VF tuning collaboration and BS

I have been running @PapaRee 's kruiser 3.6, and 4.0, for comparison. at first I thought I liked 3.6 a bit better, seemed more pedal sensitive, and peppier, nice gear holds, acceleration, cruising speeds, either by foot, or with regular cruise. good all around tune, and definite upgrade over 2.0, in my humble opinion.

went back to 4.0, for a few days, and that is growing on me better than the 3.6, I think. seems more refined, smooth power delivery, great acceleration, (and funny whoooosh noises ) holds upper gears longer, downshifting power on tap, to climb hills, pass, or just stomping it to have fun. cruise is A LOT BETTER THAN STOCK, FOR SURE!!! do yourself a favor, request it from him, throw him a few bucks for beer money. WELL WORTH IT! thanks buddy!!! Ski

 

So the cost of credits has also dropped right?
IIRC they used to be $75 for 5?

 

What’s more impressive than anything is that it cruises well, but when you want the power and give it the juice it delivers on demand and more noticeable than ANY tune I have driven since 2017 (1.03)
Always makes me smile accelerating into the freeway

 

Yes. Was $75/4 now $80/8

 

yeah i just go the 4.0 tune from him today and i gave him a donation for it of coarse . So far definitely like the more pep now is it more peppy than ov tunes premium with enhanced throttle not sure. I tried ov tune premium with enhanced throttle before kruiser 4.0 and k 4.0 reminded me of that peppyness from the ov tune 2.0 i need to log more miles on k 4.0 again im loving the tune so far

 

I haven't updated yet, planning on updating this weekend (got a few tuning jobs Sunday and don't want to switch horses mid race, as it were... don't want to risk something going wrong). Wanted to wait and make sure all the kinks got worked out with the update, and it seems like the latest build is stable, and I'm looking forward to checking out the new stuff.

I also hadn't seen the new pricing strategy, and I'm pretty sad about it TBH. It used to be $75 per ECU (and it's unlocked forever), tho I was buying the 20-credit packs so saving a bit there, like $60-something per ECU. Now if it's $32 per ECU and then $32 per VIN (assuming buying in bulk, with the $320 for 40 credit bundle), that's a HUGE kick in the nuts for guys like me who like to do custom stuff for lots of people.

I hope Mat @OVTune has plans to create some bigger credit bundles to offset the per-VIN business model. Like something to get that down to the $20 per VIN range... like $1000 for 200 credits (or something close to that)?

Hint hint: I would buy that bundle right now, help Mat buy that yacht he's always wanted

 

Our current credit module is *extremely* cheap. Ridiculously cheap if you compare to other tools. And we had to update because even our *extremely cheap* model was being exploited.

In all reality, as we continue to add features, add accessibility, add custom logging, rewrite ram addresses for logging of things normally impossible to log, VIN writing, the per credits cost could go up.


I'll give you 3 examples.

HP Tuners credit model
$299 for the device
$200 to $500 Per VIN depending on vehicle.
no base tunes available. start from scratch.


Ecutek
$1000-$3000 for the tuning suite
$250+ per hardware
$225 to $400 per VIN.
no base tunes available. start from scratch.


UpRev
$550 - device /software
$300 reflash license (per car)
$250 - base tune

 

What is the turnaround time on buying credits now, from me hitting purchase to them being available for use?

 

Mat, you gotta know I want you to make $ALL$ the money. You deserve it man, and it looks like the TW community and FB are embracing your product, and I hope you continue to grow. But you have to sympathize that ANY reasonable person doesn't love spending more money for something than they used to, that's all I was saying. When the price of bananas go up, I'll still buy bananas, but I might bitch about paying more haha. I never said that I'm not going to continue to use your product and buy credits, quite the opposite. I want to buy credits, I just want to buy a *LOT* of credits, and a large wholesale option for credits would be mutually beneficial: you'd get some larger investments up front while rewarding your early adopters.

