss the tent and rear winch bumper anyway. Doing this though would also pose a difficulty in making the box or deciding how to build it. Another consideration is also using extruded aluminum and plastic panels rather than wood. To make it more complicated I also would like to mount the zamp controller on a face so it is easily readable. Currently it just is sitting on top of the box while being tested so I have to open the side door and get on tippy toes to see the readout. That is just a temporary situation.

So...just looking to see if folks would post more pictures of their setup to maybe spark some ideas and conversation.

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