Banks info/feedback

[FDavid]

I've got the banks six gun with speedloader on my 04 ram 2500, It works great and you really don't need any gauges because it has safegaurds built in it. Also if it makes you have a little more comfort level, there is a dodge dealer that will put the banks system on the brand new truck for you without voiding the warranty. That's what sold it on me.

First of all welcome to TDR. Gauges are a must, even on a stock truck. The reason is so you can establish a baseline of what is normal. Down the road, any variances beyond normal boost, egt, etc. , will let you know something is not right.

Second of all, if you do a search on the 3g forum, you will read about a fella that bought the banks stuff and relied on the "safeguard" features that failed and blew his engine up. Not trying to bash banks but any safeguard can fail. Thats also why gauges are a must.

 

[MDTyree]

gauges

Thanks and That's good info, I will be looking for a set of gauges as my next purchase.

 

[BTowler]

Thanks and That's good info, I will be looking for a set of gauges as my next purchase.

Save a little more money and go with the Juice w/Attitude monitor from Edge, your gauges are included in that!

 

[ILIANBG]

MDTyree,

I would like to know where is that Dodge dealer that installs Banks stuff on new trucks without voiding the warranty. that sounds very tempting.

I've asked a dealer near me before and it is an automatic viod of warranty if they find it or tracy a footprint of it.

Ilian

 

[MDTyree]

dodge dealer and banks

The Dealer is Altavista motors in Va. A friend of mine just got a 07 and they put the ottomind 6 on his truck. Also there is another dealer in Madison Heights Va. that is putting differant tuners and programmers on some of there used trucks that still have the warranty on them. That dealer is John P. Hughs.

Good Luck

 

[BTowler]

DC policy dictates this, not the individual dealers, and DC does not approve any programers, regardless of brand. If you take the truck to any other dealer for warranty work it WILL be voided. If you can go to them every time and they are willing to violate DC policy, then great.

 

[MDTyree]

DC policy dictates this, not the individual dealers, and DC does not approve any programers, regardless of brand. If you take the truck to any other dealer for warranty work it WILL be voided. If you can go to them every time and they are willing to violate DC policy, then great.

That may be the case, even so that still is a pretty good deal if that dealer will not void the warranty.

 

[MStrain]

I have had the Six Gun with speedloader on my truck for over a year and have been very happy with it. My brother bought the Smarty for his truck and I tried it a few times, it is very good, the power is unreal, the truck is very fast, but the smoke is out of hand, you will have to drive very carefully to avoid blacking out intersections and other drivers if you pass, it is real easy to leave a long trail of black smoke, I tried the Beta software on the smarty, and the smoke was less but on level 1 the power is crazy, I am not trying to win a competition, I just want a fun fast truck with good road manners. I was almost gonna sell the Banks and get a smarty but I am now gonna stick with the Six Gun. I used to have the Edge EZ on the truck and I thought it was a POS, the power was not very noticeable and I had alot more valve rattle from1600 to 2200 rpm, also the build quality is cheap. The Banks is a solid piece of billet and the engine revs and sounds as smooth or smoother than stock. I don't want or need a PDA, if I did get one it would be one with windows mobile not Palm OS, so I just have the little six position knob mounted in the cab.

I normally drive around in the 3 setting, I have enough power to pass just about anybody and I think that setting yields the best mileage performance, it is nice to be able to go from stock to +110 hp in just a couple seconds by turning the knob. Also no smoke on any settings 1-6, maybe a tiny bit of visible smoke if you are pedal to the metal on 5 or 6. With the Smarty you need about 10 to 20 minutes to change settings and you can't do it while your driving. On my auto truck the downloads go fast, on my brothers truck which is the same truck with a 6 speed, it takes around 20 minutes to download. As far as cost, the Smarty is $685 plus shipping, I got my six gun with speedloader for about $650, other than that all I have is the intake, exhaust and the SRT-10 pillar mount with a 2" Banks EGT gauge, so the price is about the same since you would do the intake and exhaust no matter what tuner you get. The bundles they sell are not really neccessary, I talked to a guy that sells thier intercoolers and said they dont make that big of a difference except on certain model years that have the intercoolers with the plastic end tanks, 03's maybe. I paid and am continuing to pay alot of money for this truck and wan't it to be the last truck I need for 10 years, I don't want a money pit, I think Banks engineers their products so well that the engine is still running inside of safe parameters, also they have alot of built in safegaurds like EGT protection and over boost.

