Wanted

Just a question:
What advantage do you expect from the unit?
Are you aware of the programming limitations that might arise with a used unit?

Buy a new one lol
You will not get the support with used.

I agree... buy a new one, and you'll never regret it.

You just missed one advertised here a couple of weeks ago.

:o Yeah... I had that one lurking in the back of my mind also. Here's a link to that threa. http://www.thorforums.com/forums/f38/5star-tuning-sct-programmer-ford-f53-v-10-6-speed-20114.html

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Just a question:
What advantage do you expect from the unit?
Are you aware of the programming limitations that might arise with a used unit?

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Buy a new one lol
You will not get the support with used.

[QUOTE=rvfigs;217833]We are hoping to squeeze a bit more performance out of the V10. What are the limitations with a used unit?[/QUOTE] Each custom tune for a coach is based on the weight, rear axle ratio and tire size. In my case the first tune was not to my liking (not nearly as aggressive enough). The second tune was too aggressive. The third tune was good but not perfect. I have lived with the forth tune now for three years and 22,000 miles. If I wasn't extremely happy with it, I would have requested another. Did the last tune give more power? No noticeable increase in power. Did the coach get better fuel mileage? No. What changed was the drive-ability of the coach.

When you say drivability, please explain.

I think the five star thing is being steadily debunked.
All I've read, and even five star reports say
'seat of the pants' should be your only expectation on the newer 6 speeds.

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I think the five star thing is being steadily debunked.
All I've read, and even five star reports say
'seat of the pants' should be your only expectation on the newer 6 speeds.

I'm just curious what drivability improvements can be made via a computer program. My coach's drive train has never been a problem or source of complaint. It drags my toad and the load of crap inside the coach and every 400 miles I put fuel in it. It went from Texas to Pennsylvania and back at 65 MPH and never had a glitch. I have never calculated the MPG, nor do I care how many foot pounds of torque or ponies are produced. But, all that being said, if a tune could reduce the decibiles in the coach going up a long grade or give me a 5% increase in range I would calculate the return on investment and look into getting it.

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:rolleyes: But the "Hiney-Dynos" are never wrong: are they? :whistling:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9N5M2WhIiI

I'm sort of aware of their products... I came mighty close to ordering one of their tuners for my 2018 Outlaw... But one thing that's been driven home to me over the years: "Figures don't lie... But Liars can figure!" (My Grampa Denman told it to me... :D) I'm certainly NOT saying to avoid buying one... I'm just saying that you'd be better served with a new product, and the full package of customer service that comes with it.

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I'm sort of aware of their products... I came mighty close to ordering one of their tuners for my 2018 Outlaw...

But one thing that's been driven home to me over the years:
"Figures don't lie... But Liars can figure!"

(My Grampa Denman told it to me... :D)

I'm certainly NOT saying to avoid buying one...
I'm just saying that you'd be better served with a new product, and the full package of customer service that comes with it.

That video is the one I saw which completely unsold me on the product. As unscientific as it was, those minimal changes on a giant hill convinced me that the changes on a regular drive would be too miniscule to measure. They went pretty extreme in terrain to get a barely noticeable, and questionable differential in a very specific and massaged rv. A few too many: A Little Few Feels like Seems For me. If I were interested I'd give the company themselves a call to see what the policy is on a used unit. And I did deeply consider buying one. I was sorely disappointed by my disappointment. If I weren't happy with the tow/haul, I'd absolutely buy a five star for changing shift points and pressures. THIS is where the drivability and seat of the pants comes into play. Shift points. And If Beau said the world was flat, I'd have to do the math and research to counter. Beau is a veritable bastion in the rv field. He's not one to doubt. Factual, effectual, practiced.

