SHENANIGANS

upnover said:
Damn that sucks, I hope it has warranty
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It had a warranty for 90 days after I purchased it. It hadn’t even been plugged up yet when that thing expired. I’m gonna just test the limitations of my OCD and run it until it’s completely useless. Then I’ll buy a new one and swap it out.
 
BigSouth said:
It had a warranty for 90 days after I purchased it. It hadn’t even been plugged up yet when that thing expired. I’m gonna just test the limitations of my OCD and run it until it’s completely useless. Then I’ll buy a new one and swap it out.
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If you call them and explain it hasn’t actually been installed they might be understanding. @Hoodw!nk had his replaced and they were pretty cool about it.

You could direct them to this build thread if they wanted to read thru lol.
 
77GreenMachine said:
If you call them and explain it hasn’t actually been installed they might be understanding. @Hoodw!nk had his replaced and they were pretty cool about it.

You could direct them to this build thread if they wanted to read thru lol.
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Just scrolled back and I bought it back in May 2020.
 
untchabl said:
Does that stuff attach to the bottom of your floor or do you make a bracket for it and let it "float" in the air gap between the muffler and the floor?
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Little bit of hot seat going on in the buggy and I realized that I never properly answered your question. Better late than never. Here’s a picture of what Matt did with that giant sheet of DEI material I bought.
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Custom bent with an air gap and riveted to my floor pan. Footwell has not gotten hot a single time. The underside of my seat however is staying warm like I left the butt warmer on. I originally thought there was enough air gap to not notice. I was wrong!
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So hopefully this is the answer. I ordered one of these shields from Flowmaster. Should provide the air gap and if it’s still too warm, I’ll be ordering that same stuff you got to then wrap around the muffler and shield. Here’s what I ordered:
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BigSouth said:
Little bit of hot seat going on in the buggy and I realized that I never properly answered your question. Better late than never. Here’s a picture of what Matt did with that giant sheet of DEI material I bought.
View attachment 400760
Custom bent with an air gap and riveted to my floor pan. Footwell has not gotten hot a single time. The underside of my seat however is staying warm like I left the butt warmer on. I originally thought there was enough air gap to not notice. I was wrong!
View attachment 400762
So hopefully this is the answer. I ordered one of these shields from Flowmaster. Should provide the air gap and if it’s still too warm, I’ll be ordering that same stuff you got to then wrap around the muffler and shield. Here’s what I ordered:
View attachment 400761
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Need to make it pretty easy to remove for the winter time...:beer:
 
Hit my first real snag on the buggy. Signed on for a pretty cool ride called the Southeast Triple Threat. AOP to Windrock to Harlan. Great trip, great group of guys, and finally put the buggy to a real test. Turns out the SwitchPro system has really let me down. Cost me the day at Windrock. At AOP, on a hard impact, the electrical system would shut off and I’d lose all my fans. I’d just manually start them all back. Before long, the whole panel would go into some kind of thermal overload and not do anything at all. Needless to say, I threw it in the trailer at Windrock and rode passenger with our host. Cutler and I did some hot wiring that night and got my fans back so I could ride Harlan. Welp, I’m done with the SwitchPro. This solid state PFM stuff is for the birds. Going back to the tried and true.
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Painless Trail Rocker gives me 8 circuits with old fashioned relays and fuses. I’ve got some sealed toggle switches coming and some fancy labels from Etsy.
 
Interesting issue with the switchpros. Have you asked them about it? They seem very proud of their product and service.

I havent seen the trail rocket setup before...that looks like a good traditional alternative.
 
Pennsylvaniaboy said:
Interesting issue with the switchpros. Have you asked them about it? They seem very proud of their product and service.

I havent seen the trail rocket setup before...that looks like a good traditional alternative.
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Haven’t made any calls. I was somewhat apprehensive to use it at first, but a buddy talked me into it. Even then, I refused to use it as my ignition or start circuits. The Painless setup is not near as compact as the SwitchPro, but at least there’s something there for me to diagnose and repair.
 
Solid state is picky about in-rush and voltage drop.
But shocks is the one thing it doesn't / shouldn't care about.

I'd call the manufacturer and see about getting this taken into warranty.
 
Bebop said:
Solid state is picky about in-rush and voltage drop.
But shocks is the one thing it doesn't / shouldn't care about.

I'd call the manufacturer and see about getting this taken into warranty.
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You’d probably know better than me, but I don’t have any reason to believe that I’d have any kind of in-rush or voltage drop. The brain is sitting in a spot where heat collects and is retained. Not more than an engine bay though. It just really irritates me when all it does is blink at me when it’s mad. I’d rather have a fuse pop and give me an evidence trail to follow back.
 
The blinking pattern and amount is the evidence to follow.
We can side-bar this convo, but I beleive you may have a fan on its way out.
 
Bebop said:
The blinking pattern and amount is the evidence to follow.
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Normally I would agree with you, but when the entire panel shuts down and all the lights flash, there’s nothing to follow. If the panel was functioning properly, it would isolate a single circuit and only that light would be flashing. And no need to side-bar. This is my build thread and I welcome all facts, opinions, and suggestions.
 
I think you have another issue at hand. The problem is it would be easier to isolate and diagnose with a simple circuit and a toggle switch so I can certainly see the attractiveness to ditch thew SwitchPros.
I have bellied out hard, and dropped off some stuff and taken some incredible hits with no issues. However I'm running a factory ECU, and my ignition and fans are not tied into the SwitchPros. The SwitchPros controls my all other things like lights and stuff. I once had it set up with a fan off switch, but I took that out.

