Went to Talladega this past weekend for the race. Finally got a chance to put my truck, 5th-wheel and 5-Star Tuning to the test.

Did good, truck handled it very well for a gasser. Except for one hill on a back country road, 1st gear, gas pedal to the floor and barely maintained my speed. If I had to guess, it was probably somewhere between 8-12% grade. Lucky for me it was a short hill. I now know why that little section of road went to 4 lane at the bottom of the hill and back to 2 lane at the top, LOL. Otherwise on flat ground I could use overdrive and cruise at 65mph @ 1800-1900rpm. If I started to go up and down small interstate inclines I could just turn overdrive off and cruise 65mph @ 2400-2600rpm and do just fine.

Decided to have it weighed at a CAT Scale.

Truck and trailer (half tank of gas):
Steering axle 3620 lb
Drive axle 5820 lb
Trailer axle 11,080 lb
GCVW 20,520 lb

Went and weighed the truck separately (full tank of gas):
Steering axle 3610 lb
Drive axle 3540 lb
GCVW 7340 lb

So that means the trailer weighed roughly 13,180 lbs. Now keep in mind I had 60 gallons of fresh water on board the trailer which is close to 500 lbs. Next time I'll go empty and get it filled once I'm at the track. Fresh water trucks come around and will fill you up for $25.00, no matter how big your tank is.

Amazingly the truck only drops about an inch with the 2280 lb hitch weight. Never once touched the helper spring.

5-Star's 93 Octane Tow tune did great. Nice longer/higher than usual shift points to get the rig rolling and keep the V10 in it's sweet spot. No gear hunting at all. Just controlled/timed down shifting out of overdrive as needed. For the most part, if there was a lot of up and down action on interstate inclines/overpasses I just turned overdrive off to make it easier on the truck.

Overall great weekend, except for a little rain.














Tri-Oval Towers, row 55. Dale Jr taking the lead . Too bad he couldn't keep it .

 

Nice tow report. Glad you're happy with the 5 Star tune. Lots of happy customers here it seems. I gotta add one of those tunes to my list.

Ord.

 

Thats a nice c.o.w. Condo On Wheels

thanks for feedback...we appreciate that..

 

Corrected my math:
The trailer weight was 13,360 lb.

 

That's how I "rough it".


Glad to offer feedback.

 

Very nice looking rig. Have you considered going to 4.30 or 4.56? I'd bet that you'd notice a ton of difference when towing.

Rob

 

I have considered the 4:30 swap, but I only tow the trailer a couple of times a year. So for the rest of the time the 3:73 saves some gas.

 

What was the difference compared to pulling before 5Star? I have an '01 with the 3:73 gears and pull about #8000. My "sweet spot" is about 62 mph to hold overdrive. Did the 5star tune increase the rpm shift point? Any change in mileage? (not that it is ever good) I would like to get the 5star tune but I want to make sure it is worth the $$. For me if you still need to stay at 65mph to keep overdrive on, in my case, it might not be worth it to gain only 3 mph....

 

I never towed it before the 5-Star tuning, but I can say it did well with it. Mike @ 5-Star can set up the shift points and converter lock-up to happen when and where you want it to, that's the beauty of a custom tune. I did not do enough highway driving to give a real indication of mileage. But here's the thing, engines produce more power and run more efficiently when the ignition timing runs higher. The tune does that for you. I haven't done back-to-back comparisons of the same tunes set for different octane levels (maybe Mike has and can chime in), but I would expect the higher octane tunes to get better mileage and off-set the 10-20 cents extra it cost per gallon.

 

Nice write up. I have an 05 3V V10 with 114K on it now. We're moving up to a much larger fifth wheel (37' around 10500 pounds) and I'm wondering if I should consider this tuner? With the miles I have on the truck would it be a bad idea to try to squeeze a little more power out of it?

thanks

 

I think you would be happy with the improved get up and go.. Our previous 05 3v 10 had right at those same miles and was tuned no worries there...The truck has the power but factory programming leaves some on table even with 87 octane gas.. Its like running a 100 yard dash in work boots then taking them off and running in bare feet..you have had the power all along

 

Buy it,use it,be happy. You'll never regret buying it.
JL

 

My situation is a 2001 2V and the truck has 160,000 mikles 3:73 rear end. I would rather just stick to an 87 tune, I don't care about street performance but I would like to be able to tow faster then 62 miles an hour in overdrive. Towing around approx. #8000. Is there a significant upgrade with still sticking with 87 octane??

 

Yes,there's a dramatic difference in power and efficiency with 87 octane. The OEM tune leaves alot of power on the table in the name of NVH reduction and keeping the large percentage of owners happy.
JL