Smarty Jr.

75 HP is a bunch and you should easily be able to feel it.

I would do this: Find a county road that is straight and no traffic. Set it to stock and make a measured run from A to B. (1/4 mile or so if you can)

Set your tune. Make the same run. You should shave a bunch of time off your run if you truly have 75 more HP.

Smoke and mirrors for many of these kits.

I agree with TnP. The average time tuned should be quicker than untuned.

However, there are some draw backs in our trucks. The Ram torque converter is not very efficient at putting power to the ground when unlocked. I have never seen the actual specs, but I have heard that its is about 70% on a good day which is not a great number. That is a lot of wasted horsepower. Once locked, it will pull like a train.

Googling "smarty jr dyno" reveals plenty of people who have tested the tuner on a dyno compared to stock.

According to MADS
Setting #1: 40hp/80 torque
2: 70hp/140 torque
3: 100hp/200 torque

Basically twice the HP Increase

SO your 5.9L 325HP/610 torque CTD increase on #2 should have been noticeable
395HP/750 torque -----especially the torque increase

My Bully Dog is run on extreme 100% of the time which is supposed to be 140 at the wheels in my 2005 Cummins. I had the retune feature set too low when I first installed and towing on hard pulls on the interstate it would easily get to that temperature and retune back to stock. The truck literally felt like it fell on its face. Once it cooled off it goes back to the last tune. When it did it would literally rattle the dash it came back in so hard. I raised my retune to 230* and now drive by temp under hard pulls meaning I start easing up on it around 215* to keep it from detuning.

If you can't tell the difference, it didn't load a 70hp tune.

I think this is the most telling part of the OP. " Since HP ratings are always listed at unrealistic RPM's"

It is not a linear 75 HP at all RPM levels. So unless you actually drive it in a manner to use the HP you may as well leave it stock. It is unrealistic if you think you will feel some hit at low throttle levels.

mich800 wrote:
I think this is the most telling part of the OP. " Since HP ratings are always listed at unrealistic RPM's"

It is not a linear 75 HP at all RPM levels. So unless you actually drive it in a manner to use the HP you may as well leave it stock. It is unrealistic if you think you will feel some hit at low throttle levels.

My Bully Dog has a definite hit at low throttle levels. It's very noticeable when getting up short ramps to the interstates. The difference is half throttle as apposed to full throttle to achieve the same results when merging on. Especially with TH mode on where it will lock the TC in drive as apposed to OD. Like I said earlier, I only run in extreme. I've never run it in tow setting which is only 80 hp.

transamz9 wrote:
My Bully Dog is run on extreme 100% of the time which is supposed to be 140 at the wheels in my 2005 Cummins. I had the retune feature set too low when I first installed and towing on hard pulls on the interstate it would easily get to that temperature and retune back to stock. The truck literally felt like it fell on its face. Once it cooled off it goes back to the last tune. When it did it would literally rattle the dash it came back in so hard. I raised my retune to 230* and now drive by temp under hard pulls meaning I start easing up on it around 215* to keep it from detuning.

MADS claims that the Smarty doesn't push stock trucks into dangerous temp or boost ranges so I didn't buy the gauges when I got the tuner. I was a little hesitant to run at the 100% performance program for that reason. I might try it in a non-hauling situation to see if I can feel any increase in quickness. Realizing that I'm moving 8,000 lbs is also something I'm trying to factor in. That's why I was asking about others experiences.