Might buy a 2025 ranger, does "hands on wheel" alert turn off?

[TravelinJoe]

Greetings (and Merry Christmas too)!
I hope you don't mind me asking a question.
What a time to be shopping for a new truck. I saw a very nice 2025 Ford Ranger XL at a dealership recently, and the price was good.
I would have bought it already except for one thing: the "hands on steering wheel" alert. I understand that this comes with most modern vehicles these days. Is there a way to turn it off permanently, or does it come back on every time I would start up the truck or every time I use cruise control?

I'm old-fashioned and I don't like naggy features beeping at me, and I certainly don't want my steering wheel to vibrate from a haptic feedback system, ever. I read that people are having trouble with the feature telling them to put their hands on the wheel when they already have both hands on the wheel.

I'm scouring the internet looking for info, but some of the info contradicts.
What I understand is:
1. There's an auto stop/start that shuts off the engine at red lights.
a. but I can disable it by pushing a button after I start the truck.
b. it can be disabled with an aftermarket part from 4D company.
2. There's a "Lane Keeping System" that includes a "hands on wheel" alert.
a. I might be able to disable Lane Keeping by pressing a button on the steering wheel twice (?)
b. The Lane Keeping might re-enable itself every time I turn on cruise control, so I would have to push the button twice again.
3. There might be a "driver alert" if the truck thinks I am swerving too much. But there are a lot of windy roads and potholes to avoid in my area.

If I turn Lake Keeping off in the menu, will it stay off? Or does it turn itself back on when I start the truck up the next day? Can I always turn it off from a button on the steering wheel, or do I have to navigate through the menu to do it?

Thank you in advance if you can offer any help or suggestions. I have an old truck that has none of these new features, and I don't want them, but I don't have much choice. I don't know what to do since all the new vehicles have some type of them.

I don't want my truck to beep at me ever, and I don't want it to vibrate the steering wheel ever. Is there a way I can make sure both of those never happen?

Sponsored

 

[embedded rock]

It's a momentary message.

 

[stuartmunto]

You can easily fix the lane keep assist using Forscan. By Changing a simple parameter in Forscan, You can make it remember last setting and it will hold that setting even after a restart. This is a simple fix and will allow you to still use the lane keep function when you want, without it always having to be disabled when you don’t want it on a restart

The Forscan mega-thread has all the details on how to use Forscan

however, you can’t use the lane keep assist and stop the hands on wheel warnings - it’s not self driving, it’s just an assistance so it still requires driver’s input

 

[Glisch]

You have good answers for 1 and 2 above. For

3. There might be a "driver alert" if the truck thinks I am swerving too much. But there are a lot of windy roads and potholes to avoid in my area.

This can be disabled in the regular truck settings, no forscan needed. It stays off, won't reset itself.

In all my vehicles before this one I have disabled lane assist. I haven't really been annoyed by it in the ranger so far and have kept it on. It's very rare that it interacts with the wheel, but I'm sure it depends on how alert the driver is. The only time I really notice it is if I want to lane swap and don't use a blinker (when on an empty road for example).

 

[mrmike7189]

I have all the nanny alerts shut off. I don't want a computer telling me how to drive. The engine shut off at traffic lights gets shut off with the button every time I start the truck. Its just habit now. I think you will be happy with your new ranger, Its just new enough to put a smile on your face without going crazy with the technology. The XL has a limited amount of bells&whistles

 

[bigb]

This is my first vehicle with all this nanny stuff and at first I was apprehensive of it but 1,000 miles in I haven't had a single "hands on the wheel" warning no matter how loosely I grip the steering wheel. I have also quickly come to like the lane centering. The only feature I hated and disabled was speed limit control after trying to merge onto the freeway and the last sign the truck had seen must have said 40 mph because it really took a dump when it hit 45 on the merging ramp, I thought there was something wrong. Yes I know you can over-ride it by pressing the pedal harder but it was un-nerving to say the least. Might be OK driving through strange towns but if you forget to cancel it............

The auto stop start is ridiculous and no matter what they say, no way is this good for your engine or starting system.

 

[TravelinJoe]

Thanks for your input, guys. I completely agree with the auto stop start. I heard about some pizza delivery guys whose cars were burned out a few years early because of all that stopping and starting.

At the end of the day, the auto stop start gimmick might save a few pennies worth of gas and emissions, but then the factory that makes new starters and engines has to burn more coal to produce a new starter for the vehicles that are wearing out earlier, so it's actually a net loss. It's all just make-believe.

