KDMax-Pro Tuning--NOW YotaWerx Tuning

If you wanna get the software and learn the ins and outs and get with @PapaRee about taking that region, north Texas does need a tuner.

It's simply too far for me to drive for one tune. Even halfway for one tune is an endeavor. Two or more tunes makes the 4.5 hour drive worth it and I'd totally do it.

If you could organize more than a few Tacomas to get tuned and get the software, we could set a date to come up and tune them up and show you the basics and let you take over the north Texas region. If your TRULY interested in tuning and wanna put forth the initial effort, get with Paparee!

 

How do you know if it gear locks. I keep hearing this , I may have experienced this but I don’t know the difference between locked and unlocked. Hope you can explain. What do I look for if gears are locked.thanks. Is locked good or bad.

 

Here is a link to the DFW area tuning thread.
DFW KDMax Tuning Event | Tacoma World

 

I don't understand this feature much too. All I know is that ect plus sport mode you can lock it in what ever gear and it will not down shift. I haven't tried in slower speeds but at higher speed without cruise I was able to gear lock 6 and drive all the way home. I got thus feature and hope it will be good for towing the boat. Now someone explain to me what happens when in ect in regular D mode? Seems to shift differently. Would be nice to have your stock tune in normal and have this performance tune in the ect. IMO

 

Man, I'm currently running OV 2.0 premium and very happy with it, but after seeing this KDMAX I'm starting to jones.

 

The hype is real.

 

I may or may not have got 13mpg on my hr+20 drive back from getting tuned. Along with a huge shit-eating grin. Different animal. Giddyup!

Real review to follow after some civilized use.

Thanks again @TWTaco

 

Yup. It’s real. Came from 2.0 myself.

 

Good meeting you today Marc! Yeah that SMILE is our trademark!

 

TAKE THE RED PILL!!

 

With Gearlock you lose ECT.
To get gearlock, we have to change the upshift and downshifting in ECT to maximum and minumum. So if you put it in ECT while in Drive, it will not shift correctly.
This is why I do not use Gearlock. I like having a functioning ECT button with Drive.

ECT + S mode is gearlock. ECT alone is useless.

 

I’m one of the few who really like the gear lock. IMO if you don’t tow it’s not really useful, more of just a novelty.
It seems that it will probably be more effective with the KDMax tune, though I haven’t had the opportunity to try it yet.
In a nutshell it kind of holds the gears longer and won’t shift unless you do manually or until it reaches some RPM threshold such as heading up a hill in 5th then really bogging down at which time it will actually automatically downshift to 4th.
When I tow gearlocked, I leave it in 5th and manually go to 4th when 1/4 ways up bigger hills, then back to 5th right as I crest the hill.
As to not being able to use ECT while in drive, with the KDMax it’s not near as useful anymore. Truck is like it’s permanently in ECT mode!
In the end, I’ve been using gearlock for years now so I’m comfortable with it, but if you don’t get it, you’re not really missing anything

 

Yes, but Gearlock minus traction control equals manual transmission. 4 low 2nd gear = send it.

 

Gearlock prevents a downshift. S-mode will downshift.

 

Anyone doing these tunes in New England? I’m very interested.

 

After some more driving I feel that there is a gap in the power of kdmax vs OV tune in 2nd and third when really flooring it.

OV did feel to have more grunt and snap in that area. However, for overall consistent and smooth power, kdmax takes the cake.

For my daily driving thus far, kdmax wins, but I will say when I want to get on it, OV wins hands down in 2nd and third, IMHO. From 4th on, I think it's a virtual tie, with kdmax edging out for better constant and smooth power delivery, thus more predictable...

 

Quick review with three anecdotal data points.

My truck is a more or less stock 2019 TRD Off Road, and I got the KDMax LT. This is my first tune so I’m probably gonna botch some terminology here, but here we go:

(Side note, I wish I’d done a better job to compare before after; if anyone is thinking about getting the tune it’d be worth taking a drive before the tune and taking careful notes to do an apples to apples comparison by making the exact same drive after the tune).

mpg improvement seems real, have never seen this truck get anywhere close to 25mpg on a longer trip before. See pic. Granted this was probably near optimum conditions ... cruising at 55mph over gently rolling hills, but still, I simply haven’t seen this before. On the return trip I drove without cruise and got 21.3, still very good. Usually I see < 20.

Shifting seems way smoother, before the tune I would actively “drive” the throttle to get the AT to behave, now it seems to just do the right thing most of the time. rpms in general seem more stable; before the tune it sometimes held a low gear after accelerating at speed, and run in high rpms for a few seconds, that seems completely gone now. I also notice it sticking in a gear longer now (in a good way) over the lighter hills, where it would have been shifting around before.

One thing I’m not a fan of is the throttle range at low gear/low throttle. Even with the LT there is just barely a hair of room to travel on the throttle from idle parking lot inching along to oomph and vroom. I mean I feel like I just barely touch it and it’s instant power. It’s just the very low end of the throttle range, when I want even a little bit more it’s fine. I think I’d want the pedal movement to throttle relationship to be a bit more more exponential than linear; so the first bit of travel would only add a little bit of throttle, but if you stepped on it you would still get a lot. Anyhow, this is so far the only downside, I’ll probably try the extra light tip in after a couple weeks if I don’t get used to this one and there isn’t something better.

May have more thoughts after a couple more weeks but these were the first impressions. Overall I like it. Thanks @PapaRee and @PNWTacoma

 

All right - I loaded up the regular tune and am blown away. I was on the 87 OVTune, and there is a huge difference in throttle response, holding gears to a higher RPM, etc. After this tank is empty, I'll see what the MPG is, but I kind of can't keep my foot out of it.....

 

- @19TRDTac0 - Maine