Handy Hints, Gadgets, Products & Gizmos

tomman58 wrote:

wannabegone wrote:
I agree 3 of my best purchases are the Scangauge, TPS system and a rearview camera. makes the trip much less stressful

I don't see anything on the Scangauge that my truck doesn't already show. Why do you feel it is needed?

My truck ( and most others ) has a DIC that gives all needed info and alarms for anything of importance.

Just wondering.

My 2007 Chevy has a DIC, but it does not report everything the Scangauge does. Besides the gauges, it also is a code scanner so if the "check engine" light comes on, you can read the code and reset it.

My truck's DIC will show the mpg, but it only has one counter. The scanguage will show the mpg for the tank, for the current trip (resettable), for the previous day, etc. It will also show the max speed, average speed, max water temp, max rpm, fuel used, fuel left, fuel expense, distance travelled, distance till tank empty, and several other things for each of the trip counters that I can't remember right now. My DIC only shows one value (I know some vehicles can show multiple things at once) while the scangauge can show 4 items at once. You can select any 4 things. I usually have it set to display instant mpg, engine load, tank mpg, and voltage.

My DIC will show a few things the scangauge won't, like oil life, fuel filter life, engine hours, etc.

Before I installed it in my Chevy, I used it in my Nissan Frontier. I was able to figure out how to change my driving habits to increase my average mileage from 26 to 32 mpg. Some things were obvious (no jack rabbit starts) but others were not so obvious, like shift points (it has a manual transmission) and if coasting, put it in neutral (yes, that makes a difference!). I even changed my driving route to work, one with more stops/starts since I figured out how to get more mileage under those conditions.

If the your DIC shows everything you are concerned about, then I guess you don't need a scangauge. I like mine, however.