1. Even after tuning don’t run anything higher than stock power level for towing. Whoever created the phrase ‘tow’ tune is genius as that’s what most people use however to extend the life of your tranny only run stock power level unless you’ve beefed up your tranny with aftermarket parts.
2. HPP is now CTT and they provide free updates. No matter what.
3 EGR delete isn’t necessary. It’s a waste of money as it does nothing for performance and it also makes your truck drone loud. However most guys like cleaning up the engine bag and remove it. It does give your exhaust a deeper note but again with that note comes more drone.
4. From what I gathered they both have the same trans tune. Zero shift flare. The gear lockout won’t kill your tranny.
5. If I were you, I’d skip over DRD and choose between Anarchy or CTT. Both companies will provide same level of excellent service. Both will provide similar performance.

 

Is there any reason you would skip drd?
Other forums seem to only use him and not speak of other tunes as much but it could be because you have to subscribe to the forum to see his store online. I see good things about anarchy and ctt as well in this forum and less about drd here

 

I would be weary of anything i read about DRD over at igotacummins. Ray could say the sun is shining today and some asshat will respond telling him how awesome he is for noticing that.

That being said, I sent them an email a while back inquiring about some tunes and JJ was very friendly and quick to respond over email. The reason I didn't go with them is I actually wanted to talk to the person doing the tuning (Ray) before I bought a set of tunes from them. He told me Ray doesn't have the time to talk to all of his customers over the phone, which makes sense, but that was a deal breaker for me.

 

This is why. Ray is a one man operation.

https://www.igotacummins.com/threads/11385-The-New-MM3-Switch-Firmware-Update/page2

Also, I don’t understand why he thinks that just because I have an archive of readily available tunes through EzLynk, that it somehow means I don’t get ‘custom’ tuning? Those readily available tunes ARE custom tunes. And if by some chance you don’t like them, don’t like how they shift, or maybe you’ve upgraded your transmission and turbo, well guess what?!...they can customize a tune that’s even more specific towards your truck. FOR FREE!!!!

Ray seems like the type of guy who thinks it’s better to use a typewriter because there’s more unique effort involved instead of using a modern day computer with a printer.

These are just my opinions.

 

Also there’s tons of tuners our there.

https://www.cumminsforum.com/forum/4th-gen-performance-parts-discussion/1619866-tuner-vs-tuner.html

Here on Cummins forum we recognize everyone. Over at igotacummins it’s a zombie town

 

Maybe so, but he's very smart and went into hiding and only sales to Igottacummins members now. Call it what you want, while everyone else is being open he's being smart. He's even got a password on his website. I love his tunes and understand everyone needs to make money or they would be out of business so im willing to pay for a little more personalized attention/info. I send a message to him and he's back to me in less than two minutes. I'm not knocking others just stating my opinion as you did yours. I think others should take a few notes as far as being a little more low key, before you know who crashes everyones party and makes aftermarket fun really hard to get ahold of.

 

Thanks for the links, definitely have a bigger decision now beings theres that many more
Btw what tune did you go with?

 

I had a tune built for my current setup.

 

Does PPEI still offer full deletes? I had kory do my 13, heard that they only do emissions compliant now. Is this accurate?

 

Yes they offer tunes for deleted trucks just installed my ez lynk today with ppei tunes

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

 

Also, we need to be smart and quit with the Delete posts. Its not hard to read through one of these forums and find out where everyone is buying their parts from. We are the problem in my opinion. Things need to be worded a little different and there needs to be an unwritten rule not to openly talk about certain things.

 

That’s the difficult part. We tried that on here years ago when EFI first came out for 4th gens. Didn’t last long.

Plus there’s another half dozen forums out there that would need to change as well. Oh and YouTube, Instagram...you get my point. Unfortunately this is how it is

 

Also, we need to be smart and quit with the Delete posts. Its not hard to read through one of these forums and find out where everyone is buying their parts from. We are the problem in my opinion. Things need to be worded a little different and there needs to be an unwritten rule not to openly talk about certain things.

