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Rostra cruise control - anyone added one to a 2014+?


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I have a 2017 Transit Connect cargo van, LWB XL, no cruise control.

I got it new back in May, got a great deal since they had 2 of them sitting on the lot.

I've been thinking about adding the Rostra 250-9635 cruise control unit: http://www.rostra.com/manuals/250-9635_Form5506A.pdf

Looks pretty simple. Found posts regarding adding similar unit to the Transit van and it confirmed how easy it should be to install.

Anyone one here add one of these to a Transit Connect?

Thanks.

 

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Fifty150, I'll let you know if I end up buying it and installing. It's not a priority since I'm not on the highway much with the van.

The $300 price tag isn't bad, but I'm going to wait. Just had to fly last minute cross country for a death in the family and it put a giant dent in my wallet.

 

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Same here, mrtn.  I'll put it on at a mile or two over the speed limit and I am still the slowest vehicle on the road.  But I use the + and - buttons to adjust my speed as required.  I usually don't disengage ... needed to stop or brake before cancelling.

 

 

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Warning from their instructions:

 

WARNING: DO NOT USE HAND-HELD 2-WAY TRANSCEIVERS INSIDE YOUR VEHICLE WHILE DRIVING. WHEN TRANSMITTING FROM INSIDE THE CAR, 2-WAY RADIOS THAT OPERATE IN THE 25MHZ700MHZ FREQUENCY RANGE WITH MORE THAN 2.0 WATTS OF POWER CAN PRODUCE ELECTROMAGNETIC INTERFERENCE THAT COULD INTERFERE WITH THE OPERATION OF CRUISE AND THROTTLE CONTROLS RESULTING IN VEHICLE "LIMP MODE".

 

So, you better not fire up the ole CB to talk to truckers while your Rostra CC is active, because CB is 27MHz range and might kill your car?! That sucks. 

 

As for adding cruise control, why not add the factory CC? You swap the steering wheel (get one from a wreck at the junkyard?) and then there's like 2 or 3 spots in the computers that need to be 'enabled' and then you have factory CC. As I recall reading, the settings are in PCM, ABS and maybe one other spot (TCM?). You may need to have a Ford dealer use their computer to enable the settings, although I've read about people doing it on the Ford Focus cars (which our vans are based on) with Forscan or maybe Focccus and an ELM327 adapter. $20 for a steering wheel puller if you don't already have one, maybe like $75-150 for a steering wheel and I think I paid around $25-30 for my own ELM327 off Amazon. Not having to cut & solder wires under the dash - priceless. 

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2 hours ago, jrm223 said:

So, you better not fire up the ole CB to talk to truckers while your Rostra CC is active, because CB is 27MHz range and might kill your car?! That sucks. 

 

So I wonder what the effect would be of someone passing you pushing a couple kw? I haven't had a CB in the vehicle since the 70s.

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29 minutes ago, OLDSCHOOLFOOL said:

 

 

I haven't had a CB in the vehicle since the 70s.

 

 

I got rid of mine once I got a beeper.  That handheld CB on my belt was too big & heavy.

Related image

 

 

On 7/20/2018 at 3:10 AM, OLDSCHOOLFOOL said:

Generally, I don't use it except on long trips

 

I don't use it at all.  I wish to remain engaged with the vehicle's operation.  Then there is the crazy part of me that thinks I'm driving a Toyota, and that sudden acceleration can happen.  Sort of like all of those Prius that accelerated to maximum speed, and the operators could not regain control to stop the vehicle.

 

Toyota has recalled more than 14 million vehicles worldwide due to acceleration problems in several models and brake defects with the Prius hybrid. Toyota has blamed driver error, faulty floor mats and sticky accelerator pedals for the unintended acceleration.Nov 2, 2015

Toyota settlement over acceleration problems to top $1 billion

 
 
When asked to describe his cruise control problem, Steve Wozniak said, "It's a little more of a procedure of upping the speed, upping the speed, and then suddenly it just sort of went like it thought you told it to go to infinity."
 
On March 19, 2014 it was announced that Toyota and the U.S. Justice Department had reached an agreement whereby Toyota would pay a US$1.2 billion criminal penalty in exchange for deferred prosecution of wire fraud charges. The agreement also subjects the car company to further independent monitoring of its safety procedures. The penalty ended a four-year investigation in which the Justice Department concluded that Toyota had intentionally hid information about safety defects from the public and had made deceptive statements to protect its brand image. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. remarked "Other car companies should not repeat Toyota’s mistake. A recall may damage a company’s reputation, but deceiving your customers makes that damage far more lasting." The penalty is the largest ever waged against a car company.
 
 
 
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As a long time multiple Toyota owner I followed the process close-up. It was a party for lawyers, not so much for engineers. NASA computer scientists were commissioned to analyze Toyota ECU software. They went through 20M lines of code and simulated every possible condition the car could get into and concluded that there was zero chance (in statistical terms, no chance at all, ever, impossible scenario) of unattended acceleration without the driver’s primary input. 

 

There was a case with a Tundra where a third party floor mat jammed the accelerator and this was also thrown at the case. 

 

The only place apart from the original location (US) the Prius acceleration happened was one case in Norway. As it happened nowhere else this was considered to be part of the collective psychosis (for the lesser part) and opportunistic fraud (for the most part) most of the acceleration cases were. 

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I suppose there was a lot of sensationalism in the press.  Selective reporting results in fake news.  overemphasis on a few points, while completely failing to report the rest of the entire story.  Omission of facts.  It is what sells.  

 

Somewhere along the way, a few good things happen.  TPMS and backup cameras are now standard equipment, no thanks to all those lawyers and the Fake News Network.  

 

Without consumer advocates, our marketplace would still be full of polyester leisure suits, without flame retardant, that catch fire when you're having a cigarette.

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I have disabled the seat belt chime and autolock features.  I hate that noise when I am not wearing the belt.  And I will risk a carjacking, if it means that a first responder can open my doors.   But I haven't gone as far as turning off traction control or airbags.  

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  • 2 months later...

Anyone who comes across this thread - jrm223 was correct, you can easily add factory cruise control to a TC that came without it.

See details in the following thread - be sure to go back and read the whole thread there is a bunch of useful info there:

 

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