Can anyone make a recommindation for a company that does a good job at writing tunes for the SCT tuner for towing?

 

most everyone here will recommend spartan they sponser this section of the forum there link is to the left and also at the top of the page

heard some good things about innovative too

 

I love my heavy tow tune from Spartan. Have the xcalc 3. Tow 15k fiver.

 

Love spartans heavy tow also. Egts stay in check very well

 

Did any of you guys notice a little better fuel mileage with the tow tunes? How about non-towing? Do you switch to a different tune or just run the tow tune all the time. I can't seem to get a straight answer on this.

Thanks

 

That depends. I switch tunes depending on rather I'm towing or not, but that's because the tow tune that I have is very specific to loads that I haul and what power, and shifting strategies that I want. Not very good for street mileage when it's not having to deal with a load.

Now if there hasn't been any tweaks specific to you, then maybe just a general tow tune would be alright for everyday driving as well, but when you start getting into heavily tweaked tow tunes then it's just too specific to a task to be as good as a general tune.

The general custom tow tunes and "canned" tunes are in my estimation a good general low hp addition every day tune(rather towing or not), but like I said if it's been modified and modified based on towing experiance then I think that starts to diminish what it can do as a daily driver tune.

 

Question about using the tow tunes. Do you still need to select tow/haul on the shifter? Or do the new tunes shift the tranny better so you dont need to run in tow/haul mode?

 

I still do if I'm hauling pretty decent loads and/or it's hunting gears a good bit. The loads part of the equation is probably up to the driver's preferance, however, if it's hunting gears you need to flip it on. I tend to be more on the conservative side on these types of issues when it comes to towing then most, but I think just about everyone would agree on the hunting gears to turn it on.

 

Thanks everyone, but I have not had much luck with Matt and Spartan tunes. I am looking for someone else. I have Matt's tunes on my SCT tuner which I bought from Spartan and am having bad luck with them. Tried getting in touch with Matt by email and over the phone, over the last few months and Matt will not call back, so it is time to move on. I was hoping someone out there could recommend someone else.

 

Try Innovative, I have a couple of erics tunes that have been trouble free.One of them is a kick azz heavy tow.

 

tow/haul also boost up the pressure in the tranny also so while its running a little hotter than normal it won't overheat as easy as it would without tow/haul on

and I <3 the engine brake

but like mentioned above I only use it if I'm hauling a good amount of weight. If I do have quite a bit of weight though and am traveling a good distance I will flip it off once I get up to speed and set the cruise

 

I use the tow haul and feel I have much improved downhill braking. Can really slow it down on steep grades which is important with 15k pushing. My mileage improved a bit from stock when I tow. Seems to run between 9.5 and 11 from Oregon to AZ and back. Helps if your going downhill...LOL!

I change back to aggessive street economy when I am not towing.

 

Candrew,
Are you running Innovative tunes like brickie has talked about? If so do you have the contact information ie: phone number? Candrew what kind of weight are you towing? I am pulling a 15000 lb 5th wheel. The problem I am having is blowing anti-freeze out the de-gas bottom with the spartan tunes loaded while towing. No problem with blowing anti-freeze out the de-gas bottle when running in the stock tune while towing the same load. I had the ARP head studs installed earlier this year, so I do not believe it is a head gasket problem and have had the oil checked for hydrocarbons after the last time the truck puked and it came back negative. So I am looking for someone else to working with.

 

Actually you can have a headgasket problem even with ARP studs. I know this for a fact, because I am speaking as a person that had a puker after having had studs installed.

I don't know if it was faulty installation or if I had a problem before installation and because I didn't have any outward sign of it before installation we both just thought that it was one of the good ones(which is one reason why I'm always the one of the first ones on here saying don't assume when a person wants to try a shortcut like not removing the cab or engine to do headstuds to make sure the heads are good).

Now I'm not saying that it is for sure a headgasket problem, what I am saying it just don't rule it out right off the bat just on the mere fact of ARP studs, unless you know how they did the installation and nothing happened or nothing wasn't done during that installation.

 

I also am towing 15k. I had problems coming back from AZ In April. Puking coolant. They replaced the oil cooler then. I hauled it over to the coast last week and still puked on uphill. This time they replaced the EGr cooler because the cooler was leaking comb. gasses into cooling system. Said showed PO299 code and followed TSB 08-16-13. Also found turbo vanes sticking and coked up. MAP hose and port, EBP tube and EGR/intake cavity coked up. Followe TSB 08-2-7. I'm going to haul my fiver around in a few days to see what happens on stock setting. Then I will set it to heavy tow and run a few grades to see what happens. I'll post when I know.