Rostra 250-1223 Universal Electronic Cruise Control

I bought this cruise control to install in a 1998 Ford Ranger 3.0 V6 with an automatic transmission. I installed it along with the Rostra part number 250-3742 cruise control swtich.The first thing to do when considering a unit like this is to research both the product and your vehicle. I read up on this product on various websites and saw that it is pretty good option and is truly a universal unit and can support most any vehicle. To me, this was important because if I decide to sell the truck I could remove it and install it in something else later if I wanted to.When I got the unit I immediately unpacked it, and looked to make sure it was complete. I sat down and read the install manual and went and poked around the truck to see exactly where the best place would be to mount the module and how to route the wires and cables. Its best when installing or setting up anything to sit back and read a little bit and look things over rather than just diving in.I mounted my unit on a bracket on the drivers side, just behind the battery. This gave the best position to allow for the cable to snake around toward the firewall and make a 180 degree u-turn back toward the throttle body with no binding. The install under the hood was very easy, and the hookup to the throttle cable was very simple with the provided adapter for Fords, and the fact that Ford has an actual attachment point on the throttle just for cruise control hookups.I drilled a hole in the firewall just to the right of the steering column, and routed the wiring loom through. I fished the gray speed sensor wire back through and tapped into the wire on pin 58 in the wiring loom on the PCM under the hood. Under the dash it was very easy to tap in to the two brake pedal switch wires 12v hot and the 12v when brakes are applied. with the red and violet wires. I took the fuse panel loose and probed around and found a fused constant 12v hot wire to tap the brown wire into. I closed that up and took the plastic cover off the bottom of the steering column and found a good place to mount the switch to, and then fished those wires down the column to the bottom of the dash. Made all the connections with the quick connects, probed the wires I tapped into with the multimeter one last time to make sure I was getting my voltages and then took some twist ties an secured it all up below the dash.Everything appeared to be in good order, green led was on on the switch, etc, so I took it for a test drive. The unit engaged and tried to hold speed, but was surging. It would pull right up to the speed, then let off by 3-4 mph then pull right up to the speed again. I took it back home and thought about it, and figured it was one of two things. Slack in the cruise control cable or maybe the pulses were set wrong. Indeed, there was some slack in the cable, so I adjusted that and sure enough, when I looked under the rubber grommet at the dip switches I had the module set for 4000 pulses instead of 8000 like to should. I thought I had the module set up right but I didn't. Fixed these two things then went on another test drive and it was solid, right on speed and would hold within 1-2mph of where it should at highway speeds of 65-70, and spot on when I tried it at 45-50 mph.A few days after the install I took it on a trip of about 1200 miles over a period of four days and it was solid the whole time. Pulls hard enough to kick down a gear going up steep hills, and maintain the speed. I might have gained a bit of a mileage increase too, due to the consistency of speed and throttle.In summary, this is great little kit. I give it five stars for ease of install and five stars for performance. I don't really think you can get much better than this. Anyone with any mechanical ability should be able to sit there and figure out how to install this unit easily. Nothing difficult in any way about it. The only small challenges may be mounting the module under the hood for some cars and maybe back probing wires to check for voltages if need be. However anyone with any experience should be able to do that. There's only five wires that could get hooked up to the vehicle and then the cruise cable. From start to finish I had two hours in the install and an additional 45 mins on top of that for the test drives.

This cruise control system is amazing! Install was moderate in difficulty. My truck is a manual and thankfully I could find the TACH wire to prevent over-revving if I use the clutch. The hardest part you will run into is how to get the wire harness into the cab. I ran in through the inside of the passenger fender panel through the passenger door opening. It's hidden, doesn't get pinched and I didn't have to try and drill a hole in the firewall. I paired my up with the Rostra Universal Column Mount Cruise Control Switch 250-3743. Rostra recommend the left side switch for the steering column, but I would rather have it on the right so its balanced with the blinker stalk on the left. There was plenty of room inside the column for it to mount on the right and it looks OEM. BTW, I didn't use the electrical taps per others recommendations that they are not reliable. I decided to solder everything to cut down on errant issues during install.In use, this cruise is a dream come true! My wife's Toyota came with factory cruise control and this kit matches her cruise speeds perfectly! If I tap the brakes, it turns off, if I press the clutch it will rev up to 3200 RPMs and then turn off, protecting the engine. Resume, Accelerate & Coast all perform as expected. Now I can pay attention to the road and surroundings more without worrying if my beefy engine is putting me in the danger zone LOL. It even works great when towing a load too! Don't be like me and install this 5 years later and wish you did it 5 years earlier. It's worth the time & money and will increase your resale as well.

