Picking a tune for self-install and tinkering

Hey there,

First post on this forum, but I’ve been lurking for a while.

I’m doing my homework to pick the right tune for me, hoping to get some advice from some friends with more experience.

I’m looking for something that cleans up the throttle response and shift points on road without reducing off-road performance. I’d like a more aggressive throttle when I’m using the truck as a DD, but I’m worried because I don’t want a more aggressive throttle when I’m navigating tricky rocks off-road.

I stumbled upon another user here that talked about using the OVTune hardware and a self-install kit for one of the tunes to flash an aggressive profile for DD, but then switch to something more tailored to off-road when he was hitting the trails.

I love to tinker so this sounded perfect, but now I’m wondering which tunes even allow that kind of use. *This is inaccurate, misread the email, see edit* I emailed OTT support, and was told their self-install license was for a single profile only.

For those of you who flash your own tunes, are there any that you know of that allow you to flash different throttle profiles?

Also, a couple general questions:

• How does a tune impact the 4lo shift points?
• From what I understand, MTS tweaks throttle response depending on the setting that’s selected. Do ECU tunes interfere with this? Do they modify it?
• I’ve read that some tunes (OTT for example) let you customize a secondary profile that gets activated when the ECT button is pressed. For example, ECT activates a sport mode, or a crawling mode. Do other tunes offer that?

Sorry if any of these questions are ignorant or answered elsewhere. Been searching for a couple days and these are the ones I haven’t found anything for.

Looking forward to some guidance! Thanks everyone.

ETA: I just checked the email I received and I completely misread a key sentence. It said ‘You do get a file pack with different throttle settings to try.’ For some reason my brain added “not” between “do” and “get.” I feel terrible for misrepresenting the company.

 

Regarding "single profile," I think you may be confused. Most of the time you should receive a tune pack with multiple files you can pick from, and some of the files within that pack include throttle options. However, I'm not sure how they operate compared to others.

A tune can impact 4Lo if there are changes to the shift points. Although I cannot say for certain if everyone changes those.

Again, the options are there to change for throttle sensitivity in 4Lo, but I'm not certain if all tune groups change those.

Every big name tune does what you say in your 3rd bullet. There are maps to adjust throttle sensitivity in normal and ECT, and there are different shift maps between the two as well.

Lastly, if there is anything specific you want, most tune groups will accommodate your request.

 

First off, thank you for your interest in the OTT calibration! @ktbell444 pretty much summed up details to the majority of your questions, but I'd like to specifically clear up a few details regarding OTT's email.

The "single profile" license is simply the VFTuner kit being supplied with 4 credits (enough to license a single 3G Tacoma). For most folks who only have the intention of flashing their own truck this is all you'll need. You'll be provided a suite of files for your vehicle which includes a variety of different settings/configurations. Should you have a specific need, we'd be happy to accommodate.

 

Totally goofed and misread the email from OTT. I see now that it says that you *do* offer a kit with different profiles, when I read before I thought it said *do not*.

That’s awesome, thanks for the replies from both of y’all.

I would love a little bit of clarification on how the ECT mode customization works.

My totally uninformed guess is that a handful of files are provided, each with a different throttle profile. When I’m flashing, do I pick one profile for normal and one for ECT?

@JustDSM, are you able to comment at all about whether the shift tables/throttle response are changed in 4lo with an OTT? And as far as MTS goes, am I correct that the different MTS levels adjust throttle response, and if so, does the OTT impact those settings?

Thanks a ton for your time.

 

If you had someone else apply an OV tune, are you able to access and make edits after?

 

The tunes will be locked to protect IP. You would need to pay your local tuner another visit if you need a change. Which is why having your own kit can come in handy, you can change (flash) as needed.

 

Would I have to pay for credits again if I obtained my own kit?

 

With vF Tuner, credits are based on VIN. So once the VIN has been credited, it no longer needs to be credited for you or anyone else using the software.

 

Perfect, thank you for the help!