No doubt in my mind, it should be de-activated in all vehicles, full stop! The only thing that should control your speed is wide awake you and your right foot. Should your attention… wander, there’s a 44 tonne projectile out of human control.
Discuss.
personally, i think Cruise Control would have been better off sticking with his previous username Pecjam 
Cruise control is great IMO. Have it in the car and the truck.
You prob say the same about auto boxes?
In it’s current form CC can be unsafe especially in cases where a driver has a medical problem or nods off as the vehicle will not slow down.
They are developing a CC where the driver has to keep the foot anywhere on the pedal except fully on or fully off so that when CC is used it will keep the set CC speed - this will allow the driver to put the pedal fully down to increase speed immediately if needed and taking the foot off the pedal will disengage the CC - very sensible
cruise control is a good thing when driving long distances, de activating at wouldnt make a diffrence as you can still control the speed the truck travels at with your foot or the cruise control, if the driver feels he is getting drowsy then he/she will know themselves to stop and take a break
good thing
people say drivers nodding off while using the cc can cause pile ups, if there was no cc and you’re driving on an open motorway with a limiter your foot’s going to be wedged on the pedal anyway! i nodded once on the m11 many years back, unfortunately my foot stayed planted on the pedal, the van driver in front also nodded off but his foot came off the pedal, i woke doing 65 about twenty feet behind this van doing about 10! both lads in the van were very lucky just suffering from minor cuts and bruises, the van was spread accross all three lanes!
I use mine all the time, as long as the road is clear in front of me, I think it’s better from a safety perspective, knowing that my speed is ok I can concentrate on the road at all times, it also allows me to have my foot hovering over the brake pedal when moving in steady traffic, that way if it all stops in front of me my braking is almost instantaneous, it may only be 10ths of a second faster, but a 10th of a second at motorway speeds can be the difference between stopping & crashing.
The argument that it’s dangerous if the driver falls asleep or becomes ill, has some merit, well it does if you believe that we should all be wrapped in cotton wool, but those are rare occurences & whether you’re on cruise or not if you become unconsious while doing 56mph there’s going to be a big bang at some point, it may be at a lower speed, it may not, either way a moving vehicle with an unconsious driver is not going to be pretty.
ROG, using the throttle to set/disengage cruise is kind of defeating the object, don’t you think 
shuttlespanker:
personally, i think Cruise Control would have been better off sticking with his previous username Pecjam
■■■■ it I got beaten to it, quick off the mark mr c, too quick for me 
newmercman:
ROG, using the throttle to set/disengage cruise is kind of defeating the object, don’t you think
NO - the purpose of CC is to keep the vehicle at a set speed and not so the driver can do nothing with the right foot.
The new system (when developed) will allow the driver to flex the right foot so it is not uncomfortable being set in one position - any cramp is therefore reduced
Good thing, just use it when it is appropriate. people nodded off and kept going causing them to crash long before CC was about and they still do so when not using CC.
those who want to use it can, those who don’t want to don’t need to. Let’s not have more rules restricting our choices, we already have far to many pandering to teh lowest common denominator.
As with any item used to help make life lighter there are good and bad points but what ever it is the person who uses the equipment who is the
one responsible for what happens, I like the it and used to use it when working
I have one in my Van and its great , horses for courses, each to his own
There were still accidents with drivers falling asleep before cruise control was fitted to trucks,but how many drivers on
here almost hit the rear of a truck thru’ a driver nodding and coming off the gas abruptly , slowing without warning and
veering across the road , i know it happened to me.
At least now drivers keep to a speed set by the limiter/cruise control, what used to bug me were drivers who just could not keep to a set speed and would slow,speed up overtake then back off again, what a pain in the arse that is ,a lot like the poor car drivers we have to contend with nowadays who do the same,especially thru’ contra-flows.
The main thing here is to ‘KNOW’ when your too tired to drive and pull up,regardless what the boss will say if the delivery is late,as they say better late than never.
Cruise control (used correctly) is one of the best things fitted to a truck ,and given the choice auto box or cruise, im sorry but criuse control wins hands down.
ashbyspannerman:
good thing
people say drivers nodding off while using the cc can cause pile ups, if there was no cc and you’re driving on an open motorway with a limiter your foot’s going to be wedged on the pedal anyway! quote]Before cruise control there were other methods of driving without the throttle, when limiters first came out, a lot of lorries had handthrottles, many drivers used to have these pulled out instead of using the pedal, some of the hand throttles were able to over-ride the limiter too
I had a D series Ford that had a really heavy throttle, it did about 64mph flat out, when going up the motorway I used to wedge the wheelbrace that normally lived behind the driver’s seat between the dash & the throttle, if I needed to brake I could knock the wheelbrace out & hit the middle pedal with one movement, of course traffic volumes were a lot lower than today, I’m sure I’m not the only one to have done this, in fact I know I’m not as I learned it from my Dad
I suppose its something like we had on the railway DSD vigilance device,that was a foot treadle which had to be reset every 60 seconds,kept you awake 
Dunno how that would work in a wagon mind
Simon 
newmercman:
I’m sure I’m not the only one to have done this
You ain’t the only one - I know 
When i started driving i had screwdriver for cruise control in a Merc 813,a 2 foot long stick in a Cargo,then when i moved onto artics i had the luxury of hand throttles in a Volvo F88, F10 and Scania 3 series, then things really got technical a piece of welding rod in a Roadtrain, ive not used a house brick yet but know some that have!. Im pleased to see im not alone.
There used to be some throttles you could lock with a screw thread, they didn’t knock off so quick. 
Nothing wrong with cruise controls, especially on the well rutted roads of Belgium, you can nip into the bunk for 10 minutes when you are tired.
i love my cruise control…i love my auto box…anything to make my life easier. 
I like to think i’m a good thing 
Just to clarify things, I don’t like Cruise Control, where you set the speed then take your foot off the gas.
I DO like speed limiters, where you set the speed, say 30, 40 or 50 mph and no matter how far down you press the gas you won’t go any faster.
You shouldn’t need to “wedge” your foot to keep the pedal down. Fly by wire pedals don’t need it. (Older vehicle may…)
“You prob say the same about auto boxes?” Au contraire, I think they are an excellent idea as long as you have the manual overide and drivers are taught how to use it. Of course some drivers know everything and never learn…