Micro Tuner and Towing.
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Micro Tuner and Towing.
Mike or anyone else,
Ok well for the first time i got to tow my new trailer and i used the tow/performance program, but really i notice no diffrence in performance, wether it's the performance only program or the towing program? Does anyone have any settings or can they suggest any sort of set up that might help me out a little bit more, in my opinion the the shifting is happening to soon...
Thanks, Michael
99 Ford F-150 Super Cab
4.6 L V8
Bullet Exhaust. K&N Generation 2 filter charger
4:56 Precesion Gears
1715 Micro Tuner
35" BFG A/T's On 16.5" Weld Outbacks
Ok well for the first time i got to tow my new trailer and i used the tow/performance program, but really i notice no diffrence in performance, wether it's the performance only program or the towing program? Does anyone have any settings or can they suggest any sort of set up that might help me out a little bit more, in my opinion the the shifting is happening to soon...
Thanks, Michael
99 Ford F-150 Super Cab
4.6 L V8
Bullet Exhaust. K&N Generation 2 filter charger
4:56 Precesion Gears
1715 Micro Tuner
35" BFG A/T's On 16.5" Weld Outbacks
Senior Member
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 632
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From: San Antonio, TX
Michael
I tow with mine, but I have mine set on the 87 towing program. Is this the one you are using currently? - you mentioned the "towing/performance" mode but I just want to make sure we're talking the same thing here. Anyways, you won't see a huge difference. To me the biggest difference I wanted to see was in the shift points and the shift firmness.
I also noticed that you are using a 4.6. While they are great engines for their size, I really don't tihnk you will see a *huge* difference in the performance. It also seems like you have a pretty good amount of mods with the tires and such.. I especially like the 4.56's and the 35's! That's gotta be tricked out pretty good. I did the same with a Cherokee, 4.10's, locker, 5" lift - anyways back on track here...
I think with the tires you're rolling and all that, you probably wil see even less gains in the SOTP than a basically stock setup... 35's require a bit of punch to really get them rollin and that's probably where most, if not all of your excess power is going with increased wieght, diameter, wind resistance (being higher) etc.! I have the 5.4 and I'd bet that I would have a hard time seeing any real gains with the mods you have... Ever thought of dropping to a 33 at your next tire purchase? Just a thought...
As for the shifting, you can plug your tuner back in and change the shift point and firmness.. I wouldn't go too much firmer than the standard superchips setting though, you're already putting some strain on that drivetrain. Post a pic if you have one, I'd love to see your truck...
Later and take care,
Chris
I also noticed that you are using a 4.6. While they are great engines for their size, I really don't tihnk you will see a *huge* difference in the performance. It also seems like you have a pretty good amount of mods with the tires and such.. I especially like the 4.56's and the 35's! That's gotta be tricked out pretty good. I did the same with a Cherokee, 4.10's, locker, 5" lift - anyways back on track here...
I think with the tires you're rolling and all that, you probably wil see even less gains in the SOTP than a basically stock setup... 35's require a bit of punch to really get them rollin and that's probably where most, if not all of your excess power is going with increased wieght, diameter, wind resistance (being higher) etc.! I have the 5.4 and I'd bet that I would have a hard time seeing any real gains with the mods you have... Ever thought of dropping to a 33 at your next tire purchase? Just a thought...
As for the shifting, you can plug your tuner back in and change the shift point and firmness.. I wouldn't go too much firmer than the standard superchips setting though, you're already putting some strain on that drivetrain. Post a pic if you have one, I'd love to see your truck...
Later and take care,
Chris
Last edited by ReelWork; Oct 13, 2003 at 09:53 PM.
Chris..... airbox mod
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Joined: Jul 2003
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The generation 2 Kit is the whole intake system, it's not just the filter, comes with everything.. eliminates the whole air box and everything...
Reel work beleave me i've been thinking about getting a new truck but still might have to wait a little bit... so i'm thinking for my next tires are gonna be 33's so we'll see how it goes... thanks for the imput...
Reel work beleave me i've been thinking about getting a new truck but still might have to wait a little bit... so i'm thinking for my next tires are gonna be 33's so we'll see how it goes... thanks for the imput...
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Joined: Mar 1998
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From: Virginia
Hi Michael,
As you may have seen me post before since I say it so often, SOTP is the absolute *worst* way to ever try evaluating any performance mod on vehicles weighing about 3800 lbs. & more - especially these heavy trucks, and then with a lift & 35's, even with the 4.56 gears - that just makes it that much worse. Even though I've been modifying vehicles for upwards of 30 years now, in a 5000 lb. truck that is also towing whatever your trailer weighs, there's no way that even *I* could feel that SOTP.
The only ways to evaluate performance that I feel are effective in these vehicles is either to do properly controlled timed acceleration testing, or when towing, looking at how far up the grade you can get before the downshift with the cruise control set. SOTP is worthless for just about anything short of a supercharger or a good sized short of nitrous in these heavy vehicles.
The bottom line is, on the premium gas tuning, you get about a 10% power gain, and with such a heavy & lifted vehicle, it takes significantly more than a 10% power gain to *feel* - but that does not in any way negate the additional power, you're just expecting too much from it and using a method of evaluation that isn't appropriate in heavy vehicles - SOTP - that's all.
