I purchased an sPod Bantam to install in my 2018 F 150 4x4, sPod Bantam with touch screen . I absolutely hate running wires back and forth, through firewalls, hooking up relays, finding good places for switches, etc. There are a lot of choices out there some fairly in-expensive, some expensive. It just depends what your needs are and the look you are going for. One big plus for me is the fact that you run 1 cat. 5 cable through firewall. It plugs into the touchscreen inside and the control unit under the hood. No extra relays!

I love simplicity. The next thing is to locate a good accessible spot under the hood of your F 150. I mounted mine on the fuse box lid by the battery.






And that's all it is to it. Another feature I really like is the External Input side. Before, I had my aux back-up lights tapped into the reverse wire of the trailer harness and I had no manual control of lights. What the external input allows is that you run a "trigger" wire. I ran the + and - from the lights and into controller direct (no relays), then reverse wire is tapped and put in position number that corresponds to your light terminal #. Now, the lights come on in reverse and I can now manually turn them on, off, strobe, flash or scene through the touchscreen. I'm currently trying to find a wire from door locks so that many of my lights come on when I hit key fob.

Now the touch screen. I saw a lot of pictures online where switches were commonly mounted to the overhead console in the F 150's. And sPod does supply a bracket for that. But I prefer things mounted in my line of site while driving. That way I can easily touch things without looking away. John at sPod said some people attach a RAM mount ball to the A-pillar. (SPod website carry RAM products). I came up with a way to mount directly to the dash without the triangle ball mount. They sell a 1" ball with 1/4 female threads. So take a look at my next pictures for the final pictures of the install. It's stable, in reach and I used Lock-Tight red to secure all threads to protect against vibrations. I almost forgot, sPod has a 1/4" male in the back for another 1" ball.





The programming is straight forward and you can download App and program some things. You can daisy chain up to 3 more Bantams to this one and still use 1 touchscreen. Slide with your finger and it goes to next Bantam and so on.




You can see how everything is in line of site. I have a Valentine1 radar detector tucked away and use iPhone app (V1 Connection) to run my detector and in the bottom right of the instrument cluster, I have a small concealed display also for my Valentine1. Support was great. I spoke to John about the few issues I had and he promptly responded by email.
sPOD
28910 Avenue Penn
Unit 201
Valencia, CA 91355
661-775-7799

WWW.4x4sPOD.COM


Next up, connect KC Cyclone rock/scene lights, connect KC Flex ditch light, KC Cyclone under hood lights and finish install and connection of KC Flex 20" light bar in front.

 

Nice install on the sPod. But we gotta get you some loom and other wire management options for all that wire running around!

 

That has been eliminated as of yesterday.