Will do, but in the meantime, do you think it is safe to tow with their 87 Performance Program ? I have U/D pullies, E-Fans, and an Airraid CAI, along with a Magnaflow Cat back exhaust, I'd really think I'd be doing a bit better on milage than I am.

 

Yes, since your tow weight is so low, I can't believe it would hurt anything. Bill wrote the tune for you knowing you had a CAI, didn't he?

And, how does the 87 tune work for you when you're not towing? Does it seem to be set up right? If so, give it a shot. It would be nice to know EXACTLY how much weight you're pulling though. Any chance of finding out? Got a scale nearby? (This would also be helpful in adjusting your tow tune).

- Jack

 

I put down on their form that I had the CAI, the 87 Performance tune is better than stock, but best I've got so far was about 15 MPG, I think it should do better. My trailer is a 4 place "Big Bubba" ATV trailer, at most it is probably 1500 pounds, Eiger ATV's are 385 pound each I think, so that is 2655lbs.

 

I get about 15.5 mpg at 70-75 in my truck on the highway, using a custom 87 octane performance tune. I like to drive with the cruise control on. I'd think the E-fans and pulleys would help you do better than that, but there may be other factors such as gearing, tire size, lift? etc. The exhaust can either help or hurt you, depending on how well it's designed and I'm firmly convinced that simple "bolt on" exhausts can actually work against you - even if they sound nice. Exhaust design is tricky.

I tried and tried to find specs for your trailer. Every link to Big Bubba's website comes up as a blank page. The only Big Bubba trailers I see are in some ads for used ones and they all look smaller than yours. Is it an open platform with a kind of "fence" around it? That's all I'm finding.

Based on what I see and "imagine" you have, I doubt it's much more than a fairly normal outboard fishing or water skiing boat. I say try the 87 performance tune. If you don't think the truck likes what you're doing to it, set it back to stock. (It really DOES sound like there could be something corrupted in your tow tune, so I'd be reluctant to use it. I've NEVER seen 5000 rpm on my truck except at WOT while passing). I can also pull my 3600# trailer up a 7% grade, at altitude, with the transmission locked in 2nd and I have no problems.

And, if I get down and upshifts in O/D or even if the torque converter won't stay locked, I turn the O/D off. Again, I don't let the transmission do the thinking for me. I'm too used to driving with a stick.

I suppose I should ask one more thing. Did you by any chance play with the ignition timing? When you describe "pinging", it makes me think your spark is incorrectly advanced. I left mine at zero.

- Jack

 

My truck is an SCab 4x4, the exhaust was a custom job, with 14" Magnaflow, The Trailer is like you said, flat platform with a kind of fence around it, tandem axle, 4 place. The only thing I did with the Programmer was to check tire size and gear ratio, other than that it is how I received it from PHP, the pinging scared the crap out of me and the wife, never heard it before and wondered if the engine was going to blow or something!

 

I wonder if altitude is playing a part in the air/fuel ratio? If Bill programmed it for the altitude, maybe he missed it?

 

I told him on the paperwork what altitude I live at and where I go, it's sounding more and more like he didn't get it right, hope when they get back from wherever they went that he can get it fixed for me, I will be towing next weekend again !

 

Slow the **** down. Why were you at WOT while towing?

 

If I were experiencing milage problems with custom tunes. I would start using a calculator and a log book to document the actual milage instead of the dash or the gryphon. Hopefully this is what was done. The dash can be lower than actual and so can the gryphon.

 

Yea - that's strange too, isn't it? I don't think I've ever seen anything above 3500-4000 RPM while towing, and that's locked in 2nd, at 55-60 MPH I think. To get to 5000, you'd almost have to be in 1st gear. That would have to be some super-steep hill. The mountain road up to Mt Graham has a 10% grade in places and I can still pull my 3600# trailer up it with the transmission locked in 2nd.

The only road I've driven on that's steeper was the 18% grade down to the Gunnison river at the Black Canyon. I was in my older truck at the time with no trailer. It was 1st gear all the way - up and down.

I just had a thought - Utah, were you trying to tow that load up a steep hill with the transmission in Drive? Don't do it! The thing will shift all over the place as the speed/load increases and decreases. Try putting it in 2nd gear. It will stay in 2nd and you should have plenty of power.

- Jack

 

Utahfx4
How fast were you going up and down all them hills? How many miles are on your ride? What was the CHT?
Just trying to figure out the 5000 rpm and pinging.

