I was wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience when sending in requests to Troyer for tunes. Before I detail everything I should point out that the ladies that have answered the phones in the front have been excellent at customer service. They were willing to walk me through some steps to finding information about my truck that wasn't posted in the usual spots, they are always very polite and just a pleasure to deal with. Because of that I've kept my patience right in my back pocket. But the following has me wondering if I'm just unlucky or if poor Mike at Troyer is just really overworked with tune requests.

Last summer, after purchasing an XCAL 2 off of a fellow F-150Online member I sought to load the sucker up with some tunes to get the truck really running how it should. I filled out the truck worksheets as requests and faxed them over to Troyer. I was told by the front receptionist that they had received my information but would need a CC on file for when the tunes were complete to charge. After giving her the card I was informed that I would receive the tunes in 8-12 week.... Sort of a long time but I figured "Hey, these guys are the best at the tunes and are worth the wait". So I waited.... and waited.... about 14 weeks later I called to see what was up and was told that they were a bit behind and it would be roughly 4 more weeks. So I continued to wait, and wait and a few weeks past the 4 I started to realize that old man winter was right around the corner and called up to see if I was close to receiving the tunes, I was told it would still be about a month.

At this point I figured there is no way I will be able to truly test these tunes when Ice hits the highway and I wouldn't be able to do an Apples to Apples comparison of the stock tune vs the custom tunes. I also recalled the information about the tunes saying that if there is something wrong with your tunes that you need to contact them within a certain amount of time so that it can be corrected at no cost, I didn't want to sit on these tunes all winter. I called back and requested that they try and hold off on my order until it came close to summer again, she said no problem. When I called them back up here in the start of the week I was told that I had been working my way up the list the entire time and I hadn't been removed and was nearing the top of the list. Again I was quoted 4 weeks until they would be done with my tunes.

Now I'm not attempting to knock Troyer Performance, I've heard nothing but amazing things about his work, and I'm very excited to try it out for myself, but the anticipation is killing me. To have moved up to 1 month away after a wait over the entire winter confuses me considering the original quoted time .

Is this normal for Troyer or any other Tuners?

 

Sorry to hear you're having problems. I'm probably one of the biggest supporters for Troyer since I've been there about 5-6 times and he's worked on my F150 and Cobra with perfect results though he always found the smallest things wrong, ha. I've watched Mike tune and talked to him for hours upon hours on the phone. They are awesome at what they do but Mike is always in the ****, every time I go up there (last time being about 3 months ago) he's usually going a million miles a hour. Guy has a list of people to call everday from Cali to Australia along with the vehicles in his shop nonstop. They only have one dyno and he does everyones tunes from scratch as opposed to just modifying a base tune which is the reason it takes so long. Is it necessary? It is for him, lol. I could write pages on how and why it takes so long and the projects I've seen but just think about how you have only one dyno and constantly have calls, meetings, email tunes and actual vehicles in there nonstop. BTW there's only one mechanic too, ha. I talked with him about 2 weeks ago and he had a $30K job he was doing for someone. Mike talks all the mechanical/tuning talk while his wife (awesome!) orders the majority of the parts and the mechanic works on the vehicles. Needless to say my wife and I know all them pretty well. When I brought my truck to have a bunch of stuff done it took 1 week blower and all, I brought my Cobra in to have the rear end completely rebuilt and it took about 4-5 months he's just that damn busy.

Gotta bear with him cause he's the most knowledgeable tuner I've ever met.

 

This seems to be the norm for Troyer of late. If you're tired of waiting and broken commitments, do a search for VPM Tuning. Justin's turnaround is reasonable and I don't see anyone complaining about his tunes. Troyer is a good tuner, but no tune is worth waiting more than a couple months, IMHO.

 

for basic bolt on type tunes I would do a quicky like VMP but if you have some no **** mods and need it done right then go with Troyer.

 

I believe Justin tunes for some serious hardware. Dyno Results Now Troyer will try and convince you otherwise and tell you only he can tune an F-150, and he's pretty successful in doing so when his wait for tunes are going out 9 months or more. I have a Troyer tune for my Supercharged application. I also have have a tune that VMP tweaked that I use with the SCT Advantage software and do additional tuning on my part. I have to tell you there is not any detectable difference between the two tunes.

 

Yeah, I'm hanging in there for the 4 weeks that I was quoted this time around. I've heard enough good things about the actual end product that I'm willing to wait a bit longer.... However if It does come time for that 4 weeks and my tunes aren't a few days out I may very well ask that my order be canceled, I'd prefer not to since I've got some faith in these tunes to being amazing by all other member's accounts.

