Towing with a chip ?
Thread Starter
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Cargo Master
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 3,455
Likes: 8
From: Williams Lake B.C.
Towing with a chip ?
I have a 02 F-350, 7.3, automatic with a Evolution chip in it.
I pull as 20 foot gooseneck flatdeck with construction materials.
Most of my loads are fairly light 4-6 thousand pounds.
My chip has 3 settings . emission, tow and race.
I have it set on tow.
I dont have exhaust or guages and everything Ive read says I should have but I dont so lets get by that point.
Ive been always reprograming it down to the "emission" setting when I pull the trailer then turning it back up to "tow" when I unhook.
Im tired of doing this and it kinda defeats the purpose of having a chip.
My question is can I leave it on the middle setting "tow" as long as I keep my foot out of it in the hard going.
Theres some pretty steep hills on the route I haul on but if I didnt try to ask to much of it going up these hills would I be OK?
Thanks for your input.
I pull as 20 foot gooseneck flatdeck with construction materials.
Most of my loads are fairly light 4-6 thousand pounds.
My chip has 3 settings . emission, tow and race.
I have it set on tow.
I dont have exhaust or guages and everything Ive read says I should have but I dont so lets get by that point.
Ive been always reprograming it down to the "emission" setting when I pull the trailer then turning it back up to "tow" when I unhook.
Im tired of doing this and it kinda defeats the purpose of having a chip.
My question is can I leave it on the middle setting "tow" as long as I keep my foot out of it in the hard going.
Theres some pretty steep hills on the route I haul on but if I didnt try to ask to much of it going up these hills would I be OK?
Thanks for your input.
Post Fiend
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 10,626
Likes: 7
From: Plano TX and Brentwood TN
I know with my Bully Dog tuner, I can run it in the tow setting when pulling my horse trailer, I'll run even the performance setting when I'm towing my smallest flatbed(it maxes out at 7k). If your pulling round 8k or less I think you'll be alright in a higher setting(my performance setting is round 90hp over stock), but more then 8k you should just do the tow setting(around 50hp over stock). Now those figures were for the Bully Dog setup, I don't know about edge. The key factor really though in determing what is safe with your given setup is the need for atleast an egt gauge, I know you said you wanted to skip that point, but unless you have that YOU won't be able to determing if that tune is safe while your hauling or not. Although I can't see the tow tune being a problem, you won't really know til you have some way to gauge it.
Senior User
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 260
Likes: 0
From: Littleton, CO
I agree with tex25025 about having guages. They are cheap insurance against destroying a 10,000 dollar motor. If you get the attitude monitor, you will get all those guages with automatic backdown capabilities if you hit the higher EGT's, trans. temp, boost and many more. My friend has the attitude on his 6.0 and hasn't had any problems with it, and loves the power. He tows a 10,000 pound trailer regularly. I'm not sure that the evolution will work with the monitor but you can find that out easy enough. Personally I'm going with the SCT Xcal2 for my '06, because of the versatility, and it will smoke the Edge.
New User
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 4
Likes: 0
I leave my in the tow setting all the time. I have a Superchip tuner and nothing in the manual says I shouldn't. I do it mainly because I don't want to keep changing it.
On this subject. My manual and the programmer says to be sure the fuel pump fuse is removed. I did that, but wondering what sort of bad stuff will happen if you don't??
On this subject. My manual and the programmer says to be sure the fuel pump fuse is removed. I did that, but wondering what sort of bad stuff will happen if you don't??
New User
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 4
Likes: 0
You remove the fuse while programming. Then you put it back in. This manual is for gas engines. I have a V10. I was just wondering what horrible things would happen if you didn't remove the fuse while programming. ?? No big deal, just thinking out loud.
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Senior User
Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 394
Likes: 0
From: s.f. bay area
Could be that the fuel pump running during programming might cause a voltage fluctuation, which is bad during flash programming.
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Thread Starter
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Cargo Master
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 3,455
Likes: 8
From: Williams Lake B.C.
Well i guess i answered my own question.
I loaded up yesterday and took my regular route with the steep hills.
It was even worse and harder than usual as there was a bunch of slush on the highway and I used 4x4 for about 50 miles of it.
Everything seemed to work so I guess its OK to tow with the chip in the tow position.(my truck anyway)
I loaded up yesterday and took my regular route with the steep hills.
It was even worse and harder than usual as there was a bunch of slush on the highway and I used 4x4 for about 50 miles of it.
Everything seemed to work so I guess its OK to tow with the chip in the tow position.(my truck anyway)
Post Fiend
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 10,626
Likes: 7
From: Plano TX and Brentwood TN
I watch more my egt's and my trans temp then boost. I have not had problems with doing too much boost when pulling. My egt's are at worst round 650-700, they are usually at 550 sometimes less, a couple of times higher(now I do have a turbo-back exhaust as well and that did drop my egt temps about 100 degrees from where it was with the stock set-up). I have the egt gauge set to defuel at 1000 degrees, havent come dangerously close to that at all. As far as the trans goes, it has gotten up to 188 and I have it set to back down when it hits 220 on my gauge. Max I saw with the turbo was 27 while I was towing, so I'm not worried about boost, I saw 33 once when I was having fun, haven't hit that number since, so I'm not too worried about it when pulling.
Lead Driver
Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 8,475
Likes: 728
From: Calgary Canada
Vin, the thing is that without the proper gauges, you really can't do much more than guess. If that's OK for you, then just go ahead, otherwise, I'd plan on some additional gauges to let you know for sure which settings are OK for your situation.
Junior User
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 64
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Originally Posted by tex25025
I watch more my egt's and my trans temp then boost. I have not had problems with doing too much boost when pulling. My egt's are at worst round 650-700, they are usually at 550 sometimes less, a couple of times higher(now I do have a turbo-back exhaust as well and that did drop my egt temps about 100 degrees from where it was with the stock set-up). I have the egt gauge set to defuel at 1000 degrees, havent come dangerously close to that at all. As far as the trans goes, it has gotten up to 188 and I have it set to back down when it hits 220 on my gauge. Max I saw with the turbo was 27 while I was towing, so I'm not worried about boost, I saw 33 once when I was having fun, haven't hit that number since, so I'm not too worried about it when pulling.
Post Fiend
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 10,626
Likes: 7
From: Plano TX and Brentwood TN
I have mine tapped pre-turbo, which is going to be where you see the hotter egt temps v. post-turbo. What is your exhaust like? stock, cat and muffler intact? etc.. Also what is the terrain like where you are hauling? If your going up lots of hills and such that's going to spike those temps. Also that 15 k figure you gave is that how much you load onto that trailer or is that just how much it can handle? Also what kind of truck do you have? Diesel and if so what engine? Gas, if so what engine? I would imagine it's atleast a 3/4 ton or higher, but if your truck is pretty heavy w/ a lighter engine i.e. the 5.4 in a f-250 that might also explain your higher temps. I have an all steel 20ft flat bed trailer, that I have had maxed out to it's capacity, which is only 12.5k and I didn't see over 800 and where I live now in Tn. we have a few hilly spots here and there.
Junior User
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 64
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2003 6.0 PS F-350 4x4. The trailer is 15k total. 4" turbo back no cat. Mine runs 600° to 1000° (downhill-uphill) with no trailer. Iv'e read other post that run the same as mine. Yours are the lowest iv'e heard of. My boost is about the same as you. Yours might be a little higher.