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Bullydog PMT, first impressions

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boost the 250 or move up

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Jeepr

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I did some research on programmers/monitors, and ended up buying a Bullydog PMT. I wasn't able to find much information or experiences on it, so I thought I would share mine.



I bought it at MCS Midwest Performance Diesel. I had them drill and tap for the Pyro, but I did the rest of the install. I bought a second Pyro and put that in the port in my Mag Hytech transmission pan. The rest of the install is just running two wires from the engine compartment into the cab, and plugging it into the OBDII port.



The PMT has inputs for 2 Pyros, so Pyro1 is the EGT, and Pyro2 I'm using for my transmission temp (they intend it for before and after turbo temps if you want to do that). You can set defuel settings for several things, and can set them to whatever level you are comfortable with. You can also configure many Dodge specific things, such as controlling the horn honk on lock, auto door locks, unlock, headlight delay, etc, etc. Those changes do require a re-download of the program to the truck.



I had one small problem after the install, the unit kept locking up on it's first boot, I called Bullydog, and their support was great, and got me going. I've also updated it via the web. They have and will continue to expand the options and features through these web updates.



The driving experience of my truck is totally different! The power is great, and the responsiveness is great too. I took one 300 mile round trip to my parents for the holidays, and it seems the mileage is about the same, maybe only slightly better. It was right at about 18mpg for the trip on the truck computer. I know the hand calculated is lower, but the computer seems to be about as accurate as it was before. Oh, and yes, you can change power settings on the fly!



I'm sure some of you would be disappointed with this, but it's doesn't smoke that much. I definately see more than stock, but no large clouds of black or even anything close to my friends Smarty Jr thus far.



I'll be towing the Jeep and ATV later this week. Before I hit the highway, I'm going to remove the program and hit a large hill nearby and watch the boost and EGT's, then do it again with the program on and set to "tow" and see what the numbers look like.



One concern I have, and confirmed with Bullydog is that the stock program is stored in the unit, rather than the SD card. I'm concerned that if someone thinks its a GPS or something worth stealing, they will get my stock program also! Bullydog says they could rebuild it for me, but I sure hope I won't have to deal with that. You can also remove the unit from the truck, by simply popping it out of it's cradle, and it will run fine without it, it will be in whatever setting it was last in. And, obviously, I would have no gauges.



I'll update again after some testing, and my towing trip experience.
 
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Loaded the Jeep and ATV on the trailer and some firewood in the truck (so probably 7-8k lbs of load) ready for a trip tomorrow. I removed the program and went to a fairly good hill on I-44 here. Then I ran it again with the program installed and running in "tow" mode. I was somewhat pleasantly surprised with the EGT results.



Totally stock, I hit about 1380. It's clear that if the hill had been longer, I would have hit 1400 easy. I didn't think they got that high stock?? I was purposely trying to find out how high they went so my foot was in it pretty good.



Ran the same hill with the program loaded and in "tow" mode. Didn't need as much to maintain speed, but still got on it just to see what it would do to the EGT's. I saw just under 1200! That's pretty nice!



Stock, Tow, and Performance mode's all capped boost out at 30. I didn't try "extreme".



One thing that was annoying, and hopefully not troublesome, is on a slower hill climb, it didn't seem to know whether it wanted to lock up the torque converter or not. I did have the transmission in "tow/haul" mode. So, I don't know if this was confusion on it's part or slippage, hopefully not the latter. I wasn't getting on it that hard.



The highest transmission temps I saw with the probe in the bottom of my double-deep Mag-Hytec was about 185, which seemed pretty fair to me. I see generally 165 running around town empty. What do others see routinely and towing?



Another thing I'll mention, but has nothing to do with the performance, and that is that since it has to plug into the OBDII port and has 2 small plugs that come out of the side of that plug, it creates kind of a mess of wires right there. That is also right next to my brake controller, so I have a bit of a rats nest of wires there now.
 
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Can you compare the performance to an edge juice? I'm thinking of moving up to the Hot program but don't know if I want that much(180hp,440 tq). Seems like this might be in between(140hp,209tq). Thanks.
 
I drove Jeepr's truck to compare it to mine with the smarty jr. I feel his trucks response is much better compared to mine. I never actually floored it, but by only giving it about a quarter throttle, it will set you in the seat. Now this may mean that the response is great but that it may taper off. From the small drive I did with his truck, it impressed me more than my smarty Jr. It also smokes about half as much as my Jr.
 
Kday- sorry, I don't have any basis for comparing to Edge Juice as far as performance. As you already quoted, their advertised settings are 30, 75, and 115-140hp. I was about to do Edge w/Attitude, as I wanted a solution with a monitor. But the trans slip function won't work with mine with larger tires and they have no facility for reading the transmission temp either. I had a discussion of all of that here: https://www.turbodieselregister.com...ions/208146-edge-won-t-work-me-what-else.html
 
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