Overland Torque Tune (OTT) by Overland Tailor

My odo is off a bit so I use gps to track my miles

 

Currently living in Knoxville, elevation 886, and driving to Morristown, elevation 1350, each day while I renovate a house by Cherokee lake. I guess the route would be considered foothills to the Smokies. OTT handles it with a minimum of shifting.

 

I can hold 5th most of the time 60mph with torque converter full lock on my uphills . I have one steep grade that needs 4th which to me I expect. Now if I'm trying to hold at 70mph or higher yeah I get into 4th gear on most of my steep grades . Some of my rolling hills or overpasses environment depends , wind , temps, if trucks fully warmed up . I can hold 6th on those rolling hills if not it drops to 5th but again I'm more surprised if 6th holds I expect 5th gear on those rolling hills .

 

I live at pretty high elevation, and OTT has been amazing, even on 85 octane. I'm in Aspen (8,000 feet), and I have to go to Glenwood Springs (5,700 feet) pretty often, which is 40 miles away. On the drive to Glenwood, of course I get stupid good MPGs, like 38 or something. But it's the drive back that amazes me. I average 21 - 22 MPGs over the 40 mile drive while I gain 2,300 feet of elevation. Speed limits during the drive range from 50 - 65 mph. So I'm also not driving crazy fast or anything. Holds 5 and 6 gears like a champ during the drive.

 

Yeah it's crazy how our trucks react at high elevation it's like their drunk lol engine performance wise . Last time I was at like 9000 ft I was stock tuned wow it was horrible lol

 

When I first bought my truck, I seriously thought there was something wrong with it the first couple of times I drove into the mountains while it was stock. I actually brought it to the dealer a couple of times to be sure that everything was working correctly. If it wasn't for being able to tune it, I would have traded it in long ago. Now, with OTT, I actually like the way my truck drives. Handles high elevation and steep inclines so much better!

 

What are the approximate shift rpms/speeds for OTT 7.0 on a stock truck under light/moderate throttle? My truck goes 3>>4 at ~25 MPH; 4>>5 at ~35 MPH; and 5>>6 at ~45-50 MPH, with all shifts occurring at significantly < 2K RPM. Of course, harder throttle will delay shifting to higher RPM/speed. I'm just trying to get a sense for how this tune would differ from stock calibrations in terms of everyday-type driving.

 

I'll try to get an average tomorrow and let you know. I'm all stock. I've gotten used to the feel and don't pay much attention to the specifics. That is a good thing, sometimes in the past my truck left me with that feeling of "Wish it did this or that" or "hum, wonder why it reacted that way".

 

@Boltripper or @JustDSM may be able to provide more specifics. Speed is only one variable of many that contributes to shift timing. Engine load, throttle, and several other things also come into play. Unlikely they’ll share the full equation here, but might be able to provide some general guidance.

 

I tried to get an average today and let's just say it's hard to be consistent with the pressure on the pedal, what traffic is doing in front of you, are you on an incline, etc, etc. Best I could do is 2nd to 3th at 20, 3rd to 4th at 30-35, and 5th comes into play anywhere from 40-50. This was not jack rabbit starts, this was even with other traffic/a bit quicker than others. RPMs were in the 2k range, maybe 2500. This trip is mostly 55 mph (I stick to 60) and a few city stretches that are 40-45. My MPG was 23.7 for the 50 mile trip.

I would not put much weight behind what I came up with. Just too many variables.....

 

^^
Man, that's a lot of variables and conditions that I don't pay much attention to...

Until, yesterday.

Driving from Dover, DE to Lewes, DE -- heading towards the Delaware Beaches at 4:30pm on a Friday afternoon means there is lots of traffic. (I was going to Lowe's because they had a ceiling fan that wasn't available in Dover or Camden)

With people merging into the "safe distance" I like to keep between me and the vehicle in front of me, I had to test out acceleration so as "jokers" quit jumping in front of me.