Agree that the value is in the shift points. Ford has some pretty good engineers and if more power and better economy were available in a tune I expect they’d have tapped it. I traded a 6 speed class A for an older 5 speed and was amazed at how much less pleasing to drive it was. It shifted down at the slightest hill and too often skipped 4th gear and went all the way down to third. Tow/haul mode made it worse. The 5 Star Tune helped quite a lot and I was glad I bought it for the shift points only. But the thing isn’t magic. On big hills it still had to shift down to third and in those conditions the benefit was only marginal. Where it shined was in the ordinary world of small and modest hills. I have since traded yet again on a 6 speed coach and I’m happy with its performance and won’t be changing it. Had I kept the older machine I was considering asking 5 Star to put everything back to stock except the shift points. I am convinced that the “seat of the pants” impression of more power comes from making the throttle response to the position of the pedal more sensitive.

Pete, Thanks for your post. I'm happy to know my research was confirmed by your real world experience. I can't think of a better, easier to follow or more truthful scenario than your six speed, five speed, six speed, with and without tuner, testimonial. I think, thanks to you and Beau, the decisions can be put to rest by anyone who values experience. But. One of the really great engineers on this site detailed a seldom reached adjustment Ford does to the v10 programming: He said; if you can possibly go wide open throttle for 60 seconds, a whole new command set is reached. I was able to accomplish this only once, up hill of Lukachukai Arizona. The road is so twisty and so steep I thought I'd have to reach for 4wd low(I don't have 2wd low) . Floored for about 70 seconds, the incredible ROAR and the turbo lag type boost was astonishing. I went from a struggling 8mph floored to 22mph so quickly it startled me and I let off the throttle before I realized what was happening. Reprogram THAT to a 5 second delay instead of a 60 second delay, and I'll buy a tuner(a tuner is on the list solely for this, the only reason I can find to consider one on a six speed v10). I can't duplicate the 60 second throttle thing. The little 24.1 is too quick causing the speeds to get too high and I haven't found since, a hill as miserable to keep my speed down.

[QUOTE=ducksface;217945]Pete, Thanks for your post. I'm happy to know my research was confirmed by your real world experience. I can't think of a better, easier to follow or more truthful scenario than your six speed, five speed, six speed, with and without tuner, testimonial. I think, thanks to you and Beau, the decisions can be put to rest by anyone who values experience. But. One of the really great engineers on this site detailed a seldom reached adjustment Ford does to the v10 programming: He said; if you can possibly go wide open throttle for 60 seconds, a whole new command set is reached. I was able to accomplish this only once, up hill of Lukachukai Arizona. The road is so twisty and so steep I thought I'd have to reach for 4wd low(I don't have 2wd low) . Floored for about 70 seconds, the incredible ROAR and the turbo lag type boost was astonishing. I went from a struggling 8mph floored to 22mph so quickly it startled me and I let off the throttle before I realized what was happening. Reprogram THAT to a 5 second delay instead of a 60 second delay, and I'll buy a tuner(a tuner is on the list solely for this, the only reason I can find to consider one on a six speed v10). I can't duplicate the 60 second throttle thing. The little 24.1 is too quick causing the speeds to get too high and I haven't found since, a hill as miserable to keep my speed down.[/QUOTE] I followed that interesting thread as well and I too experienced the 60 second throttle thing on a long western grade in Wyoming. For reasons unknown to me Ford delays added enrichment at wide open throttle for 60 seconds which apparently leaves the engine running way to lean during that lag. Maybe it’s a fuel economy thing. If so I’d be happy to suffer the decreased mileage for improved climbing power. But living in Indiana I rarely drive in serious mountains so I didn’t make it a priority. I’d assume 5 Star could program it as you say and there must be some reason they don’t do so in their standard tune. I suppose it’s the same reason Ford doesn’t. Ultimately I am reluctant to assume that I am wiser than engineers who make a living with this sort of thing. I’m keeping my 6 speed stock!

