OVtune, VFTune, KDMax - do I need them?

Not sure what they all mean and when I research them, it is a long twisting rabbit hole to go down. I'm retired and driving a SR5 2wd 6 cyl Tacoma. I mostly drive fairly flat terrain (Midlands SC) and at most tow a utility trailer with sod/dirt or a boat trailer with my kayak. I'm getting around 23 MPG overall and was pretty happy until I ran across all these tuning threads. Do I need this? Will It save me money in the long run or should I just stay where I'm at?

 

Nope. You're stock, driving in normal conditions (flat, near sea level), and happy with your performance. You're the market the stock tune was designed for and there is no need to adjust.

Benefits you would likely see with tuning include a more responsive throttle and shift points. It will provide a performance change, but not likely to recoup the investment in terms of mpg savings.

The more you push these trucks away from stock configuration the more benefits you see from tuning. My truck is heavy, on larger tires, supercharged, and sees a 5000' elevation change every time I go to work: for that level of stupidity HP Tuners has been a gamechanger. But for stock, mild use I wouldn't change unless you're unhappy or want to tinker.

 

Thanks for the info, Will. Yeah, not a real tinkerer on my vehicles. Would probably have crank windows, if they still made them and it would save me a few bucks.

 

If you are happy then don't worry about it. A tune can give a little power boost and maybe make it a little nicer to drive, if you don't have any complaints with how it drives and the power then save your money.

A tune could possibly increase fuel economy a little bit, likely not enough to ever pay for the tune however

 

Nope.

There is zero empirical evidence that a tune improves mpg, right? Wrong?

All anecdotal “it may or may not” sales bullshit.

Could very easily advertise as…

“Lose mpg, burn more fuel, possibly void warranty, prematurely burn transmission, trust the work of a couple garage techs whoring shifting maps over experienced engineers at Toyota” Just as accurate of an advertisement.

Hell if I was paid 400 bucks to install Windows 98 software for ten minutes without any ramifications, I would kiss your ass and say just about anything, too. Its madness what a money grab it has become.

Worth a try for fun and get your money back if not happy btw I do have mine tuned happily, paid 50 bucks lost a mpg and am still stoked!

 

Do you need it? No. Having said that I put off my ov tune for way to long it made such a shift in how that drunk monkey of a transmission behaved that I wished I had done it earlier. Having said that I think putting it in sport and locking it in 5th would of done the same in terms of on highway performance. Buuuut the increased throttle response is a nice touch. Overall I don't see it as wasted money

 

I agree with everyone else that has posted, it doesn’t sound like you would benefit much from a tune. I have the KDMax tune on my truck and I love it, but I drive a ton of hills/mountain passes at highway speeds.

For the driving you described, I think you should save your money because you wouldn’t see all that much benefit from it.

 

I think this is what I needed to hear. I came from a manual transmission and have spent the past 3 years and 57k trying to adjust to my 3G Taco's auto transmission. Is there any risk to an OV tune? Alternatively, is there any risk to overriding my drunk transmission while daily driving in Sport Mode?

 

88 months with my truck, no tune.

works for me

 

I have yet to hear of any issues regarding the ov tune. I wouldn't think you would hurt anything running it in sport all the time except for more wear on the shifter.

 

that describes me...."not so unhappy but definitely want to tinker alll the time"

 

try driving in your ECT mode and you ll get the power band focused on the low to med range power and you ll appreciate the performance in your described driving environment. ...I am about to put on a OTT tune bc I plan on adding weight and building some semblance of an overland Taco to do some adventure.