Pedal Commander: does it work?

Sounds like it may be something I'll have to pick up in the future as well. I'm curious to hear people's opinions on dry roads as well.

 

Oh shit, forgot to mention the gas mileage. I average about 15.8 driving around on base since it's alot of stop and go. Right now with all the snow I'm averaging 14.6. In the 30 minutes I was driving with it on City mode I got up to 14.8. I think the only reason it went up it because I'm not longer having to push the pedal down excessively and can now feather it very lightly. I'll wait a few days after driving with it and report back on this one as well as wait for the other buyers to comment on their MPG as well. I'm hoping to maybe a gain a few MPG in the end

 

It did pretty well given the ice on the ground and dealing with no traction but I would still wait for some other reviews from it first from guys driving on dry roads since they can test it alot better than I currently can

 

Sounds like hot fire brah....shun the nay sayers. I might pick one up

 

Just out of curioscity,

All modern ECU's are self learning. I'm wondering how far would our ECU go (possible???), and how long is this learning curve before the ECU remapping to the mod.

 

Great review. you may have said but if you have a fob you must have an Auto trans with push button start ?

 

Yep, 2016 TRD Off Road V6 Double Cab auto with push to start

 

Got mine installed today, been driving around for an hour or so with it.

First impressions:

As far as the install is concerned - it's a breeze, like took me two minutes.

I like to drive and I like to throw the taco around a bit so I went initially with the sport mode and full responsiveness +4. I felt like i was barley hanging on to the truck initially, thing thing just takes off when you touch the throttle. It was almost a little too sensitive. It took me a few minutes to adjust as my normal clutch bite point would have the truck revving like crazy before she stared moving. You will notice this if you have a MT. The typical amount of pressure you apply to gas while letting the clutch out has to be adjusted depending on what mode you are in. I found driving around in city mode a +4 worked well for me. Sport mode I will have to practice a bit more, sport + mode god only knows. City mode at +4 was very responsive without being too jumpy. Basically you have to be really mindful of your right foot and how much pressure you are applying to the gas. Keep in mind that with the throttle being more sensitive it's really easy to have a jumpy first gear if you aren't really smooth with the pressure you apply to the throttle. It's still a lil jumpy with the mode I have it in now (vs. stock) but not bad and just is a matter of driver adjustment.

This thing really shines through when up-shifting. Going from 1st through 6th when you are punching it felt so much better than stock. The biggest difference being that moment after you shift into the next gear, let the clutch out and press on the gas. Stock setup I always felt a second of lag before the engine responded to my foot. With this system 90% of that is gone. So I'm very happy about that.

The one issue It didn't solve is the actual lag. Maybe it's marginally better but not much. You still have that little lag in the pedal and I don't know if there is any way to get around it. For instance if you are sitting idle and quickly push the gas down and let it back up the rpm needle barley moves, I don't know if I'm being unreasonable but I was hoping to eliminate that somewhat. There is little difference between stock and this product in that regard. Basically the difference I found is that if push the pedal down 20% on a stock setup I will get a certain response from the engine, if I do the same thing with this product the rpms climb higher and slightly faster.

The fact that it makes upshifts more enjoyable is a big plus for me, so much so that I think I will be keeping the product. Kinda bummed about the little bit of lag left but not enough to return it... at least for now.

Again these are only my first impressions, they may change. Feel free to ask me any questions and I will be keeping u guys updated as I put some more miles on. Overall though, the truck is more enjoyable to drive and feels like she got a shot of adrenaline with this product.

 

Like, it will start performing like the the pedal commander eventually even if
you disconnected it? Is that possible?

 

no it won't but auto tranny shift points may be learned and locked in differently

10 mins off battery will reset that back to relearning mode

 

IMHO, Depends ...

ECU has a range of inputs and outputs (I/O), and a mapping between them. As long as inputs are within the ranges expected, it may well be able to cope with the changed architecture, however there are two common problems:

1./ If the type and number of inputs aren't sufficient to let the ECU know the new architecture sufficiently accurately, the outputs may just be wrong - either inefficient, or potentially damaging
2./ If the inputs stray outside the values expected, the ECU will not know what to do, and although ideally will cope gracefully by reducing I/O data to the safe levels (meaning almost back to the point before the mods). If this the case then we must reset battery to get ECU back to virgin before the mods connected.

 

Got your points, Mush Mouse,
So the point is this PC mods help driver keep a light foot on the gas pedal.

 

IMHO,
It is expensive for me just to spend ~ $270 to preserve the strength and feeling of my foot.

 

So actually NO Pedal Commander is not just fooling your ECU into making it think you are pressing the pedal down more. we are also opening the throttle body flap faster or slower depending on your setting to help with throttle response.

Mush Mouse can you tell me how you are a expert in my product although you have never driven a car or truck with our device ? let alone knows what it does or how it operates. I understand you need to keep your post count up but please let the people who have the product or have tried it chime in. I think what they say has a lot more validity then the rubbish you are writing, you haven't written one positive thing in this whole thread all your trying to do is bash my product... remember what mom and dad taught us... "if you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything at all"

 

I think it works people like it

 

Has anyone else here read the "Cheap Ebay Bumpers" thread? Maybe @chasepark and @BallsDeep09 are Cole?!?!

 

Got mine installed and went for a quick test drive. I've got the 2.7 with the manual transmission. And regardless of what it's doing, it does make the truck both more fun and more lively to drive. It does not eliminate or even seem to reduce the delay on throttle closing. In 4lo this is very apparent as there's a full second between letting off the throttle and engine braking. For those of us who only have the right-foot crawl control, I was hoping that would be fixed.

However, it is definitely snappier for acceleration than merely pressing the pedal further. Upshifts are smoother with less of a dip in speed, and the fact that it requires less pedal travel is, in my opinion, a serious improvement from an ergonomics standpoint. Is it worth the price? I guess that depends on how picky you are about pedal feel. I'm picky and this does make the truck more pleasurable to drive.

 

Our roads are still dry here so I've been using the sport mode the most. Definitely a driveability improvement. Curious what this will do to mileage... I don't have the fancy mpg gauge so I'll have to wait till my next fillup.

@LSartore - Any chance the PC could be programmed with a crawl mode designed to reduce the throttle closing delay. The RPM hold is nice for upshifts during normal driving, but in 4lo more responsiveness in both accel and decel would be nice.

 

Is there a way the PC could be programmed to reduce the acceleration lag as well? It helped a little but not to where I would like it to be, I want it a nice steady acceleration from a complete stop to moving, instead of the current jolt forward that the Tacoma does when stock

 

I can program it to hang RPM's and close the throttle body slower... it would be so muich easier if I had your vehicle here at my facilities it might take us a couple times to get it right and or perfect for where you want it but I can do it .... does it hang any better in ECO mode? .....

in ECO you will notice your gas savings... I cant make the car respond better accelerate faster and save gas.... otherwise that would be a golden recipe. ...

Same thing Chase I could program your unit to either be a little more aggressive and or softer to whatever your liking is.