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Pedal Commander Bites the Dust

I am not an automotive engineer and the following is my personal opinion.

What's important to remember is that devices such as the Pedal Commander and similar interface with a safety critical system on the vehicle, but as aftermarket devices they are often not designed nor tested to the same rigor required by federal and manufacturer's safety standards or requirements. As mentioned by others in this thread these devices can fail (and may even be expected to!) - and as with any device or component in a safety critical system, that failure should result in a fail-safe condition.

The question is whether or not you can trust such aftermarket devices to fail-safe, knowing that the design and manufacture likely does not meet the same standards or requirements that the manufacturer applies to OEM components. If you answer to that question is yes, the follow-up is one of liability: if the device fails and causes a loss, who is responsible? You, the device manufacturer, or both? Does your insurance coverage remain intact if such a device is shown to have caused the loss? If such a device causes a loss or grave injury, will you be able to accept the fact that a modification you did was the cause?

While that list of questions is not exhaustive, each owner needs to understand those questions and their answers before installing such a device. Personally I will not be installing a Pedal Commander or similar on my truck.
 
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jimchi said:
I am not an automotive engineer and the following is my personal opinion.

What's important to remember is that devices such as the Pedal Commander and similar interface with a safety critical system on the vehicle, but as aftermarket devices they are often not designed nor tested to the same rigor required by federal and manufacturer's safety standards. As mentioned by others in this thread these devices can fail (and may even be expected to!) - and with any device or component in a safety critical system, that failure should result in a fail-safe condition.

The question is whether or not you can trust such aftermarket devices to fail-safe, knowing that the design and manufacture likely does not meet the same standards or requirements that the manufacturer applies to OEM components. If you answer to that question is yes, the follow-up is one of liability: if the device fails and causes a loss, who is responsible? You, the device manufacturer, or both? Does your insurance coverage remain intact if such a device is shown to have caused the loss? If such a device causes a loss or grave injury, will you be able to accept the fact that a modification you did was the cause?

While that list of questions is not exhaustive, each owner needs to understand those questions and their answers before installing such a device. Personally I will not be installing a Pedal Commander or any similar device.
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I recall this to be one of the main selling points of the Banks “Pedal Monster”, i.e. it is designed such that if it does fail, the Ram system defaults to OEM behavior.

I’ve not tried either the PC or PM, but (to your point) I can appreciate having fail-safes when interfacing with safety-critical parts.
 
Mine malfunctioned too! The truck was parked and running while I ran in the store real quick. I came out and the CEL, service stability control, service throttle control, service trailer tow all were on! I managed to drive it home & I thought the truck just had a little hiccup so I disconnected the battery to let it reset (because how could anything have gone wrong while it was parked?!). I reconnected it and the lights were gone so I thought I was good. Later that night I went out and made it about a mile before all the same lights came on again and the truck went into limp mode and wouldn’t go past 40mph and was super slow accelerating. I turned around and immediately thought since it’s a throttle issue that it may be the pedal commander. I disconnected it and everything was good! It’s a pretty ****ty feeling when your expensive truck all of a sudden has the dash lit up like a Christmas tree - especially when it’s a Ram and you know the dealership won’t do crap to fix it. Glad it was only the pedal commander and not the truck itself! It was a fun 8 months but I don’t think I’ll be reinstalling it.
 
jimchi said:
I am not an automotive engineer and the following is my personal opinion.

What's important to remember is that devices such as the Pedal Commander and similar interface with a safety critical system on the vehicle, but as aftermarket devices they are often not designed nor tested to the same rigor required by federal and manufacturer's safety standards or requirements. As mentioned by others in this thread these devices can fail (and may even be expected to!) - and as with any device or component in a safety critical system, that failure should result in a fail-safe condition.

The question is whether or not you can trust such aftermarket devices to fail-safe, knowing that the design and manufacture likely does not meet the same standards or requirements that the manufacturer applies to OEM components. If you answer to that question is yes, the follow-up is one of liability: if the device fails and causes a loss, who is responsible? You, the device manufacturer, or both? Does your insurance coverage remain intact if such a device is shown to have caused the loss? If such a device causes a loss or grave injury, will you be able to accept the fact that a modification you did was the cause?

