The 2nd generation Auxbeam switch comes with hardware for more options to mount your switch panel as well as auto-dimming led backlighting. The older models, like mine, have a white “signal” wire that you apply power to in order to dim the backlighting to your preference.

Love mine – here is a question – are the Amp Loads just based on the fuse they put in place or is there electronics built into it that determine that. I am going to be hooking up a 12V Pump and only have 5AMP slots left. I would prefer not having to move things around to install.

Breivik, Ø., Bidlot, J.-R. & Janssen, P. A. E. M. A Stokes drift approximation based on the Phillips spectrum. Ocean Model. 100, 49–56 (2016).

Tahir, F., Baloch, A. A. B. & Ali, H. in Sustainability Perspectives: Science, Policy and Practice: A Global View of Theories, Policies and Practice in Sustainable Development (eds Khaiter, P. A. & Erechtchoukova, M. G.) 303–329 (Springer, 2020); https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19550-2_15

Zelenke, B., O’Connor, C. & Barker, C. General NOAA Operational Modeling Environment (GNOME) Technical Documentation (NOAA OR&R, October 2012); https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/gnome_manual

By no means I’m steering people away from this panel, but this has been my experience dealing with this style of panels. I understand people have different budgets for different things, and I’m just sharing my experience with installing this.

Etkin, D. S. et al. in Oil Spill Science and Technology 2nd edn (ed. Fingas, M.) 71–183 (Gulf Professional Publishing, 2017); https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-809413-6.00002-3

I built my Trail Edition to fit my needs, and to this day I am still changing things. It\'s a process and more importantly it\'s a journey. Whether your 4Runner is fully built or fresh off the lot, get out there and drive it!

If you are like me (and probably many others out there), spending $600-$1,000 on a modular power supply like the Switch Pro and/or sPOD for lights and accessories simply isn’t feasible. With so many options out there, finding the right budget-friendly power supply was no small task.

Sundby, S. A one-dimensional model for the vertical distribution of pelagic fish eggs in the mixed layer. Deep Sea Res. A 30, 645–661 (1983).

Barker, C. H. et al. Progress in operational modeling in support of oil spill response. J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 8, 668 (2020).

Global Gas Outlook to 2050 (McKinsey & Company, 2021); https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/industries/oil%20and%20gas/our%20insights/global%20gas%20outlook%20to%202050/global-gas-outlook-2050-executive-summary.pdf

The oil-spill dispersal simulations were performed with the open-source model OpenOil (version 1.60) available at https://opendrift.github.io. The Python programmes used to produce the key results of this study are available at https://forge.uclouvain.be/dobbelaeret/scripts_anselain2022_natsustain.

I completely agree with Eric. This switch panel is 100% garage. I had purchased it directly from Auxbeam and after installing it, it did not work as well. So, I contacted Auxbeam, requesting a refund. I told them that the unit was defective and didn’t work. They wanted me to submit pictures and videos of the problem. I told them that I had already uninstalled the entire unit and all I wanted was a refund. They kept insisting on me taking pictures and a video of the alleged problem. I told customer service that pictures and a video won’t show them what was wrong with the unit. They still insisted on pictures and a video. Long story short, after going back and forth with about 4 emails, I finally had to threaten Auxbeam. I told them that if they were not willing to refund me, I was going to have the charges reversed and report them to the Better Business Bureau. After, that they issued a refund immediately. I ended up going with another brand called Voswitch. I’m glad I did and probably should have initially. I’ve had no problems. The unit was around $270, on Amazon. You’ll pay a little bit more but I think it’s worth the extra money you pay.

The Auxbeam 8 Gang Modular power distribution and switch panel was my first choice; it was easy on the wallet, coming in under the $200 mark, and boasted quality construction and materials. Like most, I didn’t want a ton of switches in place of my OEM switches in the dash. After all, there are only so many blanks to fill and mine were already full! With lights, a fridge, the 110v outlet, and lights galore, my options were pretty slim (I needed close to seven switches to power all of these accessories individually).

Amir-Heidari, P. & Raie, M. Probabilistic risk assessment of oil spill from offshore oil wells in Persian Gulf. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 136, 291–299 (2018).

Pictured throughout, you’ll notice that I only have two of the stickers that come with the kit; I am in the process of re-wiring some of the switches and needed to change around the indicators. However, the kit comes with a very nice set of options for icons. What’s even better is, the stickers are reusable.

Keramea, P., Kokkos, N., Gikas, G. & Sylaios, G. Operational modeling of North Aegean oil spills forced by real-time met–ocean forecasts. J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 10, 411 (2022).