One other comment I wanted to add is in regard to the shift points, I forgot to address what you asked for help with, sorry!You mentioned you felt it was shifting up too soon - the shift points on part-throttle are up to you via your right foot - in other words, the more throttle you give it, the higher the shift points will be. When you aren't giving it much throttle, the PCM sees you aren't asking much from the engine, thus in that situation it's going to upshift just as soon as it can do so without slowing the vehicle down - this is just as it should be, of course, to save fuel. If you like, you can bump up that individual shift point - like if you feel say, the 1-2 should be a bit higher - you can go in and make that adjustment, and it will affect part-throttle a bit, and the full-throttle shift points mainly. Just remember that in general, the part-throttle upshift points will be a matter of vehicle speed & throttle position versus load, & thus are variable via your right foot. The full-throttle upshift points will always happen at the same mph, as that is a set command - but the part-throttle shift points will always be variable based on vehicle speed & throttle opening versus load. So for heavy towing, you may want to play with that a bit, but don't crank them way up, as the heavier the load, the lower the full-throttle upshift point should be, until it finally bottoms out around 4800 rpm as the lowest 1-2 or 2-3 WOT (wide-open throttle) upshift point.
I hope that info helps a bit, & feel free to give us a call if you'd like to go over this in more detail, OK?
As you may have seen me post before since I say it so often, SOTP is the absolute *worst* way to ever try evaluating any performance mod on vehicles weighing about 3800 lbs. & more - especially these heavy trucks, and then with a lift & 35's, even with the 4.56 gears - that just makes it that much worse. Even though I've been modifying vehicles for upwards of 30 years now, in a 5000 lb. truck that is also towing whatever your trailer weighs, there's no way that even *I* could feel that SOTP.
The only ways to evaluate performance that I feel are effective in these vehicles is either to do properly controlled timed acceleration testing, or when towing, looking at how far up the grade you can get before the downshift with the cruise control set. SOTP is worthless for just about anything short of a supercharger or a good sized short of nitrous in these heavy vehicles.
The bottom line is, on the premium gas tuning, you get about a 10% power gain, and with such a heavy & lifted vehicle, it takes significantly more than a 10% power gain to *feel* - but that does not in any way negate the additional power, you're just expecting too much from it and using a method of evaluation that isn't appropriate in heavy vehicles - SOTP - that's all.
One other comment I wanted to add is in regard to the shift points, I forgot to address what you asked for help with, sorry!You mentioned you felt it was shifting up too soon - the shift points on part-throttle are up to you via your right foot - in other words, the more throttle you give it, the higher the shift points will be. When you aren't giving it much throttle, the PCM sees you aren't asking much from the engine, thus in that situation it's going to upshift just as soon as it can do so without slowing the vehicle down - this is just as it should be, of course, to save fuel. If you like, you can bump up that individual shift point - like if you feel say, the 1-2 should be a bit higher - you can go in and make that adjustment, and it will affect part-throttle a bit, and the full-throttle shift points mainly. Just remember that in general, the part-throttle upshift points will be a matter of vehicle speed & throttle position versus load, & thus are variable via your right foot. The full-throttle upshift points will always happen at the same mph, as that is a set command - but the part-throttle shift points will always be variable based on vehicle speed & throttle opening versus load. So for heavy towing, you may want to play with that a bit, but don't crank them way up, as the heavier the load, the lower the full-throttle upshift point should be, until it finally bottoms out around 4800 rpm as the lowest 1-2 or 2-3 WOT (wide-open throttle) upshift point.
I hope that info helps a bit, & feel free to give us a call if you'd like to go over this in more detail, OK?
Last edited by Superchips_Distributor; Oct 16, 2003 at 06:37 PM.
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From: Waterloo, IA
I purchased the 1715 Tuner about 3 weeks ago, and I'm happy with gains in performance and fuel milage than I have experienced. I have driven about 6500 miles since, with 4000 miles of it towing a 5000-6000 lb horse trailer.
I installed the high octane/towing setting for my trip to Reno, Nevada. For the first few hundred miles I wasn't impressed, but I was driving into a strong headwind. The 91 octane gas wasn't easy to find in Iowa either.
I switched to the 87 octane/towing setting in Wyoming because I wasn't sure that I could find premium fuel in the mountains, this was a big mistake because I found 91 octane fuel at every gas station that I filled up at.
For the trip home, I installed the high octane/towing setting and noticed a dramatic difference in the trucks ability to maintain speed while climbing the mountains. The cruise control seemed to be more forgiving by letting the speed drop a few mph before downshifting. I averaged over 9 mpg for the entire trip while towing between 70-80 mph; on the longest/steepest grades (Eastbound out of Salt Lake City and Laramie), the speedometer never went below 53 mph.
Last weekend, I drove to ****enson, NoDak and averaged over 17 mpg while cruising at 75-80 mph with the help of the wind. Normally this trip would have averaged under 16 mpg at these speeds.
I installed the high octane/towing setting for my trip to Reno, Nevada. For the first few hundred miles I wasn't impressed, but I was driving into a strong headwind. The 91 octane gas wasn't easy to find in Iowa either.
I switched to the 87 octane/towing setting in Wyoming because I wasn't sure that I could find premium fuel in the mountains, this was a big mistake because I found 91 octane fuel at every gas station that I filled up at.
For the trip home, I installed the high octane/towing setting and noticed a dramatic difference in the trucks ability to maintain speed while climbing the mountains. The cruise control seemed to be more forgiving by letting the speed drop a few mph before downshifting. I averaged over 9 mpg for the entire trip while towing between 70-80 mph; on the longest/steepest grades (Eastbound out of Salt Lake City and Laramie), the speedometer never went below 53 mph.
Last weekend, I drove to ****enson, NoDak and averaged over 17 mpg while cruising at 75-80 mph with the help of the wind. Normally this trip would have averaged under 16 mpg at these speeds.