If I were to build from scratch right now, I would run things the same. @tobaccoroad4wd has had similar issues with total ECU and ignition power loss. I think he finally solved that, but early on he did have everything running thru the switch panel. I feel like its best to have those things be stand alone so they can be isolated and diagnosed easily, with no chance of electrical interference from those things (fan, ignition, winch)
 
77GreenMachine said:
@tobaccoroad4wd has had similar issues with total ECU and ignition power loss. I think he finally solved that, but early on he did have everything running thru the switch panel.
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I had issues, for almost a year. Bought new alt, new battery, @Chris_Keziah tried to tune it, but couldn’t find anything wrong with the tune, (but did find some sketchy wiring and cheap switches), new wiring, (thanks a million @Mulishajoe) new switch panel with actual relays,… the list goes on.
My issue ended up being that the new battery I bought turned out to be junk from the start and wasn’t holding a charge. The original battery (yellow top) was losing charge because the case had been cut down to fit in a group 34 battery box. (Yes, you read that right. PO trimmed the battery to fit in the box)
Check your voltage and make sure your connections are tight and you don’t have a bad ground.
Everything on the buggy is run through the voswitch. Only negative I can say about them is that the stickers they provide suck at allowing you to tell if something is on or not, in daylight. Nighttime there is no issue. My plan is to trim the sides of the stickers so the led is more visible in daylight. My relays are mounted to the pass side firewall, with about a 1” gap for air flow. And the switch panel itself is directly above the trans/t case, for now.
After all of that, I’d build another from scratch and use the 12 gang voswitch to control everything again. Relays and fuses are easy and cheap to bring along, and available at every parts store, convenience stores, some gas stations etc.
 
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tobaccoroad4wd said:
I had issues, for almost a year. Bought new alt, new battery, @Chris_Keziah tried to tune it, but couldn’t find anything wrong with the tune, (but did find some sketchy wiring and cheap switches), new wiring, (thanks a million @Mulishajoe) new switch panel with actual relays,… the list goes on.
My issue ended up being that the new battery I bought turned out to be junk from the start and wasn’t holding a charge. The original battery (yellow top) was losing charge because the case had been cut down to fit in a group 34 battery box. (Yes, you read that right. PO trimmed the battery to fit in the box)
Check your voltage and make sure your connections are tight and you don’t have a bad ground.
Everything on the buggy is run through the voswitch. Only negative I can say about them is that the stickers they provide suck at allowing you to tell if something is on or not, in daylight. Nighttime there is no issue. My plan is to trim the sides of the stickers so the led is more visible in daylight. My relays are mounted to the pass side firewall, with about a 1” gap for air flow. And the switch panel itself is directly above the trans/t case, for now.
After all of that, I’d build another from scratch and use the 12 gang voswitch to control everything again. Relays and fuses are easy and cheap to bring along, and available at every parts store, convenience stores, some gas stations etc.
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Already been through all the battery and ground checks. Even went back and put star washers to ensure a good bite on my grounds. No issues found. I should mention that I’ve fought gremlins out of the SwitchPro since the first ride. To get back to the basics, I went with the Painless (very similar to the fuse/relay box of the voswitch). Only difference for me is I’m going back to individual, triple sealed, K4 toggle switches. Even bought 2 spares to keep in the electrical bag. Not even running lights on the switches. If they’re up, they’re on.
 
I'm so old school on wiring. I like the thought of switchpro or something similar but cant justify the cost or the potential headache like what youve had. Nothing needs a relay except radiator fans. It's completely fine to argue that i'm wrong and it is safer to use them but my shit works fine without them and always has. I actually didnt start having electrical problems until I went to using a relay on my big gay 16" radiator fan. Youve made the right choice by getting back to basics imo.
 
I understand the distrust in the electronic systems, but why use fuses ? Circuit breakers are so much nicer and don't require bringing spares.
 
Bebop said:
I understand the distrust in the electronic systems, but why use fuses ? Circuit breakers are so much nicer and don't require bringing spares.
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The Trail Rocker already has a few slots in the box for spares. I can also buy fuses at any auto parts store, anywhere. Hell, I’m willing to bet there’s spare fuses riding around in half the rigs on the mountain. It’s the KISS philosophy.
 
BigSouth said:
The Trail Rocker already has a few slots in the box for spares. I can also buy fuses at any auto parts store, anywhere. Hell, I’m willing to bet there’s spare fuses riding around in half the rigs on the mountain. It’s the KISS philosophy
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the foil wrapper on cutlers cigarettes will work in a pinch lol
BigSouth said:
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Was gonna go with Sharpie, but this'll have to do.
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You know my rig pretty good @BigSouth , And the biggest electrical issue I ever had,... I didn't have, you did, when you borrowed it to go to the Dixie Run a few years back. for those that wanna know, it ended up being a bad distributor cap(that wasn't that old) The probe on the inside top of the cap, had burned through, leaving no connection for the cap to get Most of my wiring is stockish, It's GM engine wiring grafted into my YJ stock wiring. My toggle switches power My fans (they come on with a thrmostat, but with ignition off, I can turn them on manually as well) my rock lights, snf my fuel pump. I used to have issues with switches failing, so I switched them to basic toggles that you can buy at any auto parts. So far, they have not failed. Most all of my Jeep, is stock Chevy, or stock Jeep, So other than my axles, and my T-case, I can get replacement parts any where. I Keep a spart alternator because I have had so many fail, finally found that if I run RPM's higher that 6 grand, it takes them out. I much prefer the KISS method.
 
Little trip up to Mayberry to use the Maestro’s tools. Here’s what I made. Most likely get it powder coated some form of satin or gloss black.
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Decided to have the new panel Cerakoted through a local gunsmith. Turned out pretty good and should be just as durable as the powder coated panels. Also had to use a 3/4” piece of HDPE to space out the face of the panel just enough to clear a hydraulic line. Then a slight bend in the shifter to make everything clear. Pretty happy with the end product.
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