When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
I am most likely selling the excursion to my daughter and son in law.
my wife will be using my 02 when she needs something bigger than her jeep.
The 02 is 100 % stock 250,xxx miles on it,
I am looking for a little more power and better ability to tow when she uses it to tow the horse trailer.
I will also send my HPOP core to riffraff to have it rebuilt by terminator.
So with that what is your preference for a chip and why.
Thanks.
PHP Hydra with the 65 HP canned tune. Provides a decent boost in performance, but keeps everything on the safe side.
Especially for someone with OEM injectors and just looking for a bit more.
I have a ZF6, so your mileage may vary as you try to find a good shift point tune. The canned tunes come with the purchase of the Hydra and for a lot of us they do great.
Set your expectations at a realistic level and stick to them.
Not looking for crazy power by any means.
I don't even want hot enough tunes that I would be afraid to drive it without an egt gage.
My excursion has a tw chip and all I ever use is high idle and the lowest power setting, 40 or maybe 60 hp.
Neither of us drive hard or are looking to impress anyone.
after a couple years, I settled on the Hydra 80hp PHP free tune because of how it handles the transmission shifts.
I don't mash the peddle to the metal, I typically push it to 2500 RPM and just wait for the truck to catch up....
my idea of how it should shift, is the same as my 2001 K1500 Suburban, my Excursions shifts almost identical to that...
however, if I push it to 3500 RPM or more, it will giddy up and go NOW.
When I towed in the mountains, I set it on 25hp Tow tune and set OD OFF.
the RPMs crawl up a bit, I set the Cruise at 68 and leave it alone.
It rarely ever down shifted to 2nd gear, no matter the grade,
8000 lbs of farm iron in Big Tex dump trailer.
Last edited by John in OkieLand; Oct 19, 2025 at 11:49 PM.
The Hydra has become the standard for hardware. Since you can reprogram it without removal, most all of the tuners use the same platform. For tunes, the stock PHP tunes have worked well for me. As Sous mentioned, the 65 seems to be a good balance of improved throttle response without concerns of pushing the truck.
I have not ran Tony’s tunes, but I did run Jody’s for awhile before going with the PHP. I like the PHP options better and the truck seems to run fine on either one. At stock levels, I am not sure there is too much difference between any of them
I’m running the free PHP tunes on my 2001.
I’ve ran TW in the past. The PHP tunes are quieter, smoother, and cleaner in my opinion.
They have MAP pricing (is that the right acronym?) so ordering from about anywhere should cost relatively same. You might catch a deal on something extra or shipping costs though. Certain places like CNC Fab (or some other companies I see in Facebook world) will program the chip for you before shipment if that interests you.
I’m running the free PHP tunes on my 2001.
I’ve ran TW in the past. The PHP tunes are quieter, smoother, and cleaner in my opinion.
They have MAP pricing (is that the right acronym?) so ordering from about anywhere should cost relatively same. You might catch a deal on something extra or shipping costs though. Certain places like CNC Fab (or some other companies I see in Facebook world) will program the chip for you before shipment if that interests you.
I will probably order it from Clay at Riffraff since I will also be sending in 1 or 2 HPOP's to get T500 upgrades.
Thanks to everyone, the hydra was #1 on my list but I haven't done anything with chips in about 10 years so I figured more recent confirmation would be good.
if my daughter and son in law don't buy the excursion it won't happen since the truck sits in the barn most of the time. It gets driven less than 1,000 miles a year.
if they do buy the excursion the 02 will get a chip, T500 HPOP, redhead or blue top steering gear, windows tinted and probably bilstein shocks.
stuff I have wanted to do but never did since it sits so much.
Rezvani's Latest Post-Apocalyptic Monster Is a Ford F-150 Raptor Underneath
Slideshow: Called the Fortress, the 850-horsepower pickup combines Raptor underpinnings with military-inspired features, survival equipment, and a starting price of $285,000.