While that list of questions is not exhaustive, each owner needs to understand those questions and their answers before installing such a device. Personally I will not be installing a Pedal Commander or similar on my truck.
Click to expand...

That is all true. But some aftermarket devices are still better designed than others. Pedal monster is at least acknowledging potential problems and made attempts to address it right in the design. Point number 2, is that when we see feedback from other users like this then we can start noticing trends and adjust our recommendations. I haven't seen any problem reports with our Rams and the Sprint Booster. I have seen a bunch now with the Pedal Commander, so it shouldn't be recommended anymore (IMHO), or a the very least, mentioned that some users are reporting unintended acceleration and/or dead pedal and/or a beautiful christmas display. Perhaps the Sprint Booster is just less popular so less error reports then as well.

The second I see 3+ reports of the Banks Pedal Monster causing trouble, it gets ripped out of my truck too. So far I've just seen one user reporting that it prevented a uconnect update, which I find a little odd and I'll just file away as "noted" for now.
 
Kxlexus said:
After only 22,000 miles on my Pedal Commander, it caused all sorts of problems last night. Multiple error codes, truck would accelerate on its own, then not go very fast no matter how much you pushed the accelerator pedal. I have never adjusted the PC while my foot is on the pedal either. It was fun while it lasted but that was downright dangerous last night. I wouldn’t put another one on if it was free and glad my wife or daughter wasn’t driving it when it messed up. I advise anyone to save their money. It isn’t worth it
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Like others have said I was thinking of getting one, but not now.
 
Bearman95 said:
I’ve read enough that I am removing mine! Safety is much more important!
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That is why I posted. Just to tell others of the experience I had and let others know what could happen.
I never intended to sound like I was “on a soapbox” like one guy said. I never meant to be “preaching”. Never meant to cause arguments or hard feelings.
If I had it to do over again, I wouldn’t have said a word. I doubt I’ll bother to post on here again
 
Kxlexus said:
That is why I posted. Just to tell others of the experience I had and let others know what could happen.
I never intended to sound like I was “on a soapbox” like one guy said. I never meant to be “preaching”. Never meant to cause arguments or hard feelings.
If I had it to do over again, I wouldn’t have said a word. I doubt I’ll bother to post on here again
Click to expand...
Sorry to hear that you feel that way. Everyone reacts to posts differently. What you posted is very important for folks to be aware of. There are a ton of PC users...RAM and otherwise. Hundreds of thousands that have not experienced what you have. Some have and I can only imagine that it was a very scary thing to witness and would effect all of us, most likely, in the same way. However, with that being said, it's another for certain folks to beat the message like a dead horse over and over again as this thread approaches 77 replies. I look at it this way...people will do what people do and some will not buy one because of this...others will look for deals in the classified section and some will just ignore it.

We are all happy that you are safe and that nothing bad happened. What I have been saying for a while, although some won't let go, is that the message has been stated LOUD & CLEAR for all to take notice. No need to beat the horse one more time saying the same thing over and over again.

God Bless you my friend and may everyone make their decision knowing the risks of any aftermarket product you may decide to install on your vehicle.
 
Kxlexus said:
That is why I posted. Just to tell others of the experience I had and let others know what could happen.
I never intended to sound like I was “on a soapbox” like one guy said. I never meant to be “preaching”. Never meant to cause arguments or hard feelings.
If I had it to do over again, I wouldn’t have said a word. I doubt I’ll bother to post on here again
Click to expand...
I wouldn’t worry about it man, most of us get it and thanks for bringing it up. There have been reports for years on this in another thread on here. It’s happened to my PC about 5 or 6 times. I even sent it back under warranty and they sent it back saying no faults found. It was fine for awhile then happened again.

I’m glad I found this thread because I didn’t know about the pedal monster. I’ll be ordering one of those and getting rid of the pedal commander. Some people in here trying to defend it, but it does have a fatal flaw and I don’t trust it.

I couldn’t image watching the video about the PM and then deciding to buy a PC.
 
I just turned in my 2019 Big Horn with the 3.6 and used the PC with 21K miles and never had an issue. The same one works in my new 21 B2S with Hemi Etorque but I will wait a few hundred miles to try. The gas mileage on my new truck is awful averaging about 13.8 with 75% hwy miles. I'm hoping my 2nd fill up will improve.
 
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