As far as customer service, they have been great, I smashed the adjustor knob into pieces with my knee, they sent me one right away for free, I needed the wire from the thermocouple to the Six gun, free, I think they have a bad wrap but I have had nothing but good experiences with their service.

 

[BTowler]

Personally, you couldn't give me anything Banks makes, in fact you couldn't pay me to take it. I have seen too many people complain and have problems with Banks products, plus when I first got my truck I made the mistake of calling Banks just to see what was available. This started a weekly call for about three months from the Banks sales slime to "take my order so they can get it shipped out to me right away"! I explained every time that I did not have the funds available, but the calls kept coming. I finally told the idiot that he was calling me on my business cell phone, wasting my minutes and costing me money! He only called back two or three more times after that!!!!

 

[MDTyree]

I have also had good luck with banks, customer service was great, no pressure to buy. When I called them the first time, I told the sales person what I was looking for and he sent me alot of lititure on there products. After about 3 weeks of deciding I picked the six gun with speedloader, for now anyway, I would like to get the power pda when I get some more money. I'll settle with some gauges till then. When I did order it they even cut me a deal on the six gun with speedloader, I got mine for $599 with about $20. 00 shipping. I think each tuner and programmer has there pros and cons, I just like the banks for my application.



04 ram 2500 quad cab, auto, six gun with speedloader, S&B cold air intake, 4" turbo back exhaust, 2" leveling kit, 315/70/17 BFG's

 

[16919]

Personally, you couldn't give me anything Banks makes, in fact you couldn't pay me to take it. I have seen too many people complain and have problems with Banks products, plus when I first got my truck I made the mistake of calling Banks just to see what was available. This started a weekly call for about three months from the Banks sales slime to "take my order so they can get it shipped out to me right away"! I explained every time that I did not have the funds available, but the calls kept coming. I finally told the idiot that he was calling me on my business cell phone, wasting my minutes and costing me money! He only called back two or three more times after that!!!!

I can attest to that... . long time ago I was looking at the big hoss tuner. I asked for info. They kept calling, sending mail and emails for months. I just asked for info not harrasment!!!!!!!!!!#@$%!

 

[MStrain]

I thought about the Power PDA at first, but I don't want to clutter up my dash, prefer the clean look, the egt gauge looks like it is from the factory. That and the PDA is about $200 and so is the dock. I never experienced pressure or harassment from Banks myself, I am in thier system, they ask your name if you call and they have your info, but they have NEVER called me to solicit me. They do send me occasional literature in the mail, but that is at thier expense, kinda of a waste since I don't think I need anything else from them, maybe a boost gauge at some point but thats it.

 

[MDTyree]

Maybe banks has changed there sales team in the past few years.

 

[BTighe]

LMAO! i was wondering about those damn calls. i had them call me 6 months later. i had stage 4's and a killer B by that time

my current truck came with a banks power pack. i will say that i liked the way the truck ran and the system quality seemed good. the trans locked up firmer too. the truck didnt feel like it had much more power though. in fact, i didnt know it had the box till i took the dash apart. id say if your just looking for a little bump and not any big power, its not a bad setup. i will say this though. the gauges that came with it are the lamest crap ive ever seen. cheap looking and not even back lit. also, the turbo would bark pretty easily. i ended up going with a comp and so far, its good. if the box holds up and doesnt crap out, ill be happy. you can definatly tell the quality difference between the two though.

