I don't know anything about chips and tuners except that I might be interested in one. To start, what are the advantaged and disadvantages? Sure a chip will increase performance, but will it accelerate wear? Will it affect gas mileage? Are they easy in stall? Where can I get one and what do I want to buy?

I have a 2000 F150 XLT Supercab 4x4 5.4L automatic. I use the truck for daily driving and towing a small boat every weekend from March through October. What I am looking for performance wise is more efficient shifting, better throttle response, some extra horespower, and of course, a cool sound. But, I'm not so sure I'm willing to accept poor gas mileage and increased engine/transmission wear as a result.

Would I factory-programmed chip give me what I want or is it worth the trouble of customization? Are the tuners easy to adjust on your own or do you have to be a software engineer to handle that?

 

*Proper* custom tuning will only aid your vehicle, not hurt it or shorten any aspect of it's service life in any way. For example, we have many F-150 owners among our customers who have been using our tuning for 100K miles, 150K miles and more, with no ill effects - but then, we specialize in these vehicles, so we know them very well, and thus know what can and cannot be done safely, as we probably do more testing than anyone else in the aftermarket in this regard.

That being said, there are some tuning products out there that *can* harm your vehicle, so you do have to be careful.

Also, there is no reason why your fuel mileage will drop with our custom tuning, other than if you drive it harder than normal checking out the new performance levels - now *that* is something that a lot of our customer do when they first get our custom tuning, is having some fun checking out just what it did for their vehicle - but once the novelty of that wears off, most people actually see a little bit of improvement in their fuel economy - not a loss.

I suggest spending some time reading the posts on here, and see what others are using and happy with, so you can get a feel for this - there are many years of posts here so you have plenty of material to sift thru to get a good feel for what most people are happiest with, and how long what types of products have been used, track record, etc., all that info is here just for the reading, and I think you'll find that invaluable.

We have specialized in performance tuning these F-150's longer than anyone else - 14+ years, so many people here come to us for their F-150 performance needs as we're well known for our results in these vehicles - but of course, that is what we do, specialize in F-150 performance.

What will get you the best result is to take advantage of our Troyer Performance custom tuning, which is available in a Group Buy right now for all registered members of this web site - here is a link that will give you the info on our group buy: https://www.f150online.com/forums/sh...4&page=1&pp=15

If you would like to go over any of this in more detail, please feel free to give us a call at our number listed below, & we'll be happy to spend some time with you answering any questions you may have, and discuss your specific needs & wants for your F-150, with no sales pressure - then you can give that some thought, and make your decision from a fully informed position.

I hope that brief info helps a little bit, & best of luck whatever you decide!

 

Mike,
Thanks for the info! I'll be calling in the next few days. In the meantime, and for the benefit of others who also might be wondering, can you give some quick and dirty details of what exactly a custom chip can do vs. a stock chip? Also, are they easily installed and can they be further adjusted by the end user?
Thanks again!

 

I know exact prices cant be given, but what difference in 'price range' are we talking between a Troyer tune and an edge?? I will be ordering within the next couple months...

 

Hi DTS419,

You're very welcome!

Just FYI - all of that info is part of what we call "the basics" around here, it's the same basic question that virtually everyone who comes here wants to know - thus it has already been covered here many hundreds of times. So rather than typing all of that out in detail again every time another person asks the same basic question (which happens virtually every day here, of course ), we let people know about the SEARCH feature, so they can make use it - the excellent SEARCH feature is provided here for that very purpose, so that anyone can look up anything that has ever been discussed here, 24 hrs a day. So I would suggest using the SEARCH feature to read some of those posts, and then feel free to call us to go over any of this in further detail.

Briefly - Our custom tuning goes much further into the PCM's programing, and delivers the best safe & sustainable power, performance gains, as well as transmission shift characteristics, the best overall driveability, the best potential for mpg gains, etc. No off the shelf product can do that like our custom tuning can, and nobody else has the amount of R&D specifically into the F-150 platform's tuning that we do - which is why we get hired by some of the major chipmaker to assist them in their own R&D for these vehicles. It's probably best put by simply saying, if you're interested in tuning and want the best for your vehicle, then the smart tip is to get the best - right now is a great time to do this,as you can take advantage of our Group Buy on the XCalibrator 2 hand held tuner loaded with our Troyer Performance custom tuning. That is what will get you the best results, and that is what will also allow you to make adjustments very simply, by pressing a few buttons - so it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out (and that's a very good question to ask, by the way).

This is something that, for the person who is just starting to look into this and does not have some good basic background knowledge (like most people who look into this for the first time, of course!), they benefit from giving us a call so that we can give you all the info you really need to know in order to make your decision from a fully informed position. So I suggest perhaps using the SEARCH feature to retrieve & read relevant posts on this topic, & of course, please feel free call us to go over this in proper detail, so that you'll be fully informed & thus can make your decision with all the info you should know.

For Jonathan - The smart tip is to go with our custom tuning via the Group Buy, as that is what will get you the best results - and the basic price difference between our custom tuning via the Group Buy and the Edge unit is very little - not enough to even be a factor for anyone that can afford to own an F-150. The Group Buy ends the 24th of this month. Far more important than the small price difference is the quality of the actual tuning - this is critical to getting the best results, and to having safe A/F's in the 2004 & newer trucks, as a number of them run dead lean from the factory. That kind of problem cannot be fixed with any off the shelf type of product, that is something that only custom tuning can do. It may sound like I am a bit biased on this, but only because I am a tuner who has specialized in performance tuning these vehicles for many years - thus I know them very well, and the difference and the importance, especially in the newer trucks, of having the best possible tuning. So we give you the facts as we know them, along with our recommendation - from there it's up to each vehicle owner to do whatever makes them happy, of course. For further details, please feel free to give us a call at our number listed below, & we'll be happy to help!