The real bitch is that I will be starting up summer session classes at the college here on June 1st, so I know I wont have tons of time to **** around with the tunes

 

If you waited this long, a few more weeks won't kill you. But there is nothing you need to do other than install the tunes. I would mess around with any of the settings except possibly tire size if your speedometer is off. Everything should be optimized as delivered.

 

Sorry to hear about the wait. I got lucky and only had to wait 6.5 weeks for mine. Well worth it. 30k+ miles and counting without a hiccup.

 

I've been running Troyer tunes for almost a 100,000 miles now and still going strong, so I certainly can't complain, especially since it only took 7 or 8 weeks for me to get my custom tunes from Mike, which is the time frame they gave me. BUT for the last year and a 1/2 I've been reading what kind of turn around time there is to getting Troyer tunes and it sucks. The OP has been waiting for almost a year??? When I ordered my tunes, they had to charge my CC so they could send me the tuner so I could do a strategy read on the truck. Then they do the custom tunes, at which point you have to wait 7 to 9 weeks to get them, which is what they tell you from the beginning. I didn't think the wait was all that long to tell you the truth, and the tunes were DEFINITELY well worth it. Customer service WAS and hopefully still is pretty excellent, Crystal was always pleasant and helpful and never gave me the run around. Now that being said, I'd be p****d off if I had paid and had to wait as long as some of the others on this site have had to, to get my custom tunes, especially in these economic times. I understand the OP made them delay the delivery of his tunes, which was pretty smart since he's in Alaska (I hear it gets kinda cold up there) but he should'nt have had to delay the delivery to begin with. I was going to order some new tunes for the truck, since I've made a few changes on it, and really wanted to get them from Troyer, as I am already running his stuff and really trust his tunes , but now I don't know. Money is kinda tight, and I sure as h**l don't want to wait even a couple months let alone a possible year. I will always speak highly of Troyer, his skill and ability in tunning our trucks (mine was a whole new ride to me when I installed the tunes really woke it up) and the customer service they provided me, but I don't know if could recommend them to anyone right now. I may try another tuner for now as I need to get some new tunes. To the OP, good luck and I hope you get your tunes soon, you will be MORE THAN HAPPY with what they will do for your truck, and then you might even be more angry that you had to wait so long haha, just kidding.

 

say I want a 87 performance tune for my 09 5.4 xlt 4x4 all stock
wouldnt it be the same tune for someone else who has the same truck?
how would it take weeks or months?

 

Well first off your 09' 5.4 is going to be different from someone elses in many ways... For one they may have released your truck earlier with a different VIN prefix that gave you one program (Tune) stock with your truck, while someone elses who could have been produced near the end of the 09' production cycle could have received a slightly updated program. You also have to take into account gear ratio and other specs that vary on seemingly identical trucks.

Some tuners start with a stock program and just slightly adjust a few of the parameters to "Tune" your truck. Mike at Troyer from my understanding doesn't do this and instead starts from dead scratch on each truck's tune, which makes for a truly customized tune. It may take a little bit longer but it means that your going to get the best performance out of that tune.

When I was filling out the 5 or so worksheet that they sent me, they ask some things that you'd never think would make a difference in a tune, or at all even by itself. What weight of oil do you use, what brand is it, what spark plugs do you use, what brand are they, what size is the gap, what oil filter do you use, what fuel filter do you use... I remember thinking "WHAT!!! FUEL FILTER... ARE THEY SERIOUS". I'm assuming someone as busy as Mike, wouldn't ask for that information if he didn't feel it was going to really benefit his making a tune for you.

@Mitch...... Yeah it gets a little bit nippy up here.... every now and then it actually gets a little bit cold, you know... -60*F for 3 weeks in a row I noticed that the F150Online how-to about tunes said to only flash your PCM when your truck isn't in a stressed environment, well -60*F has got to be on that list and is why I didn't want to receive the tunes in the winter. Glad to hear you loved your tunes I started out thinking that this would slightly increase the performance and I'm now looking much more forward to it in anticipation for what the tunes can do for my shift points and acceleration more than anything. I think it helps that I've waited almost a year for the tunes so that now I no longer have mediocre hopes for the tunes but instead have great expectations.... We shall see

 

Talking to Troyer this morning, he stated that the wait time for tunes is about "a million years"

 

At least he's being honest now.

 

Hmmm, I guess I better do the math on whether I'll have another truck in a million years................. mmmmmmmmmmmm Nawww! I think my F-150 will withstand the test of time

Perhaps if you talk to Mike again, you could put in a good word for expediting that million year process for me lol!?

 

I spoke on the phone with a woman there last week, was told 12-15 weeks. We shall see.