Tacoma - OVTUNE - VFTUNER - Update Info and Original Development

I'm brand new here, joined a little over a month ago after buying a Tacoma in October. Being so new to the forum I have learned a lot about what I bought from just reading here, and have been following this tread since joining. I'm one of those who has read almost every page because I like to research a topic I'm interested in. Im also one who bought the tune at full price, about a week before the black Friday sale, so not the sharpest forum member here. Don't know much about off roading or modding trucks. Mine will be a mall crawler, home remodeling, a little off road to places to fly fish, or pull a boat to the lake. With that being said I do have a fair amount of experience with IT, a little over 40 years to be exact. Started in "Programming" in 1978. Yeah, a fair amount of you weren't even born. I won't bore you with any more details of my history, but after having been in the field that long you learn a lot about the people, and what it takes to be successful. They have to be logical, and that is talent, really can't be taught. They have to be inquisitive, almost to an obsession. Perfectionism is also a common trait, again it borders on obsession. Dedicated, even when it's time to put it down, or time to say screw it. Thick skinned when it comes to asshole users. And they take responsibility for what they do, never passing the buck. From my observations Mat has all these qualities and I have no doubt he will be successful. Mat charges about $600 for the programming. And it isn't perfect yet. Probably driving him a little crazy, just when he thinks it's close another symptom pops up. He is probably getting that look that I've gotten from my wife a few times in the last 40 years when she can tell I'm only half listening to her. Especially because it's almost Christmas and family time, not the time to spend on forums or tweaking some f'in program he wrote. I thought I had a four day weekend to enjoy. Got a call from night operations at 1:30 this morning that an application on the mainframe puked and was running crazy. That application cost? Over $100,000 with an annual maintenance fee to match. Guess what? Pretty solid application with a good reputation, and a new variable was introduced. It was taking a multi million dollar mainframe and running it like like a Tacoma in fourth gear at 90mph. Moral of the story - It happens, with a $600 app, or a $100,000 app. I don't know Mat, but indications are he has what it takes to get it taken care of, just be patient and understand it's not a perfect science. He can't know all the mods everyone has done, or the mechanical variables Toyota threw into the mix that make truck A do stuff truck B doesn't, even though they are supposed to be the same dang truck. And it may not meet all your expectations, but it will be a vast improvement over what we all started with. Think slide rulers, then calculators, now PCs.... And they aren't perfect.

Sorry for the long rant/post, I'm blaming it on lack of sleep. If you got this far thanks for reading. Hope this makes some sense. Merry Christmas.

 

19.1 mpg is the best I’ve seen, but I average between 65-75mph. It’s still better than the 17.6 I was getting before 1.05.
I need to be disciplined with the skinny pedal for a week or so to really evaluate gains. Hard to do when it’s this enjoyable to drive.

 

Merry Christmas buddy! Take time for your family and THANK YOU for your hard work.

 

Welcome, and well said.

 

Decided to screw it and flashed the 93 file for my 300 mile drive yesterday. HWY power is great. Downshifted when it needed to (smoothly as well) and power was there throughout all the gears. As OVTune mentioned, 40-50 on light to medium throttle is finicky on the shifting, but didn't bother me too much as I didn't spend much time in that area for my drive. I can see it get annoying for my back road commute to work as that's where the truck spends most of its time in. Hopefully OVTune can figure something out. Also accelerating with light to medium throttle, it does seem to race through the gears but not once did I feel like it didn't have the power when I needed it. OVTune mentioned that this was done for gas mileage and can be requested via custom tune to adjust, so I'll wait until he's ready to offer it.

Overall...love driving this truck again. As most have said, it definitely feels lighter on its feet.

Kudos to @OVTune on a great product and all the time and effort he has put in.

 

Just wanted to say, "THANKS MAT". You obviously have a great work ethic, and a great talent that you are, fortunately for many people, not wasting! It is a great thing when so many can reap the benefits of the talent and dedication of one individual. I have owned Toyota trucks since 1984, and traded every couple of years. Still have my 2011. In all these years and trucks, never have I regreted my purchase, until this 2016. Unfortunately, I dumped a shit ton into this one right away including gears to help drivability. Has helped, but still not right. I really enjoy this thread, "The good the bad and the ugly ". I do not have the tune yet, but I will. Just a tip of my hat to Mat, and shame on Toyota. Merry Christmas to you all!

 

Well said!

This would be a great Christmas gift for all of us. I just installed 35's, so I'm hoping my rig will feel like an oversized Sienna.

Make the Tacoma great again!

 

Still looks to me like a whole lot of shifting going on. That's what drives me nuts with mine. It can't just power through a gear... it has to drop a gear or two just to get moving... then once your moving it wants to upshift before it should. There is literally no real usable power under 2500rpm.

This stuff is easily overlooked during a short test drive when new. That was my problem. Liked the truck in every other way... so I was distracted from the real issue.
In my opinion... I will only get further frustrated with my truck the longer I own it. I'm already looking at 2500HD's now.

 

With the concentration 1.05 has been placed in with automatic gremlins, Im so damn glad I bought a manual. All I really need is linear acceleration and a wee jump in economy.
Matt, when you release 5 with a handheld Im in. Merry Christmas fellow Taco Rockers!

 

you don't have the MT tune yet? if not, then Merry Christmas when you get it. you'll be very happy, rest assured.

 

Thank you for all the hard work and happy holidays @OVTune ,and everyone else!

 

I'm looking into the 4runner. At least the 5 speed will actually be predictable.

 

I know you guys are new to the forums, but let's not pester Mat about the MT tune. Be patient, you'll get it when it's ready.

 

I haven't tried logging any data with the tune and tactrix cable, but would like too. I might go for a quick drive today so I can get some data and send Mat a log of the 4th gear hanging. How do people log data with this setup?

 

You can use TS or Matt has a logger you can use. I believe you have to request it, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a link.

 

This made me chuckle. We haven't gone backwards, you bought a truck. You can't compare a truck built to pull 6000+lbs, haul 1500, and go over things, with a FWD sedan that makes 80 less hp and is 1000lbs lighter, just because they both happen to have 6 cylinders. Of course there are things that could have been done different, but don't go throwing bananas at grapefruits!

 

If we didn't already have a '16 4runner, I'd certainly be looking at them.

All the problems with the Tacoma could have been eliminated if they had just put the damn 4runner drivetrain in it. That is so frustrating.

 

This will be eliminated.


Also more boxes going out right now.

 

I hope some of those boxes are loaded with exploding glitter dicks for a few of the impatient SOB's on here.