Originally Posted by
Laffs
It's a fully jammed luxury vehicle, I'm sure a work trim truck would have empty fuses to tie in to or have the option to get upfitter switchs. As much as they're "removing" look at what we gained. My last truck was full jam for it's year, it had leather, heated front seats, and a shit nav/stereo that wouldnt pass muster on a base kia today. My new one is 8 years newer and has glorious heated and cooled seats, gods gift to man the heated steering wheel, an amazing nav/stereo that rivals my dads german stuff with epic voice control, rides like a dream, gets better economy, has all sorts of real time monitoring and is probably smarter than I am. I gave up the straight forward leaf suspension, and a lot of simplicity in turn but man it's worth it. Also old isnt always more straight forward. I spent yesterday installing GPS tracking in a bunch of our trucks, I sure as shit enjoyed the plug and play on the newer stuff a hell of a lot more than having to hard wire the old. You ever seen the wiring on a 1990 International 4700? Fuck.
Manufacturers don't want people altering their stuff, hurts warranties and there's no way to monitor or control the level of work. I'm sure you've seen DIY appliance repairs that leave you wishing they called you first instead of trying to Tim Allen it themselves. It would be interesting to see what Ford's solution would be to this, perhaps an ODB plug adaptor?
End of the day it's just cost of progress by going with micro fuses over standard they gain more room for the heated steering wheel module or lane departure assist we all need for some reason now. I'm sure in 2 years crappy tire will stock microfuse taps and it will be easy peasy to add circuits. Price you pay for having the latest and greatest is you're always riding the curve of the unknown. If you want bulletproof, easy to fix, and stands the test of time usually you have to forgo all the comforts and luxuries we love so much. I keep finding myself pining for a 1995-1998 Ram 2500 with the 12V diesel and a long bed. I'm sure it would be a great truck but I'd miss those heated and cooled seats and smooth ride quite a bit.