State of the 3rd Gen tuning world

I bought the OVTUne cable and software in 2019, and used it to load a number of their tunes through late 2020 or so. Got busy, lazy, and my current tune was working reasonably well. Since then, it seems like there was drama, changes in how tunes are delivered, software used for that, etc. Recently did some highway driving and was reminded that I never got around to getting a tune with the speed governor deleted, which limited me to ~90 mph top speed, booo.
I'm trying to find out what's going on in the OVTuner world. It looks like the forums they started up just redirect to the main site now. From what I can tell, YotaWerx and OTT are the current options for tunes. What's the current opinion on their offerings? Are there other players that I don't know about?

What I think I need, and why, discussion welcome:
1. speed governor removed, I have 33" tires (probably going to 35") and 5.29 gears.
2. ability to run regular unleaded if possible. Running super doesn't seem like it's worth it at this point.
3. low end / mid range torque, often up in the mountains 4 wheeling
4. reasonable highway performance, not on highways often, but gear hunting is annoying

Additional considerations
Auto trans, full skids, sliders, 5.29 gears, 33-35" tires, conventional battery but considering AGM, Naturally aspirated, but supercharger may be installed later. I still have the OVTune cable, but the laptop that had the software is dead and I don't currently have one with windows, but could spin that up if needed. Located in western colorado.

Looking for comments and reviews of current options.

 

OTT

 

1. speed governor removed, I have 33" tires (probably going to 35") and 5.29 gears.
>Do you still have access to any of the old OV Tunes? You can go in and edit a single parameter to remove the speed limiter. I did this a few years ago when I went to 5.29s.

2. ability to run regular unleaded if possible. Running super doesn't seem like it's worth it at this point.
>I tried the 93 tunes in the past and I don't think it did much. Certainly not enough to warrant an additional ~$10 per tank fill up.

3. low end / mid range torque, often up in the mountains 4 wheeling
> I'm sure the OTT crowd will flame me but a tune isn't going to make a big difference. As you've noted supercharging is the only way to get any more real power.

4. reasonable highway performance, not on highways often, but gear hunting is annoying
> Maybe a new tune can help? I run 35s and 5.29s too...there just isn't enough power to push this brick going more then 70 without going into 4th. Any headwind or hills are going to make you shift gears to maintain speed. I've just accepted my fate and either slow down or mash the gas and let it ride.

Save your money for a supercharger, fuel rails, and then get a new tune. I've been in the same boat and considered a new tune since I'm on the OG OVTune still but it just doesn't seem worth it to shell out more money when I've already put down like $700 for the software, OVTune cable, and original tunes. What a freaking sham that we never got the long-promised "ultimate tune" or whatever they were calling it.

 

If it will only go 90 ...you don't need go to Atlanta

 

@xxTacocaTxx should you ever need a loaner laptop ready to go please look me up. Though I offer remote tuning with a cable I can certainly give you a deal if having your own access to a Windows laptop just doesn't makes sense for you. If you don't plan to go FI right away ($$$$) I recommend getting a current tune and having a much more fitting throttle/shifting experience as they run around $450 and really improve the trucks overall behavior. I can offer a discount since it sounds like you have already unlocked your VIN properly for VFTuner if you want to head that way..... a few calibration tweaks make a huge difference and getting the adjustments for your 5.29s is something I would not hesitate recommending. Let me know if I can help and enjoy your build!

 

OMG this exactly! You are reading the words I've been saying to myself for years now. Same as OP I bought the tune package and cable and everything for about $800 pre-cov!d and only have that package tune and would love to be able to get a tune that is just a bit more...a few HP more and bit more torque. I also only run regular gas but I have a manual trans so better able to keep it in the power band, but tow a 4k# trailer a few times a year and that experience generally sucks.

Hey OP you better get that laptop running again because the latest versions of the tune software made changes to the licensing and port detection and while the "legacy" wired connector still works thankfully, if you let the software get too old you may not be able to update it properly since you'd be jumping multiple versions at once. Best would be to install the latest version of their software and then submit a ticket to have them transfer your license over to the new computer. Good luck!

That all being said, OP may want to wait a few more months since the latest versions of the tune software apparently opens up even more things to tweak and twiddle and the after-market tuners will hopefully jump on those to make our trucks run even better. I've long since given up on the software author going back and updating their tune pack files--it's been disappointing to say the least since he only caters to the "pro tuner" crowd nowadays...

 

Is that what you are running? If so, which one and have you also run any YotaWerx tunes for comparison?

In 2019 I ran both 87 octane and 93 octane tunes, it made enough of a difference then that I stuck with the 93 tune. At the time there was chatter about tunes "learning" the octane and adjusting on the fly, I wasn't sure if this had actually been accomplished.

I know an SC is what's really needed, but the price, ouch. I've already pissed money down the OVTune hole and trying to at least make the best of it. Their pivot away from "you'll always get tunes from us and can use our software to load them" didn't leave the best taste in my mouth, but at least they're still around in some capacity. Go see what people that bought a Fisker are up against. Those things are going to be literal bricks.

It's no ATL or DFW, but the interstate along the Colorado front range isn't any fun either.

Thanks for the offer, but the laptop itself seems fine, just the HDD died. I'm looking through some backups to see if at least the tune stuff is copied somewhere. I'm just going to stick a new drive in it since the rest seems to be working when running off a USB. It looks like you work with YotaWerx, can you tell me what tune options they have available, or link to what they have available?

The laptop is still running, it's the hard drive, like the old spinning disk kind, that died. I'm in the process of figuring out options for getting some other data off that drive. I'm not in a huge hurry, so good to know that there's possible further improvements coming shortly. I'm not surprised by the pivot to supporting pro tuners. Having been in the computer hardware and software world for 25+ years, I understand them not wanting to have to deal with every doofus that can plug in a cable, especially when the wrong value in the wrong table could turn your engine into a grenade.