 

[PatrickT]

Yes you can turn off lane assist completely from the menu settings on the main screen. You can turn off a lot of things from there, except stop start. Wish you could.

 

[purdyd]

As far as lane assist on the main center console

you can set it to alert, assist, or assist + alert

you can set alert to three levels. High, normal, low

alert is a vibration feedback not a ding

you can turn it off in the steering wheel and I believe it remembers the setting when turning the truck off

my wife had a Subaru that would ding all the time if you crossed a white line, I hated that

i find this system much less obtrusive

ive seen the keep your hands on the steering wheel message twice.

personally coming from trucks without even cruise control, I find the automation useful and leave it on

start/stop. Well that is not useful

 

[danmoochie]

I don't think that feature is on the XL???

 

[purdyd]

I don't think that feature is on the XL???

good point it looks like lane keeping aid is standard and assist is an option

you could look for a truck without option 67j


https://www.ranger6g.com/forum/attachments/2026-ranger-build-guide-pdf.72535/

 

[Havasu RR]

Greetings (and Merry Christmas too)!
I hope you don't mind me asking a question.
What a time to be shopping for a new truck. I saw a very nice 2025 Ford Ranger XL at a dealership recently, and the price was good.
I would have bought it already except for one thing: the "hands on steering wheel" alert. I understand that this comes with most modern vehicles these days. Is there a way to turn it off permanently, or does it come back on every time I would start up the truck or every time I use cruise control?

I'm old-fashioned and I don't like naggy features beeping at me, and I certainly don't want my steering wheel to vibrate from a haptic feedback system, ever. I read that people are having trouble with the feature telling them to put their hands on the wheel when they already have both hands on the wheel.

I'm scouring the internet looking for info, but some of the info contradicts.
What I understand is:
1. There's an auto stop/start that shuts off the engine at red lights.
a. but I can disable it by pushing a button after I start the truck.
b. it can be disabled with an aftermarket part from 4D company.
2. There's a "Lane Keeping System" that includes a "hands on wheel" alert.
a. I might be able to disable Lane Keeping by pressing a button on the steering wheel twice (?)
b. The Lane Keeping might re-enable itself every time I turn on cruise control, so I would have to push the button twice again.
3. There might be a "driver alert" if the truck thinks I am swerving too much. But there are a lot of windy roads and potholes to avoid in my area.

If I turn Lake Keeping off in the menu, will it stay off? Or does it turn itself back on when I start the truck up the next day? Can I always turn it off from a button on the steering wheel, or do I have to navigate through the menu to do it?

Thank you in advance if you can offer any help or suggestions. I have an old truck that has none of these new features, and I don't want them, but I don't have much choice. I don't know what to do since all the new vehicles have some type of them.

I don't want my truck to beep at me ever, and I don't want it to vibrate the steering wheel ever. Is there a way I can make sure both of those never happen?

The steering wheel doesn't actually have any way to know whether you have your hands on it or not. You can even squeeze it with both hands and it won't satisfy it. It's looking for driver input. You could literally take your pinky on the bottom of the wheel and just wiggle the wheel a little bit and it thinks you're engaged. I read in another thread where a guy put a small weight on the one side of the steering wheel so that it thinks you're always trying to drive and he said that did the trick. I haven't tried it

 

[Havasu RR]

Thanks for your input, guys. I completely agree with the auto stop start. I heard about some pizza delivery guys whose cars were burned out a few years early because of all that stopping and starting.

At the end of the day, the auto stop start gimmick might save a few pennies worth of gas and emissions, but then the factory that makes new starters and engines has to burn more coal to produce a new starter for the vehicles that are wearing out earlier, so it's actually a net loss. It's all just make-believe.

I think this is probably exclusive to Ranger Raptor but.. we can set all of the parameters that we would like as far as drive mode and defeating auto start, etc by saving it into my Raptor mode. When I get in I hit the Raptor button twice and it takes all of the settings to my preset likings.

 

[JDCV67]

I turned the lane assist off of my 2025 Lariat when I first got it through the menus. And so far it hasn't came back on, even after schedule software updates.

 

[crawford]

I saw so many people complaining about this warning I almost didn't buy my 2025 Lariat. I had it since August and have never seen this warning so I still don't know what everyone is talking about.

Sponsored