This is why I like to shop KC HiLites, AEV, ARB, Bestop, and other such vendors that have delivered quality products over the years. Now, very typically, with a high quality "known" brand name you will be paying a premium for that product but you are "investing" in something that you plan to have for a very long time and that will stand up to the trials and tribulations it will definitely see on the trails.
Having shared this, I am by no means a Jeep parts "snob" and I do not specifically look to find the most expensive thing to put on my Jeep (they just find me). Seriously, I am all about bargains and that is why I love the open box sales that Quadratec hosts and I shop Amazon.com as much as possible. Even when I do buy something that is an expensive "name" brand, I try to find a sale or discount that can help out.
This brings me to my first "Product Review". I added quite a few lights and accessories to my JK over the years and had been wiring each one individually all along. Several folks suggested the S-Pod to me but as it was not a brand I knew too much about AND it carries an extremely high price premium, I was very hesitant to purchase one. Instead I found on Amazon.com the Apollointech Jeep Wrangler JK & JKU 2007-2018 Overhead 6-Switch Pod/Panel with Control and Source System Red Back Light.
I purchased this back in December of 2017 for $179.77 (it's now only $165.99) so have had a full years worth of "history" and experience with it. The main reason I finally decided to buy this was because I had heated seats wired in that were directly connected to the battery and every time I forgot to turn them off, I came out to a dead battery in the morning! As you can imagine, this got really old fast (not to mention the damage it did to my battery).
The install was very straight forward. You run a single bundle of wires through your firewall and up along your window trim to your rear-view mirror. Here you mount the switches. Next, you basically install an extra "fuse box" on the drivers side of your engine compartment and run this to your existing fuse box (small drilling required here) and then connect it to your battery. The directions were decent and covered exactly what you needed to do here and there are also several good videos on YouTube. Once you have completed this step, you can begin connecting your lights and accessories. You no longer have to run all the wires through the firewall and find locations for your switches. Instead, connect them to the new "fuse box" in the engine bay and you are done, this makes life so much easier. Once I get my JL, I will purchase a similar product (I would buy this specific one again but it does not say it is compatible with the JL yet).
Now I am sure the S-POD is also an awesome product as is the new Lynx from ARB but the price for these two systems is still quite high and with a year's worth of experience and zero issues with the Apollointech system, it is hard to pay more.
Happy "Smart" shopping! Jeep Ideas
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