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I installed their tune at 33k and am still happy with it at 414k. Big fan of the turbo brake option. Its very reassuring descending a long grade with TT pushing you and makes it easy to control speed with only occasional assistance from the TBC if and when you are towing heavy. (over 6k down a 6 percent) In fact despite towing TTs my original brakes went 293k. Always received excellent service as well. Just don't tell that one guy. He has some kind of inferiority complex with them and trys to undermine them and the Ecodiesel in general at every turn. Hope he don't come in this thread and read this I will be attacked relentlessly.

Thanks for telling us your story. Do you have any pics of your truck and whats been done to it?
 
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GDE tune & full delete. I transport for the Mfgs. Usually from Ohio to up & down the west coast & back. Sometimes with a Harley or sowmobile in the bed. Most of the trailers are smaller than pictured.

Just showing what a 1500 can do with good WD & WDH set up per scales to be safe & stable. It does have axle to frame air bags used to compliment the hitch a trailer brake controller and turbo brake from the tune.

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Awesome setup and I love seeing the mileage! So the only mods you have are airbags and GDE tune? How many miles on your current engine? I’m very impressed with the longevity of the 8 speed trans.
 
Original motor pushed out a head gasket at 371,500. I paid $5,500 for a new one complete with fuel pump turbo everything and 24 month unlimited mileage warranty good at any Ram dealership. R&R book hours non coastal rates $1,500. Downtime for the swap was only two days. Being I travel & roll the road the warranty was especially valuable to me. Tear down of the old motor showed cracked heads. It also had a main bearing that had started to slip possibly due in part to the collapsed oil filter that was on the motor.

So I feel I made the right decision to not rebuild. I didn't buy the truck to do this business but fell into it shortly after buying it. The truck works well for this nitch in that most Airstream are not that large and tow with less drag than a box TT. In fact the largest they make is pictured. If I was buying a truck to do this business primarily with other TT Mfgs that have larger and box style I would get an HD with Cummins. The single biggest expense is fuel. 15.0 mpg average towing a double axle Airstream at 65. 14.0 with a double axle box TT. Thats 20 percent less fuel than the best average fuel economy HD diesels in our company. That is mountains wind some winterized diesel which is why I stress average. Also run 60 fuel economy increases run 70 it drops when towing a TT so. Yea transmission is original and dramatically better than the 6 speed especially for towing.
 
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Back in November the wife decided to trade her Subaru in for a used 2015 Ecodiesel with 45,000 miles on it. She wanted better fuel economy from it so I did lots of research and we did a complete delete on it with GDE at 50,000. We did not get the exhaust brake option due to not wanting risk it causing loss of control the winter roads around here. It now has 65,000 miles on it and runs like a champ. Highway it constantly hits 29.5 mpg and we 30 on flats regularly. 25 to 26 in town now. My wife really enjoys driving it and how much better it takes hills. She was running between Cheyenne and Laramie a lot for work so it packed on the miles quick. All its ever needed since is engine oil change and just did the first transmission change. Easy to maintain and been a gem to own and drive so far.
 
Had the tuning done on my 2016 Nov7. Drove by their place and received excellent service plus cash discount. Since then have pulled our trailer, aprox 6500 lbs over 3000mi. Tuning does eveything they said it would. More responsive throughout the pedal range, better fuel milage, aprox 16 - 20 towing, right arround 30 not towing. Both an improvement of a couple mpg. Very impressed . Have had no issues to date. Currently 44,000 km/ aprox 30,000 miles.
Update, now over 100,000. Still very satisfied.
 
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I bought a new 2016 GC for my wife and its all stock 25k miles. Want to do a delete tune for her at the minimum. And I just bought a 2014 1500 that has 75k miles. Been deleted with stripped straight exhaust since nearly new. It has a ppei 60hp race tune in it. I called GDE to talk about my wife's delete options and also about possibly down tuning the 1500 as I wasnt sure about what the race tune would do for longevity for my engine. I spoke to Keith at GDE and I suggested sending him my ppei tuned ecm to have them put on their tune as I tow more than hot rod. He jumped all over me calling my ecm 'ppei junk' and that he wouldnt allow one of those tuned ecms into their facility. As if it had a virus that could cross contaminate. He said that ppei ruins the case by drilling a hole in it to mod the ecm. Anyhow keith's unprofessional attitude in general and towards competitors really turned me off. I then called ppei and was greeted as one would expect. The tech confirmed my logic that the 60hp will only stress the engine if the driver pours in too much fuel for the rpms and creates too much heat. Thus why my truck came with an edge monitor and manual gear override function for towing. Keep the rpm up along with throttle fuel control to manage egt. Diesel driving rule no 1. He implied that the diff between tow tune and race tune while towing is about operator control. Obviously the avg joe would cook his engine towing heavy with a race tune thus they put up the big 'no tow' disclaimer. The tech also told me that they prefer to drill a small hole to access the circuit board and then seal it with a sticker as this is preferable over breaking open the factory case seal and then having to re-glue it. I also asked about turbo rpm's and he said they wouldnt engineer a tune for a street rig that would make the turbo operate past its rpm rating for normal driving. makes sense. My 1500 engine has run 55k miles with the race tune and has pulled a 7k boat and has never had one issue. I tested it out yesterday on I5 where there is a 3 mile long 6-7% grade. I have 33x11.50 tires on it. It went up the grade at 80 mph with 900-1050 egt depending on the gear. no smoke with stock throttle setting. I didnt put it in tow haul for the test, which I should have done. On the amateur eco forums one will see GDE ecodiesel tunes touted as the tits but I think its pretty much auto replicated by sheep. Forums are an interesting study! I am not knocking GDE and believe they have a proven tune that is also better camouflaged for warranty in case the ecodiesel becomes an eco grenade. But in the event of a grenading with ppei one could always opt to swap out the ecm for stock before towing to dealer .