This is my 4th aftermarket cruise control system. I've bought one from Audiovox, and three from Rostra Precision Controls (they used to be called simply "Precision Controls"). Hint: There's a reason why I only bought ONE from Audiovox.I bought my first one from Rostra Precision Controls in 1988. Not much has changed... even the wire colors are the same as they were back in 1988. Except... they used to include a controller/switch/handle (it was actually a universal switch that could be installed flush-mount, on a handle, or several other ways), a speed sensor (which isn't needed on most cars nowadays), and several other parts that are now sold separately. However, given the value of the US Dollar today compared to the value of the Dollar back in 1988... the price of this thing is a steal! I paid almost $200 back in 1988! That's $395.26 in 2014 dollars. And... the fact that the switch ISN'T included is actually a nice thing... you can now pick the switch that fits your application the best.I installed this, along with the 250-3421 switch handle and the 250-4201 throttle adapter on my son's 2002 Hyundai Elantra. Total cost of all the parts (some from Amazon, some from another site): $232, including shipping (using Amazon Prime). That's $117.39 in 1988 dollars. So, that means that Rostra's devices now cost almost HALF what they did in 1988. I'd say it's a bargain! And... they're still made in the USA! Someone should thank them for that.Yes, it's ridiculous what they charge for small parts. For example, I paid $20 + $5 shipping (on another site, which was the cheapest I could find) for part 250-4201, which consists of a couple of simple pieces of metal... and I only used one of them for the Hyundai (250-4201 is made for a Nissan pickup, but fits many Hyundai vehicles too). But, that piece of metal made installation a direct bolt-on. I didn't have to modify anything. The time it saved me is worth $25. The Rostra website told me exactly which parts I needed.End result: It works perfectly. Just like the ones I purchased back in the 80's. My son is a happy camper. This made a great Christmas gift for him, and makes him like his car a lot more.Now, why did I give it four stars instead of five? Well... a couple of things...First, the Rostra website was totally wrong on the wire colors of the brake positive and brake negative wires. It wasn't too difficult to test them to figure it out. Anyone with a volt meter or test light can figure it out. But, the big thing for me, is that the Rostra site didn't list a connection for the tachometer signal (used to disengage the cruise control system if someone shifts the car into neutral or depresses the clutch pedal while the cruise control is engaged). The old system I bought back in 1988 included an inductive pickup for the tach signal... all you had to do was clip it to the #1 spark plug wire. I don't know why they got rid of that. The installation manual said that the optional clutch pedal switch 250-4206 was required for cars equipped with a manual transmission... but my son's car has an automatic, and there was no information about that.Well... I know that it's unlikely for someone to put the car in neutral while they're cruising down the highway... but it can happen... and I don't want my son to over-rev the engine by accident and blow the engine. So...Digging deeper into the included installation manual, I could see that there was a neutral switch wire in the cruise control's wiring harness... but there was no help on the website nor in the manual for locating the neutral switch wire.I got out my repair manual for the car, and looked at the wiring diagram for the starting system, which includes the neutral selector switch. The wire colors in the manual didn't match any of the wires on the shift selector switch. So, I figured out which wire on the starter relay went to the neutral switch by using an ohm meter.What I figured out was that the neutral switch connects the ignition switch (when it's in the start position) to the starter relay's coil when the transmission is in park or neutral. So, when the transmission is in park or neutral... and the ignition switch is NOT in the "start" position, then pin 9 on the connector could "see" ground through the starter relay's coil... which was 78 ohms. "Ground" is what the NSS wire in the cruise control's wiring harness needs to "see" to disengage the cruise control when someone shifts into neutral while the cruise control is engaged.I actually went to college for electronics. My concern was that the NSS (Neutral Switch Selector) wire from the cruise control harness would send enough current through the starter relay so that the starter would always run when the transmission was in park or neutral. I know that the starter relay requires about 150mA (0.150 Amps) to engage... so I wanted to know if the NSS wire on the cruise control would supply this amount of current. Before I connected it, I wanted to make sure that I wasn't going to burn out the starter!So... I called the 800 number for Rostra. The guy on the other end of the phone seemed to not understand what I was talking about. I tried to explain that I wanted to make sure that the NSS wire from the cruise control module would not send enough current to engage the relay. He insisted that NO CURRENT would come out of this wire. I know that's not true. This wire MUST be connected to the input of a chip. Usually, the input of a chip is also connected to a "hold up" resistor, which constantly supplies 12 volts, unless the input is connected to ground. The chip itself is also capable of supplying some current. So, the NSS wire will supply some amount of current. It may be micro-amps, which wouldn't be enough to engage the relay... but, the question is, "How much?"He hung up on me! Unbelievable! I wasn't being belligerent, disrespectful, or rude. I just needed to know... how much current is the NSS wire capable of supplying.Well... after being angry for a little while... I decided to just try it. It worked fine. The NSS wire, which is light green, and terminates about 12 inches from the cruise control module, does not supply enough current to engage a relay.I tested it, and I can shift the car into neutral while the cruise control is engaged, and it immediately disengages... just like it does when someone taps the brake pedal. Actually, after looking at the wiring diagrams for this particular car... if it had a manual transmission, I wouldn't have needed the 250-4206 clutch switch at all! A person installing this cruise control on a 2002 Hyundai Elantra with a manual transmission could simply connect the light-green wire to the original, factory-installed clutch switch (on the side that "sees" approximately 78 ohms to ground when the clutch pedal is depressed), and it would have the same affect.Well... anyway... all-in-all, this is the best aftermarket cruise control you can buy. But, you need to know something about cars and automotive electrical systems.