Cruise King Cruise Control

Fredward · February 10, 2012, 08:30:49 PM

I'm thinking of a little late winter project. Add a Cruise King Cruise control to our 8V71 powered MC-5. Have you had any experience either with installing or using the Cruise King?

Installation seems straight forward enough, but lots of small details like Clutch switch, connecting to brake light circuit, 12V power, making brackets to connect the control cable to the throttle, running the cables from the front of the coach to the engine compartment.

Seems like on those 1300 mile drives it would be kind of nice to be able to maintain speed and take your foot off the throttle.

Fred

hargreaves · February 10, 2012, 08:57:53 PM

I installed Cruise King half way through my 9000 mile trip last summer. Love it. Hooked it up the throttle pedal Workes great.

bobofthenorth · February 11, 2012, 03:25:44 AM

Installing a King Cruise was one of the first mods I made to the frenchy-bus many years ago now. Wouldn't want to ever be without it. The module draws a lot of power so make sure to allow for that. I've installed several cruise controls on manual transmissions over the years and never yet bothered to install a clutch switch. YMMV.

bevans6 · February 11, 2012, 05:46:08 AM

If you have jake brakes there may already be a clutch switch, maybe it can be used for this.

Brian

luvrbus · February 11, 2012, 06:08:18 AM

You don't need the clutch switch hook it to brake lites and you will be fine

eagle10 · February 11, 2012, 06:34:41 AM

I put one on the 1984 Eagle 10 and it made driving the bus much more enjoyable. Doing all the things you talked about are fairly easy. The support from King Cruise is great. They will talk you through any issues.

Melbo · February 11, 2012, 07:14:09 AM

The people at king cruise are SUPER and you will really like it on long trips -- You can mount it at the front or back so go for easy (where ever there is 12 volts to work with) I originally mounted mine in the back but because of the way my air throttle is set up I had to move it and connect it before the air module by the accelerator pedal so I got to install it TWICE

Melbo

Fredward · February 11, 2012, 07:19:16 AM

Hargreaves do you have a manual throttle? I would prefer installing it up front to avoid running the cable front to rear.

bobofthenorth · February 11, 2012, 07:33:23 AM

One thing I remembered that you need to pay attention to if you have LED brake lights. Unless they've changed since I installed mine, they need to sense ground through the brake light filament and they can't do that through an LED. My workaround was to put an incandescent bulb in parallel ewith the brakes. I put it up in the electrical panel wherever it was convenient. King Cruise may have changed their circuitry to work with LEDs by now.

TomC · February 11, 2012, 08:26:02 AM

I have an air throttle (I don't know if this would work with the harder pull of a mechanical throttle linkage) which has a light pedal pressure (love that!). I made a small plate and bolted it to the go pedal. The cable goes through the metal plate with a much larger hole so the pedal can be used without the cable being flexed. I mounted the control unit on the passenger side facing down and ran the cable looped under the floor to come up right under the metal plate on the go pedal. The only thing I had to mounted in the engine compartment was the speed generator. King makes a through speed generator-so you take the speed generator off the transmission (V730), install the King speed generator and then the normal speedo generator reattaches to the King speed generator. Running the wires was not a problem since when I converted the bus I had installed 5 3-wire extension cords of different colors running from the engine compartment to the driver's compartment-just used two of those wires. I have LED lights which didn't register with the cruise control. King instructed to install a 100ohm resister in the brake light and ground it. Works well. Surprisingly, the King Cruise works very well with the air throttle. And you can use it for a fast idle too. I am going to install one on my truck conversion also. Good Luck, TomC

Melbo · February 11, 2012, 09:50:48 AM

Tom I mounted my speed sensor at the front wheel -- mixed it up with the speedo sensor

Saved running the wire to the back of the bus.

HTH

Melbo

bobofthenorth · February 11, 2012, 01:37:40 PM

My speedo sender signal comes to the rear panel. I just tied into the nuts in the panel to use the signal from the existing sender.

Ed Hackenbruch · February 11, 2012, 01:49:43 PM

I don't have or want cruise control on anything that i own.

DMoedave · February 11, 2012, 02:23:42 PM

I can remember when i wouldent have an automatic in anything i drive as well

I am down to not having an auto or cruise on any of the bikes! I am considering a cruise control as well on the coach.

Melbo · February 11, 2012, 02:59:29 PM

Hey Ed

How do you get up and make a sandwich while on the road if you don't have cruise

Melbo