I get what you're saying but, that ship has sailed years ago. Unfortunately, there is no going back. There is no hiding the desire to delete our trucks and make them more efficient. The EPA has set it's sights on the diesel performance industry and they are locked on. It doesn't matter to the EPA that by forcing manufacturers to "adopt" their policies we are going against everything engine builders/designers have striven to make engines(all engines, not just diesels) breathe cleaner more efficient air, they are wasting more of the fossil fuels they claim to covet. I get that part of their argument is that diesel just plain looks dirty. Which if we're honest with ourselves... it absolutely does look dirty. Again, the science doesn't back it... but we've got politicians, special interest groups, and lobbyist forcing policy that is now legally binding. Unfortunately, I think we'd be hard pressed to have regulations backed off on... or even eased up on some. It absolutely sucks... but unfortunately it is the world we live in.

 

To be more on topic, if it were me choosing I'd go with Anarchy. Several years ago I convinced my old man to delete his truck and recommended Anarchy. Even though he's pretty old school and didn't care for the name of the company, I showed him plenty of reviews and long story short... dad's truck is Anarchy tuned and to this day he is glad he did it. I now have my 2012 and the first person I messaged about doing the unspeakable to my truck, on Facebook mind you... was Phil from Anarchy. We got to talking and shortly there after he asked me about my dad's truck. Years later. I was sold then, if I wasn't already. Phil, if you see this... I promise my business is coming your way lol.

 

I like DRD personally. The best customer service that I've encountered with any company and tuning is extremely smooth.

 

Why I switched from DRD to CTT

I ran Ray's tunes on my 2017 2500 CCLB and I loved it until I rode in my friend's truck with CTT tuning. He had considerably better fuel mileage and a much more responsive transmission. So I went with EZ Lynk and CTT tuning and here is my experience:

A little about me and my truck:

I have a Thuren leveling kit with 35's. I am studded with ARP 625's and I have a REVMAX valve body. I only run Max Effort all day every day, no matter what. It feels better, and I get way better mileage and that is what I like. My normal driving manner, depending on who you ask, would be described as "normal" to "a little hot"; sorry there is no objective way to describe this.

Mileage:

I was getting low 16's with DRD and now I am getting upper 17's with HPP when I drive in my normal manner. When I am conscientious of mileage and I want to see how good I can get, I get high 17's to low 18's with DRD and I get low 19's to low 20's with CTT. This is on my way to work, which is mostly two lane highway; and the comparison is under the same duration, traffic, terrain, atmospheric conditions, etc... The only difference may be how many red lights I hit across a tank of fuel.

Transmission:

With DRD there was a ton (excessive amount to my taste) of shift flare across all shifts, and you always jump through the gears too quickly and you are lugging unless you are in tow/haul, and if you downshifted under throttle the flare made it feel horrible and your power is lost in the abyss that is the unlocked torque converter. With CTT the shifts all feel quicker and firmer and you feel like you are actually getting somewhere. There is still a bit of flare in the 6th to 5th downshift which I don't like. I know that locked shifts are hard on shafts, and I know all about why shift flare is designed into the transmission shift strategy. Please don't respond to tell me about that. DRD has excellent videos explaining it if you have any questions. Ray's videos are extremely well made and when I was getting started he taught me a lot, because he knows what he is talking about, and that is why I chose to purchase his products. Go to Youtube and watch his videos and you will learn from him as I did. Sorry I got off on a tangent there.

EZ Lynk:

Now that I have been using this for a few weeks, I can tell you that EZ Lynk is far and away a better platform than MM3. Hands Down. Updates are sent to your cloud and you just select it and upload it to your truck from your app on your phone. Done. MM3's display quality sucks. SUCKS! SUCKS! MM3 display is small. I can put the EZ Lynk app on my ipad, phone, whatever, so the gauge display is as big as I want it. I can tune my truck from my ipad! That's cool. When I want to contact my tuner to BS or ask a question, or say "hey, what do you think about this?", or "hey, could I do that?", you do it right thorough the app!

