KDMax-Pro Tuning--NOW YotaWerx Tuning

I should be going Oct. 2nd, and Oct. 9th to Natchez. Also Oct. 16th.
Bow season starts Oct 1st. Ahhhh Yeaaaa!
Send me a text the friday before to make sure.

 

The 9th ought to work

 

@PapaRee, "The Wizard of the Tacoma Tune"
The Cowardly lion wanted courage, the Tin man wanted a heart, and the Tacoma Transmission needed a brain! and KDMax tune gave it one!
Been driving the KDMax Premium SL tip in for a couple of days now. I got about 200 miles on it and I am very very impressed with the overall drivability. Lots! more torque and usable power. I'm still really amazed how Toyota's engineers got it so horribly wrong.
I'm coming from OVTune Premium and wouldn't even have tried KDMax until I took the truck in for the fuel pump recall. When I picked the truck up, it seemed that the dealership had erased my tune. I reloaded the OVTune twice more, but the truck felt like it didn't take. I'm an impatient man so i loaded a mild and wild tune PapaRee had given me some time ago and never tried.
I felt a big difference and then I noticed on the Tacoma forum KDMax was the latest tune so I reached out to PapaRee and he sent me the KDMax.
Huge! difference from every tune I've tried thus far. I ran Mild and wild for two days then KDMax LT for 2 days then SL. for the last 2.
I might try wifey tip in next because in heavy California traffic it seems to downshift hard on I think 2nd or 3rd when accelerating from a slow down.
I'm not sure if the transmission is still learning so I will run it for a few more miles. Shout out to OVTune for making the tunes possible and many thanks to PapaRee for achieving the seamlessly impossible, possible!
No lie I am pleasantly impressed!

 

Thank you sir! Glad you are enjoying it!
We appreciate the feedback.

 

I put this on my 20 as soon as 1.4 was released and along with it 04b82, so just a few days ago. Started with the "light" tip-in and both my wife and I have driven it at this point. No issues and we have only chirped if you stomp it from a stop (basically try), but you can definitely noticed the difference in throttle response through the first few gears. MPG at least appears to be a little better as well. My only applicable mod that might effect the tune is 265/75R16 tires.

 

I didn't post this earlier because I got banned from the forum but that is another story. I want to give @KalebG98 some kudos. A few weeks ago, Kaleb met me and set me up with the KDMax LT tune on my 2018 Sport. I also needed an update on my ECU firmware which he applied. I know that it has been said before but it is truly a different beast now. Lot's of felt low end torque which I am sure is a result of better throttle response and a small amount of real torque increase. The truck handles totally different and feels much lighter on the highway. This is by far the best thing that I have done to the truck. These trucks are not underpowered, they are just tuned down. KDMax fixes that.

 

Yes, it changes the transmission shifting pretty drastically. The downshifts when using cruise at highway speeds got better on mine, but it’ll still kick down on hills. Pretty much got rid of the “shudder” I had when slowing down as well as the gear hunting while accelerating.

 

I’m glad you’re enjoying the tune! It was a pleasure meeting and getting to tune your truck!

 

These are the two things I hated about the truck and I agree, the tune 100% fixed those issues.

 

Heck yea!
That’s the main reason we made this tune—to fix the shifting. Then we kept going to get the throttle, cruise control and air/fuel ratio better.
KDMax=Drivability!!

 

Open flat or open hilly? I never had any issue on flat highway. On hilly highways, yeah, the truck cannot hold 6th and I don't think the tune can fix that. It's too much overdrive and not enough torque. In my limited experience so far, the new tune does hold speed better but I think that's because it shifts sooner and/or holds lower gears longer.

 

If anyone is looking for KDMAX in Virginia I have several events coming up:
All upcoming events: --
Norfolk & VB Sept 19: --
Lynchburg sept 25: Petersburg Sept 25: --
Glen Allen Oct 9: Charlottesville Oct 9: --
Salem (Roanoke) Oct 23: If you are NOT on Facebook for those links just msg me here on TW and I can provide all the details you need. I'll flash it and you can send it! #KDMAX from Tacoma Tuning, LLC (Suffolk, VA)

 

I got my tune about a week ago. Not yet 500 miles but nearing the end of the first tank. Adam in Denver did the tune and it was an easy process. I’ve been pretty on the fence about getting a tune for a while so for those in a similar situation here’s what I’ve discovered so far.

