69 ORIGINAL
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- Ken
- Joined
- May 18, 2019
- Threads
- 3
- Messages
- 70
- Reaction score
- 89
- Location
- San Antonio, TX
- Vehicle(s)
- 2018 JLUS 3.6L & 2020 JLUS 2.0L
- Occupation
- Finance
- Thread starter
- #1
Recently installed the SPOD Bantam with the HD controller (buttons) in my 2018 JLU Sport to control some KC ProSports and in anticipation of other overland upgrades. Bottom line ... with less than zero experience doing anything but taking cars to the dealer ... it was so much easier than I suspected. Took about 2-3 hours of YouTube research online and about 2 hours to get it done. No blood, no screaming! The Bantam instructions are very straightforward and the downloadable bluetooth app make setting up the HD screen easy. That plus YouTube videos and you are all set! A few things to note:
1) There is a half-dollar sized hole in the firewall to the cabin on drivers side. With the hood open, pop your head in on driver's side and you will see a black gasket/plug that keeps it shut. I took that out, drilled a small hole in the plastic plug to fit the Bantam-to-HD cable through and then put some electrician's tape around that on both sides to seal things up. That one controller cable is the only wire that needed to go into the Jeep cabin for the whole install! So easy! You can find a YouTube video on where to locate the hole.
2) In the cabin, was not hard to disassemble the trim between driver's side door and the dash to run the cable up to the dash mount position I wanted. I just had to pry back enough space to get a clean run of the cable up from the footwell to the dash under the trim between the door and up to the pillar. The cable comes out right at the base of the pillar just above the dash speaker. Mounted the HD controller on the dash just in front of the steering wheel where it does not interfere with my view of the road. Tried putting it on the pillar - but that interfered with side visibility. Easy peasy! When driving at night, you can easily toggle the HD controller back-light off and on to preserve night vision.
3) I mounted the Bantam unit on top of the JL passenger-side fuse box using double velcro tape. It holds ok - although did not work very well in 110F Big Bend sun
Anyway, its not going anywhere. I might take the time for a more permanent mount at some point in the future. The provided cable to the HD screen was just long enough to get to the Bantam with about a foot or so of extra if I needed it. There's a very easy set of screw-contracts for the devices you want to hook up and dip switches to configure everything. So easy!
4) The factory-installed aux switches look like such a pain to install. You basically have to rip basically all of the trim of the interior dash just to get to them. What a pain. Easy my arse. With the Bantam - its one and done. You can add and swap up to 8 devices right to the controller under the hood without all of that built-in fuse nonsense - just two wires directly from the device to the Bantam. So easy.
5) I've had a chance to use the KC ProSport lights in Big Bend and on the Padre Island Seashore. The HD controller buttons worked really well. No issues. There's some fancy stuff you can set up like flashers / strobes - but I'll never use those again most likely. Just nice to have a clean-looking install without wires and switches all over the place. Really, really happy with this upgrade.
1) There is a half-dollar sized hole in the firewall to the cabin on drivers side. With the hood open, pop your head in on driver's side and you will see a black gasket/plug that keeps it shut. I took that out, drilled a small hole in the plastic plug to fit the Bantam-to-HD cable through and then put some electrician's tape around that on both sides to seal things up. That one controller cable is the only wire that needed to go into the Jeep cabin for the whole install! So easy! You can find a YouTube video on where to locate the hole.
2) In the cabin, was not hard to disassemble the trim between driver's side door and the dash to run the cable up to the dash mount position I wanted. I just had to pry back enough space to get a clean run of the cable up from the footwell to the dash under the trim between the door and up to the pillar. The cable comes out right at the base of the pillar just above the dash speaker. Mounted the HD controller on the dash just in front of the steering wheel where it does not interfere with my view of the road. Tried putting it on the pillar - but that interfered with side visibility. Easy peasy! When driving at night, you can easily toggle the HD controller back-light off and on to preserve night vision.
3) I mounted the Bantam unit on top of the JL passenger-side fuse box using double velcro tape. It holds ok - although did not work very well in 110F Big Bend sun
Anyway, its not going anywhere. I might take the time for a more permanent mount at some point in the future. The provided cable to the HD screen was just long enough to get to the Bantam with about a foot or so of extra if I needed it. There's a very easy set of screw-contracts for the devices you want to hook up and dip switches to configure everything. So easy! 4) The factory-installed aux switches look like such a pain to install. You basically have to rip basically all of the trim of the interior dash just to get to them. What a pain. Easy my arse. With the Bantam - its one and done. You can add and swap up to 8 devices right to the controller under the hood without all of that built-in fuse nonsense - just two wires directly from the device to the Bantam. So easy.
5) I've had a chance to use the KC ProSport lights in Big Bend and on the Padre Island Seashore. The HD controller buttons worked really well. No issues. There's some fancy stuff you can set up like flashers / strobes - but I'll never use those again most likely. Just nice to have a clean-looking install without wires and switches all over the place. Really, really happy with this upgrade.
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