Thought I'd start a new thread since the last one got kinda off-track.

Anyway, I've been running my 5-Star tunes for a while now, and thought I'd provide some feedback:

1) Economy tune: Main reason I bought it was to get an improvement in my mileage. I've run one tank on the economy tune, and I'm pulling 11.0 mpg average. That's a 1.1 mpg improvement. Conditions: 60 mile round-trip commute, about half on the highway, and half in-town. Mind you, highway lately has been a lot of 25 mph, stop and go, as we've had a lot of snow over the last week, and the ditch-divers were everywhere. Almost all of that tank was in 4 wheel drive, with temperatures ranging in the single digits above and below zero (Fahrenheit). Also, quite a bit of idling here, while I was brushing off snow, scraping windows, etc. All in all, I'm pretty happy with this!

2) Towing tune: Just finished a 230 mile trip to go snowmachining. Averaged 8.3 mpg, towing in subzero weather, in 4 wheel drive, with partially to mostly snow-covered roads, running approximately 55 mph avg (up to 65 in some instances). Includes some major pulls up hill, with a lot of backing, trailer manuevering, etc, and about 45 minutes of idling while loading the sleds back up, to get the truck nice and toasty (by the end of the day we were up to 12 degrees above--call Al Gore!). Again, very good performance in pretty tough conditions. Also, it towed like a champ! Lots of power when I stood on the go-pedal. Coming away from a traffic light, some dude in a 4runner was pretty surprised when he couldn't punch it and cut me off--he was struggling to out-run me...not that I was racing him or anything.

Oh, yeah--pulling about 5500#s--26 foot enclosed snowmachine trailer. Make that about 5700#, since there was about 18" of snow on the roof.

 

that sounds great! the last few tanks i've been getting 7.9mpg all in town which i think partly has to do with remote starting her, running in 4x4 constantly and my driving style(very heavy foot) i would be very happy to get back to 10mpg..the highest tank i've ever had was 11.5mpg which had a run to wasilla in it this summer.

make sure to keep us updated, i have to get mine ordered soon!

 

Husky,

Keep up informed of your results if you would. I am interested in knowing what MPG improvement you get with the tuning while running empty and pulling.

thanks!

 

Keep us informed.

 

i just got the tracking info for mine, how long did it take to get yours up here Husky? i've very excited about it!

 

It took a little while, but IIRC it was during the Thanksgiving weekend, and it apparently had turkey and all the trimmings in Chicago. Other than that little delay, it was only probably about 3 days.

If it's already shipped you should hit that sweet spot between Christmas and New Years--did they give you an ETA yet? Those have been very accurate for me...

As far as general updates: When I finished my last towing trip, I had about 1/2 a tank left. I re-tuned for economy, reset the lie-o-meter (which is surprisingly accurate on my truck, if anything just a little bit low). Since then, I've filled the tank, kept the settings the same, and have been working that tank down, staying in the 11-11.5 mpg range. Again, probably 2/3 town, 1/3 highway, with lots of stop-and-go, hills, traffic jams, etc, that don't help the economy any.

On initial reset of the lie-o-meter, with purely highway driving, and a light foot, I've been able to sustain 15+mpg. Of course, that's not normal driving conditions, but if I were doing a real road trip (like down to the lower 48), I think I could very comfortably keep it in the 14-15 mpg range.

Still, with the 11-11.5 I mentioned above, I'm seeing a 1-1.5 mpg improvement, or ~10% gain. At $3.25/gallon, that will pay for my tuner pretty quickly.

 

Last half-tank: Economy tune, probably 75% in town driving (lots of hills), lots of long idles (15 minutes+):

Lie-o-meter: 10.5 mpg
Manual calc: 10.4 mpg

Probably doesn't look like much, but this is still an improvement of approx 1 mpg over the stock tune. This is definitely, real-world, non-highway driving conditions, not the perfect situations that you often see quoted in advertising, or diesel-mileage posts.

Just loaded the towing tune and gassed up--headed south tomorrow with the sleds, probably around 250 miles round trip. Some good mountain pulls (through Turnagain Pass, if you're familiar with the Kenai Penninsula at all). I'll post up more when I get home tomorrow night!

Happy New Year everybody!

 

be safe! and happy new year. i'm heading to hatchers somtime this weekend maybe biglake also not sure yet.

looks like mine is also stuck in chicago for the new year, sadly

thanks for the real world updates! i would be very glad to have even a .5mpg jump.

 

Glad to hear you are as happy with yours as I am with mine. Definitely will pay for itself before too long.

 

Just got back from an almost 300 mile round trip--

Towing Tune, pulling my four-place enclosed trailer, with 3 sleds

average speed 60 mph

average ambient temp: +5 degrees farenheit

Route: From Anchorage, AK, to Seward, AK, through Turnagain Pass (900' elevation gain in about 4 miles) and Moose Pass.

Towed like a champ, pulling 60 mph plus all the way up Turnagain, only limited by road conditions (partial snow covered, and frost heaves made it a little rough to run much faster).

Average fuel: 8.5 mpg.

That was not babying it. Had to pass one guy doing 55 on a long uphill grade--pulled out, buried the go-pedal, and was doing 70 in no time at all.

One of the best things about the tow tune is the way it delays the shift points under acceleration, and keeps the tranny from hunting. I left the O/D on the whole day, except for one hill behind a slow driver who was going 50--then I had to drop it to 2nd to keep the tranny from hunting. Shifts are also much firmer, doesn't feel like the torque converter is spooling up--just good, strong shifts.

Oh, yeah, the snowmachining was pretty good too!

Happy New Year, FTE!