0An aside since this has pretty much run its course. I have a 2004, 8.1L/496ci, 3/4ton avalanche. I've had it since 2004. 67,000 miles. Bought with 17,000 miles, I paid less than half for it, much like an rv devalues. It has two gas tanks and a simple 'y' in the filler tube. One of the tanks is only six+ gallons. This is due to a regulation requiring a certain mile range and there being no room for a larger tank. The punchline is sometimes engineers have to do wild things for wild reasons. I took it to blackbear tuning for a personal, not canned, tune by the owner. I picked up 3.5mpg and a Squat load of torque and hp and now have a downshift on deceleration. There's quite a bit more hp available, but I need to change injector size to get it. Contrarily, he said I'd be wasting my time on the 5.3 avalanche we also had, because like the Ford V10, engineering had maxed it out to within a small percentage, in stock form. The owner turned down my easy $450 for what amounts to a 50 minute drive on freeways and surface streets. Punchline Not all tuner stories apply to all engine types and programs.

I have a 2014 challenger 37gt and installed 5 tune last year. Main difference I noticed was a bit more power when on the highway and better shift points ( less lag and more responsive )going up and down hills. I don't tow. I would buy again.

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Looking for a 5 star tune for 2018 Ford F53 6 speed chassis.

Please PM me.

Thanks.



View this ad at Thor Classifieds - 5 star tune f53 6 speed

I liked it

I have the 5star tune on my 2018 Hurricane 34J. The biggest difference is how much better the part throttle is. The transmission didn't wait until it had to down shift 3 gears, it would drop one at a time as the load increased. I also noticed it was easier to get up to 60 on freeway on ramps. There is no such thing as fuel economy when you are pushing a giant brick at 60...lol.

I think it was worth the money in my experience.

Thanks for the feedback fellas.

Even a slight gain is better than no gain. :thumb:

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DOnt ned it for 6 speed. Ford has it tunes just right. don't mess with it.

ReTune for F53

I have no experience with 5 star. I have a 32 foot class A with the Workhorse chassis which is a stroked out 454 to 496 cubes. I needed more oomph for the mountains. When I checked around, I could buy an engine rebuild kit for $5K from Banks and doa lot of work to rebuild an engine that I can't get at.

I found an outfit called Ultra RV Products. I bought a new ECU for about $500. The claims were pretty good. What I got was what I figure is another 25 HP and about the same increase in torque. What I love is that the engine runs better and starts better and my gas mileage went from 7 way up to 8.5 to 9 in the low country (Flat) and about 7.5 - 8 in the mountains. Last
I got 9.4 mpg from Southern Virginia to Myrtle Beach which is all flat and level. For the money, I saved about the cost of the unit EVERY YEAR in gas!!
Check them out. They have units for the V10 as well. My rig has the Allison tranny and they have a new computer for that as well for $100. It changes the shift points but I did not opt for that.

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That would be true if FORD transmission engineers knew how MorRyde was going to modify the FORD chassis for the house manufacturers and knew what size and weight house the coach manufacturers were going to put onto the MorRyde modified FORD chassis.

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I have no experience with 5 star. I have a 32 foot class A with the Workhorse chassis which is a stroked out 454 to 496 cubes. I needed more oomph for the mountains. When I checked around, I could buy an engine rebuild kit for $5K from Banks and doa lot of work to rebuild an engine that I can't get at.

I found an outfit called Ultra RV Products. I bought a new ECU for about $500. The claims were pretty good. What I got was what I figure is another 25 HP and about the same increase in torque. What I love is that the engine runs better and starts better and my gas mileage went from 7 way up to 8.5 to 9 in the low country (Flat) and about 7.5 - 8 in the mountains. Last
I got 9.4 mpg from Southern Virginia to Myrtle Beach which is all flat and level. For the money, I saved about the cost of the unit EVERY YEAR in gas!!
Check them out. They have units for the V10 as well. My rig has the Allison tranny and they have a new computer for that as well for $100. It changes the shift points but I did not opt for that.

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Nice feedback. Thanks for this insight.