 

But the $80 for 8 does what $75 used to do with 4 credits. It's actually a SMALL increase in price.

 

Except you still only needs 4 credits so ecu unlocks are cheaper than before if you are editing files. If you are tuning other trucks, it’s a few bucks more than before since you now need to license the VINs

 

Does someone who purchased VF today get 9 credits rather than 5? 4 to unlock their ECU ID and 4 more to unlock their VIN? Not that it affects me, but would be good to know for those who are interested.

 

To unlock and ECU and then flash a truck is now $80.
Used to be $75
What good does editing a file do I'd you can't flash it?

I understand why it's being done, but it's still $5 more. Not complaining... Just saying.

What am I missing?

 

Time for me to throw my hat in the ring. Long time lurker since buying my truck - first time poster.

About a 8 months ago I bought the Vf tuning kit and threw the 2.0 reg file on the truck. New world opened up to me. While I didn’t expect to have a race truck - it definitely left some things to be wanted more from Toyota’s standard tuning. While I come from the Subaru world and know heavily about the Cobb systems, I was relatively right at home with Mat’s process of tuning these cars and trucks.

Fast forward to about 2 weeks ago (or so), and I started reading about this Sasquatch referred to as the Kruiser 4.0 tune. So I hit up @PapaRee, gave him some beer money and finally caught the elusive Sasquatch.

Now, admittedly I don’t have hundreds of miles on the truck but I have to say so far so good. I live in a bit of a valley so to get out and head north on I-25 I have to climb a few hills. The truck no longer takes forever to catch up to the 75-85mph traffic on the on ramp and if using S-mode I can easily keep up and maintain speed much more efficiently in 4th gear. Now the standard file was a bit too sensitive (although loved) on the tip in for the snow here in Colorado. So I went back to @PapaRee and asked him to back the tip in a bit off and viola all is much better now.

As for gas mileage - hard to say because I can’t keep my foot out of it. The hill to get out of where I live on the freeway saps a lot of good gas mileage gained. However, on a drive to north Denver last week I was able to get 18.4 in cruse control for most of the drive.

Towing. I did tow something for a friend of mine last week as well about 25 miles in total to drop off, and the truck pulled like it didn’t have anything attached. Albeit, the total weight was maybe 1000lb.

All in all, very happy with the Kruiser 4.0 tune. I was equally happy with the 2.0 tune from Vf and Mat, however, the Kruiser tune is a bit more refined overall (sorry Mat not talking shit at all). The Vf starting cost almost killed me (well the wife almost killed me that is) but the entire system was and has been worth every penny. If you are considering it Vf or any custom tunes by these guys I highly suggest it.

 

Great review!
Thanks for taking the time to describe your experience.
I appreciate it!

 

Because you can flash without unlocking the ecu. Or edit without unlocking an ecu. You can do one or both.

 

@OVTune
I haven't been able to use VFTuner for a couple of days now. I sent out a zendesk asking a couple of questions #24481

I am trying to use VFTuner on my newer laptop, however everytime I try to input my master key, email, user and password, I am met with "Exceeded registration limit for master key". I thought with the new VFTuner, we can now install it on three systems.

I only have it on my ancient literal decade old Vaio, and wish to move everything over to a newer system.

I also forgot the password, is there a way to retrieve that?

 

Of course. I appreciate your willingness to modify the file to make it easier to use in the snow - that was super helpful. I have not yet had the chance to use the M+W tune yet that you sent as well. I am liking this one enough to not want to break a good cycle going lol.

Also, something I missed in my original post the ECT “sport” button on this tune is an effing madmax button. Tried it out on some mildly wet road while turning and it was a pants shitting experience. Fun, but happy I had my brown pants on already. So word to the wise - use this tune and the ECT button on mainly dry roads or being your brown pants

 

Yes

 

I just loaded the Kruiser 4.0 tune myself, also noted the tip in might be a tad bit (also in Colorado) but I wanna drive it a bit more to get used to it.