[Floridian]

I was not going to post this but maybe it works as a future documentation post, I don't know.

I even bought 2 different steering columns, one for a Monaco RV and another one for a Toyota Prius. Why would I buy a Toyota Prius steering column, you would think? Well..I have the steering column with hydraulic help, but the Toyota Prius has an electric steering column, and if you don't have the master can bus device it enters into a fail mode safe where it only uses your input on the steering wheel to help you with moving the direction of your wheels (normally that electric help is based off of several devices inputs, like speed, steering wheel angle sensor, engine RPM, etc. etc. etc.) so when none of those other devices are available it just uses the angle sensor on the steering wheel to help you move the steering wheel. Well....I gave TRC steering columns a call, because I wanted to buy an. electronic steering column to replace my GM steering column, this way I will have the motors to move the tilt and telescoping functions on the steering wheel and they started asking questions about how many pounds the steering wheel should handle and a bunch of other technical questions that, of course, I have no idea were needed so at that point I thanked TRC for their support but I was super scary to change something and find out at the worst possible time that this vital component might fail.

Anyway, the only thing I wanted to do was to change the steering wheel of my Newell because, while having a beautiful wood steering wheel, is not something I feel 100% comfortable with and I really wanted to try the smart wheel and the feeling of it felt better to me, more like a car steering wheel, but then again I've seen so many stories about the spring going broken that I just put that project in the back burner as I currently have a perfectly functioning steering column, just wanted to have some extra stuff that is not super vital.

Oh, also with the smart steering wheel I bought the box that comes with it, the ones that decodes the buttons from the wheel, this particular one, uses LIN (I think) and I wasn't able to dedicate a bunch of time to decode the protocol so I just bought the box and you end up with a bunch of relays where you connect your "utilities" (wipers, lights, etc.) to it but also read that those relays go down often as well....

Anyway, just wanted to share what I already did and why I didn't move completely to the swap of the steering wheel swap/upgrade/change yet. I still want to do it but probably will take it to a shop to do it. One shop told me they can solder an adapter on top of the GM steering column so I can keep the steering column and still have the smart wheel on top of it but I will need to wire the spring clock in there, somehow and might not be the best idea in the worlds.

As I said at the beginning this long post is just to kind of document what I did for future me when I come back with all the energy to do the same and don't forget what I already went thru  hope it helps somebody else out there as well.