The RPMs were all over the place but stayed under 3K. Hard braking when I hit the first "stau" (traffic jam) alerted me to the engine noise...even with the A/C up kinda high.

"Highway-1" (2-lane/divided hwy) here in Delaware is all flat-land/farm land/rural with dangerous left turn lanes every so often. This is a highway that definitely needs "quick wits about you." (As is any place you drive)

My Sport (with OTT 8.0) handled the drive well! Going back north (with ceiling fan in my truck) was much easier and seeing all the southbound traffic made my drive that much better.

 

Thanks very much. Sounds like its revving more than stock before shifting. I think I will try the tune and take some before and after videos on my super flat/easy, low-volume "test loop" run at ~40-55 MPH.

 

I'd say that's a good decision. I believe one of the goals the developers had was making the truck run like, uh, a well tuned truck rather than a truck to meet some gas saving or other blah, blah government directive/corporate goal. What's interesting is I believe most are experiencing better mileage than stock, and a more powerful truck as well. The added torque is noticeable and the gear holding is nice in rolling terrain. Others will appreciate your videos, especially compared to my "Not so scientific, very subjective" last post.....

The more feedback we get from the better decisions we can make if it's something we want.

 

I got the OTT tune yesterday. It transforms the truck; the truck should have come from factory this way.

EDIT: I tried the medium throttle, but it was a little too sharp for me on the 6MT. I thought it might be too aggressive in rain and snow conditions, so David at YotaTune.com backed it off one setting and it's just about right now.

 

I just wish I could get someone within an hour of Milwaukee or Green Bay to hook me up with OTT 8.0

 

I have to be cautious about what I say regarding the transmission side of things.

Before we get into it.. I think it's best summed up, that we've selected shift points that were a bit of a departure from what a lot of others here go with. We've developed our shift points around the revised engine tune that delivers a good deal more low-end and midrange torque than the OE calibration does. Our philosophy was optimization of wheel torque (or the torque actually delivered to the road surface). Given the limitations Toyota has in the transmission mapping, we've made some compromises, but our strategy was optimization of the wheel torque available for a given pedal input (torque request) while not ignoring efficiency/economy.

What is wheel torque? Wheel torque = (Engine torque * transmission gear ratio * differential gear) / tire radius

We've worked hard to develop a model which gives us optimal shift points based on our known engine output and structure our shift points to reflect the "torque request" the driver is making by optimizing when and how the transmission shifts. Our focus isn't centered around shifting a particular MPH or RPM. Our strategy was to take the operators torque request input and deliver an optimal wheel torque for a given condition. Which in turn has shown to be quite beneficial in terms of economy.

Our tune isn't designed or will ever be a "hold 6th" at all costs kind of tune. Our approach was to configure the engine calibration in such a way that provides enough engine torque to surmount the obstacle ahead, and use an optimal gear to 1) match the torque request of the operator and 2) to as best as possible maintain peak efficiency of the vehicle. This provides the end user a vehicle that will tackle grades and yet still provide good efficiency for commuting.

 

Thanks for taking the time to explain it in layman's terms. I am sure there's multiple changes to tables needed to make the magic happen. I also know what I'm experiencing and it matches your description. The torque is there, the efficiency and the ability to shift when needed on grades works. I didn't mean to imply it holds 6th too long.

On my commute today I realized that once again my truck is running better than ever.

 

My comment on the "hold 6th" was not at all related to anything you stated No worries there.

It's seemingly become a measuring stick between different tunes and I think is often misused. Some folks drastically change the 5-6 downshift points in the tune to what I call "artificially" hold 6th gear under conditions that (in my opinion) would be better served by executing a downshift. That's what I was referring too with my comment.

Your input/feedback is much appreciated, and we're quite happy it's working well for you. Please stay in touch

 

What gear does it sit in at 25mph?

 

I've got my 2018 Tacoma in Dubai, United Arab Emirates and noone here has any experience with it. So it never had its software update done to either trans or ecu.
Is there a way for the tune to be done remotely? What would I need?