 

[MStrain]

I am not familiar with thier older products, but the EGT gauge I got from them is top notch quality wise, my brother got one from Genos garage and it seemed cheap by comparison, it was much lighter and flimsier feeling. As far as power goes, on the 4,5,6 setting it is really fast, on six it hauls, I rarely ever even use six. I am pretty sure that the Edge Juice will give you more power, and the smarty depending on how you have it setup will also give more power, but the Banks is real fast too, fast enough for me, and I think I will have better longevity (engine & transmission) with the Banks than the others, and less smoke.

 

[BTowler]

I am not familiar with thier older products, but the EGT gauge I got from them is top notch quality wise, my brother got one from Genos garage and it seemed cheap by comparison, it was much lighter and flimsier feeling. As far as power goes, on the 4,5,6 setting it is really fast, on six it hauls, I rarely ever even use six. I am pretty sure that the Edge Juice will give you more power, and the smarty depending on how you have it setup will also give more power, but the Banks is real fast too, fast enough for me, and I think I will have better longevity (engine & transmission) with the Banks than the others, and less smoke.

I would really like to see numbers on the Six Gun. I keep hearing statements like real fast, but when people switch or ride in a truck equipped with other products I hear the Banks doesn't deliver very much power. If that is the case, then yes the engine and transmission should last longer. As far as smoke, I am running 5x2 on my juice and it smokes less than when I had the stock turbo and the RV275's only. If i crank it up it will lay down a good cloud, but that is reserved for special occasions like tailgaters. As far as pretty fast, my wife was driving the truck and I was behind her in our Mustang GT, she likes to drives fast and I was really having to get into the Mustang to keep up! The GT would probably win the race if we did one, but it would be very close!

 

[MDTyree]

I would really like to see numbers on the Six Gun. I keep hearing statements like real fast, but when people switch or ride in a truck equipped with other products I hear the Banks doesn't deliver very much power. If that is the case, then yes the engine and transmission should last longer. As far as smoke, I am running 5x2 on my juice and it smokes less than when I had the stock turbo and the RV275's only. If i crank it up it will lay down a good cloud, but that is reserved for special occasions like tailgaters. As far as pretty fast, my wife was driving the truck and I was behind her in our Mustang GT, she likes to drives fast and I was really having to get into the Mustang to keep up! The GT would probably win the race if we did one, but it would be very close!

I can see the power with the six gun at about 1800 rpm's, that's when it kicks in. I can see a big differance in power over stock, it gains speed faster and will just keep climbing in speed as long as you keep your foot in it. I'm sure you see the power gains in some of those hand held programmers at a lower rpm so it would appear to have more power.

 

[MStrain]

I have been driving my truck without the Banks for a week because I took the truck in to the dealer to have the A/C fixed. It feels like I am driving a slug, it has tons of torque, but it just doesn't get up and go like when the Banks is in, I am about to go outside and reinstall the Banks in a few minutes, so I can get it back to normal.

 

[DZinger]

I have the Banks OttoMind with the intercooler, intake horn, IQ, etc...



I never had a complaint about it... until I ran a Smarty Jr. Now the IQ is there only as a second EGT gage until I get a regular gage installed. Again, no complaints about the Banks, but the Smarty far outshines the Banks electronics. I will keep the intercooler and intake horn and air filter though...



Anyone looking for an IQ in perfect condition, PM me...

 

[surfbeetle]

My father has a 1990 D350 that came w/o the intercooler. About 12 years ago, he purchased the banks kit for it that included an intercooler, turbo, exhaust etc. A couple of years ago, he went back to them because he needed to rebuild the turbo. They no longer stocked parts for his Banks kit and would no longer support him. Originally, after the initial install of the kit, it was a huge difference in power for his truck and all was well. The issue now is the lack of long term support for a product.