Cruise Control


The Rav4EV lacked factory cruise control, so some expense and hassle was required to add this "required" feature. Bummer, yes, but it sure works well once it is installed.  I wouldn't be without it!  Michael Schwabe is the one who located the high-quality system and figured out how to get it working with the Rav4EV. Tom Dowling and I worked with Michael to figure out how best to get it attached to the vehicle. Here are my installation instructions (in WORD). You will likely notice that I veered wildly off course for my own installation pictured below.

This first picture here shows everything you really need to know. You remove everything that looks factory-installed, and add a bunch of wires, and you're done.

Once you are done, this is the only outward indication that anything was added. A new momentary rocker switch on the dash. There are two blanking plates here that keep the tire pressure switch company. (The switch banking covers are PN 55539-42021-BO or 55539-42030-BO)

Driver's view of same.

Here is the switch mounted in a blanking plate before insertion.  It just *barely* fit, but I liked the switch so much, I wanted to make it work bad enough to succeed.

I finally ended up adding an LED indicator lamp. I initially installed it in the blanking plate in the middle, but the steering wheel eclipsed it enough to make it useless. Yes, I have an extra blanking plate, but I figure the empty hole adds more character.

Throttle arm assembly removed from the vehicle. Modification of the throttle arm isn't part of the official instructions, but I rarely do things the easy way. I wasn't about to modify the throttle arm whilst standing on my head under the dash, so I yanked it out of there. Here you can see that there are several adjustments that can be made to the throttle assembly.

This shows the eye that I made to hold the cruise control cable to the top of the throttle arm. The little eye passes through a hole I drilled into the top of the arm. The eye is threaded and is nutted on the other side.  A bit of shrink tube assures that the ball chain will not fall out.

After much trial-and-error, I created my own bracket from the one that came with the CC unit. The gold one is my first attempt, and the bolted silver one is the one I use today. It has the benefit of allowing quick cable slack adjustment because the square hole enables me to snap the cable out of the bracket for adjustment. The bend is in much thicker steel and most definitely stays where I put it. Again, the easy way isn't the Darell way...

Here is the bracket bolted up with the cable snapped into place and the cable end attached to my new eye in the throttle arm. This shot looks up under the dash. Throttle arm is in the lower part of the picture.

If you lived under my dash, these would be your neighbors. The white block at the top is my OBDII interface for the Rav4INFO. The black box is the cruise control stepper motor and brain (dip switches are under the rubber hatch, and the cable comes out the top). 12V lighter plug at the bottom, middle (held to left toe-kick panel with two screws in four holes) is the USB power for the Palm device that runs my Rav4INFO.  The brain for the keyless entry system is in there somewhere too. Lots of wires.


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