So I have been deleted for a while now, my truck is my daily driver. I keep the tuner (H&S MM) in the truck just about all the time except when it’s blazing hot or really cold I take it in the house or in my office for the day, and then plug it in when I go somewhere

My questions are, what do you all do with your tuners? Do you only plug them in when you’re on road trips and/or pulling? Do you leave them in all the time 24/7/365 no matter what?

I don't really need to change power settings or anything like that during my weekday commuting, it’s rare that I have a trailer on during the week. Just trying to get a feel on what is best for keeping the MM in good condition, i.e. keeping it out of hot and cold weather, and safe at home.

Will the truck perform any different without the MM plugged in?

 

I can't help you much. I leave mine in 24/7/365. I have never taken mine out. To my knowledge, when you do, the truck drives untuned in stock mode, but does by pass the emission equipment. I do use the tow mode for towing all the time and never tow on stock or higher than tow mode. I also don't hammer on it when towing. One time I parked it in an airport parking lot (surface) and I covered the MM with a baseball hat and that somehow gave me piece of mine at the time that it was hidden I laugh about it now...what an idiot

 

If these things are well constructed, they should be built to withstand extremes. A vehicle environment is not an easy environment to be in. If it can't hack the extremes, then the quality isn't there.

I kept my DashDAQ (Spartan tuning) in there 24/7/365 without any issues for several years

Now if you are worried about theft or something a long those lines, then that would be something else entirely.

 

I do that hat thing lots of times also, it's rare that I take it out only when it gets to single digits or lower, I can't say that I have taken it out yet this summer. So mine is in 99% of the time also just curious to see what others are doing.

 

far as I know once you apply the tune, you no longer need the tuner attached, unless u want to use it as a monitor.

least that is the way all the tuners I have ever used worked, including the spartan on my 08 f350.

 

That's what I figured, I am running the SPE hotx tune, I keep it plugged in for monitoring, but my 30 mile commute on two lane back roads doing 50-60 mph unloaded never really gets the temps into questionable numbers.

 

This is true to an extent. It depends on if you have other means of monitoring your vitals. If you do not, then I would argue that you do in fact need it plugged in.

Now, if you have other means of monitoring your truck's vitals or you have no desire to use it as a monitoring device, then why spend the extra money for that functionality in the first place?

 

Yes, that may be true, but by leaving it in there, if your truck does have an issue on that normal commute and you get questionable numbers, then you know something is wrong.

This is how I stopped a tranny issue from getting way to serious when I was seeing temp spikes in winter when I knew the commute didn't warrant those temps. No other indication from the truck other then hot temps at that point in time. Now, I was expecting the tranny to go out eventually due to all the modding that I did, but it was always the question of when and it took over a year for it to happen.

Eventually these things go out, it's really only a question of when. I would rather catch things early by using gauges then wait until there are physical indicators that I may or may not pick up in time and then you can have other things going out, because the original problem passed a certain point that could have been prevented by maintaining some type of gauge system.

 

Agreed, that's why I have never driven the truck without it plugged in.

 

Absolutely, i watch it all the time.

 

I don't know for sure as I have already stated I keep mine attached, but with the ability to shift power levels on the fly, I don't see how the MiniMaxx isn't needed. I am certain my truck runs differently on stock vs. performance and I can change that at will with the MM attached. I'm pretty certain it tells the truck to just run at stock with emissions by passed when the Minimaxx is removed. This is confirmed by page 57 of my MM manual. This applies to 2011-2012 owners only.

 

Right Andre, prior to the 6.7 engines, it didn't matter..

so, it looks like the MM does matter on the 6.7 engines. (didn't on my 08 f350 as I said).
of course, you couldn't change on the fly if you removed it, so that would have been an added value.. (my spartan didn't support chnage on the fly like the MM does)

 

Didn't see that before, good to know. As I said, I have always had it plugged in while running. I only take it out when the truck might sit for a day or two in single to below digit weather.

 

I'm with you on that (it didn't matter prior to the 6.7) Sam. It didn't matter on my old bow tie either with the EFI Live tuning tool. Reprogram the parameters from the lappy, reboot and unplug and enjoy your tunes

 

I'm not sure I'm understanding where you are coming from.

Shift on the fly devices have been around a long time, as well as monitoring in various forms (including devices that also shift on the fly) before the 6.7, so what didn't matter prior to the 6.7?

Hell, before I got wise as to how to properly do things on my 6.0, one of the first things that I had on it was the Bully Dog Triple Dog with Outlook monitor. Outlook monitor did two things, it allowed for changing for tunes on the fly (one of the first tuners that allowed for that compared to modules/chips that were used before) and it served as gauges. This was back in 05 and very much prior to the 6.7. So, I'm kinda at a loss as to what you think what didn't matter prior to the 6.7? Now, you might have had some devices that didn't support shift on the fly (and I'm a person that doesn't suggest shift on the fly now anyway), but not all devices now support that either. I would argue that monitoring would be more of a concern then the ability to shift on the fly anyway. I must admit, after the novelty wore off, and given that the truck didn't like the two more aggressive tunes, it stayed in the tow tune position for the rest of the time that I had it.