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

As for mounting the small metal plate that holds my switch panel, I decided to use some small screws to fasten the plate down. I will be changing this soon to double-sided tape as well.

The authors thank J. Lawler and M. Vermeersch from Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute for the helpful discussion on the country’s oil-spill mitigation plan and B. Shomar from Qatar University for the discussion on water reserves in Qatar. Computational resources were provided by the Consortium des Équipements de Calcul Intensif (CÉCI), funded by the F.R.S.-FNRS under grant no. 2.5020.11. E. Heggy acknowledges support from the Zumberge Research and Innovation Fund of the University of Southern California (USC) allocated to the Arid Climates and Water Research Center—AWARE. Part of E. Heggy’s research was carried out at USC under contract from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) (OASIS-SAA-00630). The funders had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript.

I have had my 4Runner for quite a while and am no stranger to pulling panels, routing harnesses, and drilling. I will explain how to mount it with drilling and without.

Hussein, H. & Lambert, L. A rentier state under blockade: Qatar’s water–energy–food predicament from energy abundance and food insecurity to a silent water crisis. Water 12, 1051 (2020).

Fingas, M. in Oil Spill Science and Technology (ed. Fingas, M.) 243–273 (Elsevier, 2011); https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-1-85617-943-0.10010-3

Batchelder, H. P. Forward-in-time-/backward-in-time-trajectory (FITT/BITT) modeling of particles and organisms in the coastal ocean. J. Atmos. Ocean. Technol. 23, 727–741 (2006).

I do installations and wiring part time and recently I had a GX came in for electrical issues. Mainly, the air pump doesn’t turn on. After troubleshooting and testing, I came to the conclusion that the panel is bad, so I swapped it. And it still wouldn’t work. I then found out the panel utilizes a different connector, so I swapped the whole unit out. Upon testing before wrapping up the job, nothing turned on. So I opened another unit, which was dead. 2 out of 2 dead units dead on arrival. Reported and showed the issue to customer and convinced the customer to go switch-pro. No issue after.

Thoppil, P. G. & Hogan, P. J. Persian Gulf response to a wintertime shamal wind event. Deep Sea Res. 1 57, 946–955 (2010).

If you are looking for a budget-friendly option to control all your accessories on a safe and isolated set of circuits and relays, look no further. The Auxbeam 2nd Gen comes in under $200 and the construction and quality feel as if it was priced like the competition.

The oil-dispersal simulation outputs for every month and every coastal infrastructure are available at https://zenodo.org/record/7340698 (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7340697). The atmospheric and oceanic circulation data used to force the oil-dispersal model are freely available at https://www.ecmwf.int/en/forecasts/datasets/reanalysis-datasets/era5 and https://data.marine.copernicus.eu/products. The marine traffic data used to compute the shipping exposure indicator can be purchased at https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/p/ais-historical-data.

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Yu, Y., Notaro, M., Kalashnikova, O. V. & Garay, M. J. Climatology of summer shamal wind in the Middle East: summer shamal climatology. J. Geophys. Res. Atmos. 121, 289–305 (2016).

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Out of the box, the installation is pretty straightforward. The mounting hardware that Auxbeam included is for mounting the relay box to the bracket as well as assembling the switch panel itself. I used some simple self-tapping 10mm head bolts to mount my bracket in the engine bay.

BluetoothSwitch Panel

E. Hanert and E. Heggy designed the experiment. T.A. and T.D. conducted simulations. All the authors examined the results and wrote the manuscript.

From here you are finished with the installation. All that is left is for you to wire up your accessories and put the corresponding icons over which switch that accessory is on.

AuxbeamSwitch PanelManual

That is perfectly understandable. Me and about 8 or 9 of the members of a group I am in have switched over to these with no issues whatsoever. It is always possible to get a bad lot.

Al Azhar, M., Temimi, M., Zhao, J. & Ghedira, H. Modeling of circulation in the Arabian Gulf and the Sea of Oman: skill assessment and seasonal thermohaline structure. J. Geophys. Res. Oceans 121, 1700–1720 (2016).

Marhoon, Y. Qatar Response Plan Version 5 (OSRL, 2021); https://www.oilspillresponse.com/globalassets/external-links/covid-19-updates/emea---qatar-response-090420-1030.pdf

Quattrocchi, G. et al. An operational numerical system for oil stranding risk assessment in a high-density vessel traffic area. Front. Mar. Sci. 8, 585396 (2021).

Eager, R. E. et al. A climatological study of the sea and land breezes in the Arabian Gulf region. J. Geophys. Res. 113, D15106 (2008).