TLDR – It’s better, with a few caveats.

For reference, I have 60K miles on the stock tune so pretty well seasoned. My main complaints with the truck were the somewhat inconsistent acceleration from stop like when turning onto a busy street and it would hesitate like it’s out of gas for a few seconds, and its inability to hold speed when mountain driving. Maybe that’s the “gear hunting” some refer to. I never use cruise control so I would see it slow down and keep losing speed until I gave it a fair bit of pedal then it would accelerate too much and I’d have to back off only for it to slow down again. Usually, I just locked out 6th and sometimes 5th and it was fine for the most part.

I originally looked at OV Tune but it was kind of pricey and I didn’t really feel $750 unhappy. The lower price of admission is what convinced me to give KDMax a try.

After the tune, the truck does a lot better accelerating from a stop. It’s smooth and consistent when driving normal and will accelerate pretty hard if I need it to and no hesitation so far. It also drives better in the mountains. Right after the tune I drove up I-70 out of Denver (one of the shittiest drives around and something I try to avoid). The truck did much better, but I did drive it somewhat aggressively as I was checking things out. Still, it held speed much better.

I have a couple complaints still and maybe it’s just me. First, I find that it takes a lot of pedal to hold highway speeds – especially uphill in the mountains. I felt like I was almost stretching to reach the pedal, and I’m 6’3”. It also still feels a bit “lurchy” at times. For example, slowing down for a light and letting off the gas to coast or accelerating and breaking in slow and go traffic. It’s not really any worse than stock and maybe a bit better overall – just not perfect for me.

Also, and maybe I’m dreaming, but I thought I read somewhere that the truck is supposed to sense when going downhill and downshift to help with braking. Mine never did this. It also doesn’t do it with the new tune. I specifically tested this on a long hill and the truck kept gaining speed and never downshifted. I know I can do it manually and I have plenty of mountain driving experience so it’s not a big deal, but it is something I “thought” it was supposed to do. Maybe I’m wrong.

The jury is still out on overall gas mileage. I always got pretty good mileage – usually 21-22 measured per tank and sometimes around 24. I usually get better mileage when mountain driving for some reason. Maybe the slower speeds overall. With the tune, I was worried it might drop. So far, seem about the same. I did have lower mileage on one 90 mile section I’ve driven many times. However, back and forth to work this week seems pretty close to what I was getting before. After a couple of weeks of just commuting I’ll have a better idea.

 

@phdog which throttle setting did you go with?

 

Not sure. It's what Adam recommended. I think he said it was the one just below the stock so less aggressive.

 

For anyone interested, here's my first (almost) tank with the tune. The first 50 miles or so are driving to Denver to get the tune and the rest is driving to Granby (i.e. the mountains) and back and back and forth to work a few times. Pretty typical mileage for me so not worse nor better. For shits and giggles I filled up with 88 (85 is regular in Colorado) so we'll see how it does. I got the regular, not high octane, tune so I don't plan to ever use 91 fuel. For $.30 / gal more I doubt 88 will be worth it.

For those who think math is hard, that's 22.67 mpg "calculated" on that tank and since I have slightly larger tires you can add 3% so 23.35 mpg.

 

Alright, so I did the KD max tune a few days ago and I gotta say, this is amazing! It’s not like complete night and day but it makes the truck so much more enjoyable to drive. I held off for a long time, skipped the OVTune but I wish I would have done this one sooner! I never really noticed the gear hunting too much but the lack of throttle response was definitely real. It has fixed this which pleases me tremendously. Just wanted to throw that out there. If you’re on the fence, do it $400 well spent!

Not super pressing but I’ve got a couple questions if anybody’s got answers.

How does this effect ECT if at all?

And if Toyota does another TSB for the trans and I get it will it revert the tune?

Oh and I went with the regular tip in, seems plenty responsive but not overly aggressive.

 

Good to hear that tune is working out for you.

I found that the ECT function is not needed on a daily basis but if switched on really gets things moving with zippier throttle and different shift points. ECT works really well as part of the tow mode (S4+ECT)

If Toyota changes/updates the ECU calibration it will overwrite (revert) the tune. Some people might like it and say now that my ECU is the latest, greatest calibration a tune is not necessary. But personally, I would not have the update done until the new ECU calibration is supported by VFTuner and KDMax has made a new tune available for it.

My tune is SLT on 87 gas.

 

Well said.
Thanks Jim.

 

Your welcome.