I am considering giving my wife's GC the same treatment as what was done to my 1500 but with a milder tune. She plans on keeping it till the end and I believe that the eco emissions system and engine longevity dont go hand in hand for grocery getters. Warranty work is a huge pita and inconvenience.

I believe that the ppei tune would be the way to go for a full delete and GDE for those who want maintain stock config for warranty and re-sale in smog compliant zones.

I did learn something the other day for those considering buying a tune in the future closer to end of warranty: I was talking to a local diesel performance shop owner who races with Kory Willis and he told me that the EPA is hammering many of the tuners and forcing them to go under ground or to places like Canada. Once the feds are after you they can bring in all arms to make your business plan undoable. Kory Willis was chased out of california, understandably, but its a sign of the future. I asked him where Kory's business was now based and he replied 'somewhere'.

A few other notes: I see that my oil temps run high when unloaded in the 220-230 range. I read a post by a performance diesel fellow who had built a 300hp eco and noted the same and that when towing oil temps went up to 260. He stated that most oils start to degrade about 250 deg and that he went with Shaeffer 9000 5w-40 in that engine as it starts to degrade at 300deg. The fellow I bought my 1500 from ran this oil in it since brand new so that made me feel good. I wonder if the oil viscosity change tsb in 2016 to 5-40 was partly due to this heat.

Also many people who change their own oil dont know that a tsb came out a few years back ref oil changes on the eco. One has to wait 30 minutes after filling before cranking the engine. Due to intelligent italian design, apparently air pockets or whatever can form in the crank case on filling that can starve oil to some bearings so it needs more time to settle in. I wonder how many ecos that had main bearing premature failures were owned by people who preferred to use jiffy lube servicing over the rip off dealer oil change services!

Also I read about many people who fill to the dipstick measurement instead of to the recommended 10.5 qts so they are running over full. If the eco fills slowly it will drain slowly. If you watch it drain at the end it will go down to a dribble and then cough out a glob and then back to a dribble. From what I have been able to figure out without 100% confirming..a full new oil change will read right at the low mark and will read at the high mark when hot. Hot oil expands and the eco has alot for its size. I changed my wifes eco once at the dealer and they meter the oil. The morning after I checked her oil cold and it was right at the low mark.
 
Also many people who change their own oil dont know that a tsb came out a few years back ref oil changes on the eco. One has to wait 30 minutes after filling before cranking the engine. Due to intelligent italian design, apparently air pockets or whatever can form in the crank case on filling that can starve oil to some bearings so it needs more time to settle in. I wonder how many ecos that had main bearing premature failures were owned by people who preferred to use jiffy lube servicing over the rip off dealer oil change services!

Also I read about many people who fill to the dipstick measurement instead of to the recommended 10.5 qts so they are running over full. If the eco fills slowly it will drain slowly. If you watch it drain at the end it will go down to a dribble and then cough out a glob and then back to a dribble. From what I have been able to figure out without 100% confirming..a full new oil change will read right at the low mark and will read at the high mark when hot. Hot oil expands and the eco has alot for its size. I changed my wifes eco once at the dealer and they meter the oil. The morning after I checked her oil cold and it was right at the low mark.

Never saw any TSB stating "wait 30 minutes after filling"

Not too sure about draining slowly as I can drain 10.some quarts in less than 5 minutes.

I do agree about adding 10.5 quarts. I never look at my dipstick after filling with 10.5 qts. of fresh oil.
 
Well maybe I shouldnt have said 'tsb' as I havent read it - if it exists. But I do know from my dodge svc mgr friend that they were told to wait 30 minutes after fill and they do 20 minutes. This could be due to the way they fill oil quickly via pump from maybe from a colder bulk tank. I dunno but after filling oil I clean up, check other stuff and give it some more time before cranking. Maybe hand pouring quart by quart dosent create any air lock or whatever issues.

The tsb on the oil viscosity change does mention though how to read the stick. It says fill 10.5 and then run engine for 1 minute, shut down and then read to ensure level is at the full mark.
 
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Well maybe I shouldnt have said 'tsb' as I havent read it - if it exists. But I do know from my dodge svc mgr friend that they were told to wait 30 minutes after fill and they do 20 minutes. This could be due to the way they fill oil quickly via pump from maybe from a colder bulk tank. I dunno but after filling oil I clean up, check other stuff and give it some more time before cranking. Maybe hand pouring quart by quart dosent create any air lock or whatever issues.

The tsb on the oil viscosity change does mention though how to read the stick. It says fill 10.5 and then run engine for 1 minute, shut down and then read to ensure level is at the full mark.

Makes sense to me.
 
AHutson, On snowy roads etc you just don't use the turbo brake. Don't set your cruise before coming down a grade then its no different descending a grade or stopping on a slick surface than what you do now. As far as tuners each has pros & cons. PPEI is also well established and does a full ECM tune. The only ones I want to avoid are the piggy back chips that don't always have enough control of all parameters.
 
Thanks for the info VernDiesel. I misunderstood how it works on their website. I thought it sounded like it engaged the turbo braking as soon as you let off the accelerator.
 
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