I am with ya. The 87 economy makes the truck a dog and it burns more fuel than I can afford. Dunno what would make it economy other than not touching the throttle but it's such a dog that you have to keep the gas mashed and thus it gets terrible mileage.

With the 87 daily/tow the power is great and the shifting is great 85% of the time. It also gets better mileage as 1/4 throttle is all that's needed if you are looking for mileage. The shifting most the time is a little better than stock but the 15% of the time that it does strange stuff bothers me. Don't even know exactly how to explain what it's doing but I think it is probably the shift flare that others talk about. It also bangs in once in a while when it seems to get confused as to where it wants to be. Kinda seems like if you change throttle position even a tiny bit while its shifting it changes its mind where it wants to go. But like I said 85% of the time it's great.

After spending $160 on tunes I am just going to run it for a while and if I can't get use to it I guess I will have to spend a little more. I emailed 5 Star back and forth a little and got a few answers from Jacob but I could tell he was busy as the answers were very short and I really didn't get a clear understanding of it all. One big thing I don't like is the high idle in drive which he replied "we set it high so there is less delay in the reaction time when you press the go pedal". I thought no biggie I will just change it with the tuner but no matter where I set it the rpm is the same. They must have the programable settings overridden as they wont change. I think the shifting could also be fixed with the settings but when I asked about it I got "all good questions but the only thing we suggest adjusting in the user options is tire revs if you change tire size and axle if you change your gears". I am sure they deal with tons of fellas like me that don't know enough about it to mess with it so it's probably a great response but I need the option of fine tuning it a little. We need a book "Tuning For Dummies".

 

Just to clarify my issue I should say that my truck actually shifts perfectly normal with my 87 Eco and Tow. My issue is that where I live it seems the truck will never up shift at the speed limits around the city. This is resulting in horrible mileage(I don't want to hear it's a hd truck I already realize this) as it feels like the truck always needs 1 more gear up. I originally had the high idle issue and Mike very quickly corrected that for me. I like the power and response of the 87 tow but I just grew tired of driving around in manual mode to obtain better cruising results.

 

I had same issues. Between that and strange shifts got tired of screwing with it and took it off.

 

If folks are just using the tune for towing, why not have the tune set up to only be active/activated when in tow haul? If not in tow haul, stock settings are used.


Just a thought.

 

I'm not sure that's possible. It will change everything across the board whether tow/haul is active or not

 

Yep it can be done. 5 star confirmed this.

 

I decided to reload the 87 tow and it really does wake the truck up. When I quit feeling so cheap I will reach out to Mike regarding the new daily/tow version. I want the motor/throttle response but stock shifting for daily use and then yes if tow haul could activate the altered shift programming I think I would be set.