The solar panel and CTEK D250SE is now fully wired in and after a few days of bench testing, it's working great and keeping both batteries fully charged.

Haven't had a huge amount of time to work on it due to house refurbishments, but I'm now starting to add additional wiring for some 12v LED lights inside the boot and finalise the wiring up to the roof-mounted spotlights.

I took the GPS antenna off the roof and stripped it down, I'd originally intended on adding a raised base to it to run the additional wires through, but after stripping it I've decided to basically throw away the original housing and make a new one from scratch.

The FAKRA style antenna connector I'll de-solder and add a cable straight onto the PCB. I can then create a new base plate and shift the antenna aft of the mounting holes (to clear the bars of the roof-rack and improve reception). This should let me keep it all low-profile and reasonably discreet.

The whole front-section of the PCB is for some other antenna that's not fitted to this vehicle, so could be removed if you wanted to.

Any updates on this Siftah? Really keen to hear progress and see more pics!

Also am really keen to hear your views on the front runner rack. I’m about to buy one and can’t decide between the one you have or the Land Rover Passion version. The LRP one looks even more slimline and I’m really drawn to that over the FR one, which looks twice the thickness in comparison. However, the LRP one seems to be M6 mounting bolts whereas the FR one is M8 and it seems many more accessories use M8 so probably more opportunity for bolt-ons. Also, FR do a fantastic range of accessories for their racks so…choices choices!! Andy

2010 4.4TDV8 Vogue SE in Santorini Black with Ivory interior
2017 Audi SQ5 3.0 V6T Quattro in Volcano Red
2001 Audi Allroad 2.5 TDI manual with low-range in Highland Green. Currently SORN whilst undergoing some serious restoration!

Slow progress due to house refurbishments - I'm currently printing a new panel to replace the boot-mounted cigarette lighted socket+light combo with 4 cigarette lighter sockets and a couple of switches.

Very happy with the FR rack, I had the same debate with the LRP too, but the range of accessories on the FR won me over. For my purpose the height of the FR was perfect as the lip of the rack nicely hides the solar panel, so it's super discreet from ground level.

Haven't noticed much wind noise (there is some, but it's not bothering me at all).


Latest addition is swapping the reverse lights for the LED versions, not convinced they're any brighter though so they'll probably get swapped back!

Again slow progress due to house stuff, starter motor issues and y'know, life, but I finally got the 3d printer working and managed a first draft at a replacement cigarette lighter socket panel for the boot.

The idea here was to add some additional cigarette lighter sockets, with some USB chargers. I also wanted to be able to switch them from the main car power to the secondary battery, or disable them completely.

There's two switches, both 3 position;
1) Boot light; starter battery / off / service battery
2) Socket panel; starter battery / off / service battery

I thought I'd print the top panel in transparent filament, there's a COB LED panel embedded within it. I haven't tried it in the car yet but I think it's a bit brighter than the original bulb, but with a much nicer colour warmth and CRI, as you'd expect from a COB light.







There is a downside, the back of the LED gets a little bit too warm for the PLA I've currently printed it in, so I'll need to get this made in ABS or perhaps just re-design with a space for metal heatsink for the LED, either way as a first attempt I'm pretty happy with it.