5 star tune on F-53 chasis (V-10)

RJL wrote:
Great write up Dale. Thank you. I agree, when the tranny downshifts and the motor sounds like its gonna explode drives me crazy while going up an incline with a toad. We just got home yesterday from a 1250 mile drive from SW Fla to our home in S Jersey with our Jeep toad and I'm seriously considering this upgrade. I'm gonna stay tuned for your report after your trip with the toad.

Bob

Made it up I40 thru NC and could not be happier with the tuner. I drive by RPM and set the cruise for 2500 which sets my speed at around 65. Good speed for reasonable fuel mileage without impeding others too much. Most of the the drive the coach stayed in O/D with occasional downshifts to fifth thru the rolling hills of the NC Piedmont. Never dropping to third and 4000 RPM as before.

Once past Hickory NC and climbing into the Smokey Morticians the fun began. There's a short hard climb west of Hickory that the coach didn't like (lots of up and down shifting) so I manually down shifted to hold third gear and 40 MPH. Beyond that the tuner pretty much as expected and I did not see a downshift below fourth or an RPM of over 4000 on the other minor climbs. No more shifts to fifth for a few seconds followed by the dramatic down shift to third and 4000+ RPM.

My opinion of the tuner, it's an excellent option available to the an owner. The Ford programming worked OK but wasn't optimum for the end application of an RV, or at least my RV with how I load the the chassis. I do like the change and if an owner has the RV budget to buy it I would encourage such. Bringing fourth gear back into the shift pattern made a big change, and is in my opinion, the most dramatic change to the power train.