The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Cruise control

Has anyone installed an after market cruise onto their old ride? The last one I did was a Sears unit where one glued a magnet to the drive shaft. It seems Rostra is the one most touted now and wondering how difficult the install is. Ididit has one for $225 which is the lowest price I've found and one now has to choose between one with an electric speedo or cable driven. The old right knee locks up if left in one position for an extended time so cruise control is now on the calendar. I'll let the moderator decide if this is General, Electrical, or Drive Line, qualifies for all.

I'm using Dakota HDX gauges with their cruise control and GPS speedo.

Not exactly 'aftermarket' but I used a system from a late 70's GM car, probably a Gran Prix. Mounted the controller on the inner fender and the canister under the dash to operate the pedal directly and I am quite satisfied with it. I like those old simple systems with one button to operate it. It does not control the speed as accurately as the newer digital systems. Lose a couple mph going up a steep hill and maybe gain some going down, but it sure does help on a long trip. It might be kind of hard to find one of those systems now but this was late 1990's when I built it.

Mark

Discounting the safety side of things, the manual throttle works well on wide open spaces and flat roads!

"Discounting the safety side of things, the manual throttle works well on wide open spaces and flat roads!"

Works for me on long empty stretches when my right foot/leg need a break.

RonR

It would be a lot simpler and less expensive to fabricate a left foot throttle pedal, and avoid the surging acceleration/coast modes of most cruise controls and the 2-3 MPG loss of fuel economy cruise control usually causes. Cruise can't anticipate hills and tip in a little extra gas to avoid bogging down and downshifting constantly.
Jerry

I just returned home from a 1900 mile road trip in the 59, used cruise almost the whole trip generally 70-80 mph. in the flat land of western Oklahoma and Kansas I let the cruise take over. In the hill country areas I just over ride the cruise and tip in a little more speed anticipating the hills and it worked out well. No bogging, no downshifting, minimal if any loss of fuel economy and much less fatigue. I would not leave home without it.

Mark

This spring, I installed a Rostra unit on my 1-ton and took it on a 4000 mile trip loaded with a camper. My leg and foot got very tired before, pushing against the return spring at nearly full throttle for hours at a time. Rostra works well, though the safety tach wire and the MSD ignition do not get along and I had to cut the wire to keep the CC from dropping out randomly or so it seemed. I think it drops out when the MSD switches over from multi to single spark at about 3,000 RPM. I used magnets on the driveshaft. Previously I had a unit that was made by Rostra but sold through JC Whitlney and ran on vacuum. At highway speeds with the camper there is so little vacuum that it never worked. So the digital was a huge upgrade. The way it's set up you have to shut it off to down shift on hills. I'll install a clutch switch before the next trip. All in all I thought it was well worth the money and time it took to install.

I think mine was from rostra from Ron Francis. The clutch release switch quit working and the manufacture is owned by someone else and was unable to help. I have a habit of slowing down when I see difficulties.,and the brake pedal switch still works. Also, I had an emergency cancellation switch installed. They may all be difficult to calibrate it is extremely difficult to do. But they all might be the same.