CTT:

If you are worried about your money and are ever considering changing a hard part, but are hesitant because you dont want to pay for a retune your days of worry are over. With CTT it is a FREE RETUNE. If you ever change a preference, FREE RETUNE. I am going to a Firepunk 48RE with an Anteater and a Porcupine. I have talked to CTT, they said no problem, we know all about that and we have excellent success with that, and guess what?? FREE RETUNE. When I do a 72mm 2nd gen swap, larger injectors and dual CP3's... FREE RETUNE. I can data log through the app and send it immediately from the app and they will fine tune the revisions for me, and the response time has been extremely fast so far.

To see the response I got from DRD and the moderator on IGOTACUMMINS when I recommended CTT, Look up the thread and you will be shocked: "Attacks On DRD From Within This Forum"

 

Wow, just read that thread.

 

I would also skip on anarchy. How they treated my brother this past winter has left a extremely bad taste in my mouth. Long story short they sent my brother a tune with the wrong Vin which essentially killed his trucks computer and the truck wouldn't start. He had to drive back the next day and couldn't get ahold of anyone for a day or two. His wife had to buy a plane ticket to make it back for work. Then anarchy tried to blame the mistake on my brother and say the Vin was correct. Well he took it too the dealer and the tech told him he could see exactly what happened, " you tried to flash a tune with the wrong Vin in." Amazes me that they have all the time in the world browsing this forum to get new customers but the people who have been customers for 5 years can't get ahold of them when there is desperate need.

 

I know people make mistakes especially when your tuning hundreds of trucks a day but how you handle those mistakes is what matters.

What's even better is that he got a new tuner who was helping him to see if he could turn off some of the security features since he now drives around with a Christmas tree on his dash due to flashing the wrong Vin in. I guess the new tuner got him mixed up with someone else and maybe had the same problem with one of his customers and offered for my brother to take it to the dealership and have them install a new computer and he would pay for it. That is how you handle a issue even though he got him mixed up with someone else. You don't go blaming the person for your mistakes.

Sorry for the rant.

 

None of this makes any sense nor your other post and is not plausible the way tuning works. So you have been misinformed and now you are giving the wrong details.

 

What year truck and who is your brother? Pretty odd that wrong VIN would be the cause of all the issues as the truck would not even flash if it were the incorrect VIN. Unless it was a 13+ that needed a stock file loaded into the truck which in that case the file is not VIN specific at all. What was the truck tuned with prior to if anything? If the truck did take the tune and was kicked out at 99% due to a security restriction that would cause the truck to not start as it did not flash successfully. Then a stock file would of been needed to of been flashed into the truck to reset that security then the custom file loaded back in and done. Happens many of times before without an ECM failing.

 

06 truck was tuned by anarchy. Drove fine. Installed new injectors, headstuds, springs, pushrods. Flashed revised tunes from anarchy for injectors. Truck would crank and not start. Fiddled for over a day with no response from anarchy left messages and called countless times, replaced fuel rail pressure etc. Finally decided to try an older tune file. Flashed in the older tune truck started first hit. Finally got a hold of anarchy and received revised tunes truck would start die. Anarchy then sent a tune file that was unlocked and not specific to any vin number according to their tech and their story. Truck finally ran as it should. Made it home. Took truck to dealership without telling them what went wrong except that all the dash lights were on. Tech scanned the computer and saw vin mismatch. Spoke to another well known reputable tuner and told him the symptoms, without finishing the story he said you flashed a tune with a mismatched vin. When I spoke to Anarchy, instead of taking the blame they blamed it on me and a corrupted TIPM, when the truck was perfectly fine before flashing their tune. It cant be a bad TIPM as the truck still runs fine now just all the dash lights are lit up due to the security feature which has a stored mismatched vin and is why the truck would start and die.

 

Yes the truck is going to start/die if the tune was setup for a truck that was setup for keyless entry and it did not vise versa. Where is the mismatched VIN stored?

 

Not sure, the dealer was able to see a tune with a mismatched Vin was flashed.

This isn't something new there's numerous threads about the same exact thing happening to other peoples trucks. Truck is flashed, it won't start, then your stuck with the abs light, parking brake light, and airbag light.