 

Please forgive me for airing any of this on F150, but I think I have been very patient with UtahFX4 thus far. Since he chose to come on this forum and make incorrect statements about PHP, I think it only fair that I come on here and clear things up.

Mark, I DID contact you last week -- twice. I don't have any problems with anyone posting something negative about us, but I also won't sit idly by and let someone post things about us that aren't true. I never said that I thought it was rude to suggest there was something wrong with our program. I told you that your attitude was rude. Using the words, "My towing tune sucks," is rude. To ask, "Were the programs I got just done quickly to get them out or what?" is rude.

Regarding me telling you that your driving was the problem, you're wrong. My exact words were:

"We have never treated you any way but respectfully; there is no other way to say this, but we'd be happy to help you if you'd kindly adjust your attitude. To imply that we gave you crappy tunes just to get them out is ridiculous and insulting. If we did that as a rule, customers wouldn't be waiting for tunes. I don't know what your mileage was before your sent your programmer to get upgraded, but after being custom tuned, MOST customers get about 14-17mpg. Each truck is different, as is the driving style of each customer. We can't do anything about a heavy foot.

We will be happy to tweak your tunes and load them onto the server for you to download, OR if you would prefer, send us your programmer; we'll turn it back into an Evo, refund you the cost of the tunes, and you can run the canned tunes in the Evo or remove the programmer altogether."

I'd estimate that at least half of our customers have heard me tell them that we can't do anything about a heavy foot. Perhaps I could have said, "The only thing we can't control is a customer's driving style," but it would mean the exact same thing. We only have control over the tune itself. Had I meant that your driving was the issue, I certainly wouldn't have offered to have Bill tweak your tune, and I would have told you that you need to adjust how you're driving. That's not what I meant, so that's not what I said.

I e-mailed you TWICE on Wednesday. No, I didn't get back to you on Thursday, as I was taking care of other customers, too, before we went out of town. I posted on our forum (of which you are a member) and on our website that we would be out of town Friday through Tuesday.

Mark, we bend over backwards to help our customers and make things right if they're having a problem. It sometimes takes time, but we do our best to make sure they're happy. I stand by my statements above 100%. The way you approached us in your e-mails was rude, and your post on here was inaccurate. We try our best to make everyone happy, which is why our business is doing so well, but in this particular case, Mark, the customer is not right.

I know that none of you have ever seen this side of me. I apologize to anyone if my frankness is offensive, but Bill and I give everything we have to our customers and our business. It is unacceptable for ANYONE to think they can treat ANYONE else like crap. We don't live our personal lives that way, and we DON'T do business that way.

By the way, Mark, your e-mail said I towed my 3 Suzuki eiger 4 wheelers up to Wyoming Sunday, total weight is probably about 2700 pounds, I got about 10 miles per gallon and going over some of the hills I was at 5000 RPM ! In overdrive it was constantly up and downshifting, honestly it wasn't that bad stock and I got better milage. Also the 87 Performance program doesn't seem to have the pep or get the milage I had expected from what I had read in the Forum... Now you post on here that it was pinging, too? Wouldn't you have thought that was important for us to know?

We now continue with our regularly scheduled program. Sorry about the diversion.

 

Mark, I think you'd better back off and try to work WITH Bill and Corey, not against them.

The vast majority of us who have worked with PHP have, by now, formed a solid, favorable opinion of their work. If you don't agree, you can vote with your feet.

Hope things work out for you.

- Jack

 

Corey, there was no reason whatsoever to post this nonsense here, I haven't said anythin incorrect on here at all, you have your opinion, and I have mine, from what I have read on here and from personal experience, my Towing program is not correct, and I asked you in an E-Mail if you could fix it for me, and you DID NOT reply back, I had no idea you were out of town, I can't read minds. If you will drop this nonsense and stand behind your product I am more than happy to let you, I will be towing again this weekend and will need it again, E-Mail me for any furthur discussions please.

 

P.S Corey, while you were busy here trying to portray yourself as the aggrieved party here, you failed to mention that I did in fact apologize to you as their was no offense intended, E-Mail messages are very often taken the wrong way, but before you even considered the fact that the program could be corrupt or was actually not written to the specs my truck required you went on the attack and told me that you would give me a partial refund, and I would have to send my Gryphon back for conversion back to Edge, can we each take a step backwards here and start over again PLEASE ? I paid you good money for your product, in todays economy extra cash is scarce and hard to come by, I paid you for a product that came with many reccomendations, I'm sorry we got crossed here and have ruined that. Believe me, the first rule of business is the customer is always right, or you don't have customers, lets try this again and get it right for both of us deal ?