Review on Rostra 250 1223 Universal Electronic Control by Muleme Bollinger

Bought this cruise control for a 1998 Ford Ranger 3.0 V6 with automatic transmission. I installed it with a Rostra cruise control switch, part number 250-3742. The first thing you should do when considering such a device is to examine both the product and your vehicle. I've read about this product on various websites and found this to be a pretty good option, a really versatile unit that can support almost any car. That was important to me because if I decide to sell the truck I can take it off and put it on something else later if I want to. When I received the device, I immediately unpacked it and checked that everything was in order. I sat down and read the installation guide, then went and looked around the truck to determine exactly where the best place to mount the module was and how to route the wires and cables. When installing or setting up, the best thing to do is sit back, read a little and look around, and not just dive in. I mounted my device on the driver's side bracket just behind the battery. This gave the best position and allowed the cable to loop to the firewall and make a 180 degree turn back to the throttle body without binding. Installing under the hood was very easy, and connecting to the throttle cable was very easy with the Ford adapter that came with it, plus the fact that Ford only has an actual attachment point on the throttle for connecting the cruise control. I drilled a hole in the firewall to the right of the steering column and routed the wiring harness. I routed the gray wire from the speed sensor back and connected it to the wire on pin 58 in the underhood PCM wiring harness. Under the dash, it was very easy to connect the two brake pedal switch wires: 12v when hot and 12v when braking. with red and violet wire. I removed the fuse panel, looked around and found a 12vdc fusible wire to connect the brown wire to. I closed it up, removed the plastic cover from the underside of the steering column and found a good spot to mount the switch, then routed these wires down the column to the bottom of the dash. Made all the connections with quick connectors, checked the connected wires one last time with a multimeter to make sure I was getting my voltages, then grabbed some zip ties and secured the whole thing under the dash. Everything seemed fine. OK, the green LED on the switch was on etc. so I took it for a test ride. The block turned on and tried to maintain speed but sped away. It pulls straight up to speed, then releases 3-4 mph, then pulls back to speed. I took it home and thought about it and realized it was one of them. Weakness in the cruise control cable or maybe the impulses were set incorrectly. Indeed the cable was a bit slack so I adjusted it and indeed when I looked under the rubber grommet for the DIP switches I found that the module was set for 4000 pulses instead of 8000 as it should. I thought I configured the module correctly, but I didn't. Fixed those two things then took another test drive and it was solid, true to speed and stopping within 1-2mph of where it should be at 65-70mph on the freeway and right when I got it at 45- 50 attempted km/h. A few days after installing it I've put about 1200 miles in four days and it's been solid the whole time. It pulls strong enough to shift into gear and maintain speed when climbing steep hills. I might also up the mileage a bit due to the speed and throttle consistency. All in all, this is a great little set. I give five stars for ease of installation and five stars for performance. I really don't think you can get much better. Anyone with mechanical skills should be able to sit down and understand how easy it is to install this device. There is nothing difficult in it. The only minor issues on some cars might be installing a module under the hood and maybe checking the wires in reverse to check for voltage if needed. However, anyone with some experience should be able to do this. There are only five wires that can be connected to the car, and then the cruise control wire. From start to finish I had two hours to install and another 45 minutes to test drive.