 

I would also skip on anarchy. How they treated my brother this past winter has left a extremely bad taste in my mouth. Long story short they sent my brother a tune with the wrong Vin which essentially killed his trucks computer and the truck wouldn't start. He had to drive back the next day and couldn't get ahold of anyone for a day or two. His wife had to buy a plane ticket to make it back for work. Then anarchy tried to blame the mistake on my brother and say the Vin was correct. Well he took it too the dealer and the tech told him he could see exactly what happened, " you tried to flash a tune with the wrong Vin in." Amazes me that they have all the time in the world browsing this forum to get new customers but the people who have been customers for 5 years can't get ahold of them when there is desperate need.

Also? No one said to skip on Anarchy. I will say that IF... and that's a BIG if, that your brother's story and the details are true... you(well not really you... your brother) might be one of the few, if not the only to have had that bad of an experience with Anarchy. I don't mean to sound like a cheerleader but Anarchy has had an excellent reputation on this forum and across the diesel community for years. I personally find it hard to believe they could earn that reputation by acting as you and your brother are claiming, even occasionally... or rarely. like i said I've dealt with Anarchy before and even when I called, what i'd consider after hours to make sure i was tuning my dads truck right... I got an answer and the info I needed.

 

Also as in the guy said he would pass on DRD, so I would ALSo pass on anarchy.

https://forum.efilive.com/showthread.php?20369-Loaded-tune-and-truck-starts-then-dies

Just one of many threads. Read it same thing as I just described to a T. Again I understand mistakes happen. But own up and try to make it right.

 

Yes, TIPMs do fail. As to why numerous threads regarding TIPM failure. EFILive doesnt even flash the TIPM. Maybe if this dealer that you speak of knew half a wit they could flash the TIPM to clear the ghosts. What did the dealer do when you took it there? Just said oh it was flashed with the wrong VIN and sent you on your way? Why didnt they clear all modules? Yes, we have sent files that have been off by a digit. Yes, we have caught many VINs that were supplied to us that were wrong before even sending them out to customer. Yes, we have set anti theft up incorrectly before.(ST vs SLT. power locks vs manual locks) Do I know for a fact that we sent your brother the incorrect file for his VIN, I do not know that.

 

Should probably just pass on RAM all together. I mean you cant hardly go to any dealers without many people having bad experiences. Better yet pass on all vehicles all together because it's not just the ram dealers that stink. Better steer clear of pretty much any customer service deals like any and all shopping. Maybe just lock yourself in a basement and hum to yourself.

Gist of my ramblings are, people may have bad experiences but as a whole Anarchy has a great customer service rep. Sure people have off days and can be a bit grumpy or not answer your can the first time it rings but they are human. They have many many customers. Does you're dealer get you in to service the truck the second you request it? Nope why would anyone expect it from a tuner?

 

Yes I should go lock myself in my basement. Yes I expect the best quality customer service when I or someone else is paying 600+ for a tuners product, especially when the truck is now locked to that specific tuner. With all the well known reputable tuners these day, they all know what they are doing, what sets them apart is customer service. Do I expect them to answer on the weekends, no, do I expect them to answer after hours, no, but if it's a business day during working hours and my truck wont start and I have to get home, you bet your I expect to be able to get ahold of the tuner or someone who can actually help, not a receptionist.

 

Email works great. Much better than the phones.

 

and the Anarchy fanboys emerge, somehow Anarchy threads always end like this.... I know, I know cause their freaking awesome..

 

Who's tuning do you run bass man? Maybe we say good things about Anarchy because we run his tunes and really like them. I've had other tuners and Phil's are much better. Smoother. More power. Better throttle response. Is it perfect? Maybe not but its darn good and better than the past tuners. Things happen. The things that happen to the OP could have happened regardless of which tuner he had chosen. Humans write the tunes and humans can make mistakes. Call any other company with an emergency and they may still not make it out that day but if they do theyll charge you thousands extra. Why people expect the tuner the drop everything to fix your emergency is beyond me. Common sense would dictate not to do something like tune an ecm if your miles away from home just in case there was a mishap.