With plenty of room behind my fuse box, I decided this would be the best option as my onboard air was already mounted in the rear of my 4Runner. There are two (2) holes that these bolts will almost perfectly thread into, providing a very tight and almost perfectly level mount.

That is interesting, honestly. As I said in a lower comment, with it being a cheaper option, I can definitely see some bad batches being a possibility. As for the customer service, its rough that you had a terrible time with them. I haven’t run into that yet and have been going strong for quite some time now. Although I will keep my eye out for any hiccups. I am curious as to what problems you were having though!

Dale, S. bp Statistical Review of World Energy 2021 (bp, 2022); https://www.bp.com/content/dam/bp/business-sites/en/global/corporate/pdfs/energy-economics/statistical-review/bp-stats-review-2022-full-report.pdf

The construction is great, the installation was easy, and powering lights, fridge, etc. has never been easier. There is no hassle with installs, and I have plenty of options. I have yet to find anything I don’t like other than the older generation’s dimming process. I would buy this again in a heartbeat and never look back. So far, I love the company and have used a number of their products from their lights to this switch panel and have had no complaints.

Best8 gang switch panel

Mohieldeen, Y. E., Elobaid, E. A. & Abdalla, R. GIS-based framework for artificial aquifer recharge to secure sustainable strategic water reserves in Qatar arid environment peninsula. Sci. Rep. 11, 18184 (2021).

Suneel, V., Ciappa, A. & Vethamony, P. Backtrack modeling to locate the origin of tar balls depositing along the west coast of India. Sci. Total Environ. 569–570, 31–39 (2016).

Glad you asked, from my understanding, the lanes/circuits are all the same, so my conclusion is that the amp loads are based solely on the fuses.

8 Gang SwitchBox

Anselain, T., Heggy, E., Dobbelaere, T. et al. Qatar Peninsula’s vulnerability to oil spills and its implications for the global gas supply. Nat Sustain 6, 273–283 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-022-01037-w

Once the relay box is mounted securely to the bracket, it is time to wire in your controller/switch panel and power inputs. Now, it will show Amp ratings for each of the possible circuits/switches you can use, so there shouldn’t be much confusion there.

Evtushenko, N., Ivanov, A. & Evtushenko, V. in Advances in Remote Sensing and Geo Informatics Applications (eds El-Askary, H. M. et al.) 343–347 (Springer, 2019).

Androulidakis, Y., Kourafalou, V., Robert Hole, L., Le Hénaff, M. & Kang, H. Pathways of oil spills from potential Cuban offshore exploration: influence of ocean circulation. J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 8, 535 (2020).

Ciappa, A. C. Reverse trajectory study of oil spill risk in Cyclades Islands of the Aegean Sea. Reg. Stud. Mar. Sci. 41, 101580 (2021).

Dagestad, K.-F., Röhrs, J., Breivik, Ø. & Ådlandsvik, B. OpenDrift v1.0: a generic framework for trajectory modeling. Geosci. Model Dev. 11, 1405–1420 (2018) https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-11-1405-2018

De Dominicis, M., Pinardi, N., Zodiatis, G. & Archetti, R. MEDSLIK-II, a Lagrangian marine surface oil spill model for short-term forecasting—part 2: numerical simulations and validations. Geosci. Model Dev. 6, 1871–1888 (2013).

When wiring up to power and ground, run your ground to either the battery ground or a standard body ground (either works just fine). When wiring up the power wire, you will need to connect one section of the wiring to the inline fuse to the battery and the other section from the inline fuse to the distribution box. You can secure the inline fuse assembly however you would like. Personally, I used double-sided 3M tape.

Garcia-Pineda, O. et al. Classification of oil spill by thicknesses using multiple remote sensors. Remote Sens. Environ. 236, 111421 (2020).

I routed the harness through the firewall, zip-tied the excess wiring to the existing harnesses in the vehicle, and then cut a small notch into my plastic panel where the vent housing the corner cap of the dash met (hence why I included trim tools in the “Tools Needed” section).

This is the most recent experience I had with this style of panel. Prior experiences are about 33% dead on arrival rate. There are other companies that sell this exact same panel and my guess is they all came from the same manufacture and different “brand” slap on their packaging after.

8 Switch PanelSystem Universal

Abotalib, A. Z., Heggy, E., Scabbia, G. & Mazzoni, A. Groundwater dynamics in fossil fractured carbonate aquifers in Eastern Arabian Peninsula: a preliminary investigation. J. Hydrol. 571, 460–470 (2019).

