ive been reading a lot lately on deleting the dpf and cat. As I read you must have a tune. So here's my question. Do I need to buy a programmer to have plugged in all the time or can I just borrow a buddy's load the tune and unplug it or will it go back to stock?

 

Yes you have to buy a programmer, but once you load the tune you don't need to leave it plugged in all the time. Leaving it plugged in just allows you to monitor gauges and stuff. Once you load the tune it's loaded, whether or not tuner is plugged in or not.
No you can not use a buddies tuner to tune your truck.....Once tuners load a tune onto a truck they become locked to that truck. Unless of course you return the tuned truck to stock and unlock the tuner.

 

They do this for a reason of course........They "lock" it to the VIN and ECM. The programming/debug man-hours required to write a decent "tune" are not trivial.

The people that write the code have car and house payments to make and other bills to pay.

If they made those tunes "generic", and able to be loaded on more than 1 vehicle, they would only sell a few, and after everybody copied and distributed them around, the programmer have to go find another job. (sort of like some in the recording industry!!)