The install was pretty straightforward and after 2 years, I have had no issues with the kit. In fact, the relay box has been soaked 3 times and the relay box and switch panel are working like the day they were installed.

I’m getting ready to install this unit. So finding this post is extremely helpful. I see someone else asked about the fuses and their lane, can I swap to higher amperage? I’m not going to use all the accessories at once or turn them all on at the same time. Thanks again

The harness has a braided shroud all the way to the connector for the switch and is very sturdy. The connector is an odd one, as you connect the two parts by lining up the arrows, pressing them together, and then once they are seated you spin the collar on to fully secure them to one another.

RGB8 GangMultifunctionSwitch Panel

I can’t get over this switch and relay system. It has made life and modifying so much easier. I would give this product 4.8-5 stars, any day of the week.

Surkes, S. 2017 oil spill closed three desalination plants for three days, official reveals. The Times of Israel (19 March 2021).

More than 20% of global liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports and almost all of Qatar’s drinking water production originate from three industrial sites on Qatar’s eastern coast. They are all vulnerable to oil spills, and this vulnerability remains largely unquantified. Here we model oil-spill dispersal in the shallow maritime waters surrounding Qatar to identify which offshore areas and times of the year pose the greatest threat to the nation’s LNG export and seawater desalination facilities. By combining oil transport simulations with marine traffic data, we identify two high-risk areas, sizing up to ~15% of Qatar’s maritime exclusive economic zone. Ras Laffan’s LNG terminal has the highest vulnerability to oil spills all year, and its desalination plant, producing 30% of the national water supply, has a seasonal vulnerability peaking to an alarming level twice a year during spring and fall. Both LNG export and desalination facilities could be impacted by oil spills occurring outside of Qatar’s maritime borders in less than three days. We suggest that offshore high-risk areas be closely monitored with airborne and satellite synthetic-aperture radar providing early warning for oil spills that could severely disrupt Qatar’s LNG exports, further aggravating the global gas crisis.

Li, Z., Spaulding, M. L. & French-McCay, D. An algorithm for modeling entrainment and naturally and chemically dispersed oil droplet size distribution under surface breaking wave conditions. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 119, 145–152 (2017).

Switch Panel

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Hofste, R. W., Reig, P. & Schleifer, L. 17 Countries, Home to One-Quarter of the World’s Population, Face Extremely High Water Stress (World Resources Institute, 2019)

Annual Statistics Report 2020 (Kahramaa, 2021); https://www.km.qa/MediaCenter/Publications/Annual%20Statistics%20Report%202020%20English.pdf (2021)

Li, Z., Spaulding, M., French McCay, D., Crowley, D. & Payne, J. R. Development of a unified oil droplet size distribution model with application to surface breaking waves and subsea blowout releases considering dispersant effects. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 114, 247–257 (2017).

Nature Sustainability thanks Johannes Röhrs, Simonetta Cheli, and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

Gang Panel

Zodiatis, G. et al. The Mediterranean Decision Support System for Marine Safety dedicated to oil slicks predictions. Deep Sea Res. 2 133, 4–20 (2016).

First, you need to get the harness routed from your distribution box through the grommet in your firewall and then route it to wherever you want to mount your switch panel.

Huynh, B. Q. et al. Public health impacts of an imminent Red Sea oil spill. Nat. Sustain. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-021-00774-8 (2021).

Daily oceanic and atmospheric circulation patterns in the central part of the Gulf throughout the year 2020. In the summer, the oceanic circulation is dominated by a large cyclonic (that is, anticlockwise) gyre, and the atmospheric circulation is dominated by southeastward summer shamal winds. Similar, although weaker, circulation patterns are observed during winter months. In spring and autumn, the oceanic circulation is more variable with more mesoscale eddy activity. The atmospheric circulation is also weaker and less directional.

Lehr, W., Jones, R., Evans, M., Simecek-Beatty, D. & Overstreet, R. Revisions of the ADIOS oil spill model. Environ. Model. Softw. 17, 189–197 (2002).

Thoppil, P. G. & Hogan, P. J. A modeling study of circulation and eddies in the Persian Gulf. J. Phys. Oceanogr. 40, 2122–2134 (2010).

I just installed the V2 of the Auxbeam 8 gang switch panel and it works properly. The problem I am having is in connecting the light wires to the Output Connections. When I tighten down the screws the power goes out. Can you please explain how to properly secure wires into the Output Connections. Thanks 1

Once your mounting bracket is installed in the engine bay, you will want to check the instructions provided to mount your relay box to the support bracket. The support bracket that you just installed in the engine bay has various different holes pre-drilled for different orientations.