[Alabama Mud Machine]

As many of you know, I have been running the H&S Performance XRT for quite some time now. And I have been asked by Marco, the owner of MADS Electronics to try the Smarty S67 tuner for my truck, and to give an un-biased comparison between the 2.

I have been running the Smarty since Saturday afternoon, and so far, all I can really say is wow! I am impressed with this product.

I am impressed with BOTH products, and think they are both power-houses and forces to be reconned with. :thumbsup:

Both tuners seem to have their pro's and con's. :S:

1.) We'll start with the XRT since I have had it the longest, and I am the most familiar with this one...

The XRT is an excellent tuner and has done everything that Casey and the guys have said it would! It has supersceded my expectations on numerous occasions. Especially being 100% code-free and SIM-free. This tuner is a major power-house that packs a serious punch, for the aggressive driving style and for racing, pulling, etc... The only issues I have with the XRT is that it seems to smoke alot on the 175hp tune. Which makes it very hard to drive it on a day-to-day basis in the city limits (because of the smoke). The V2 tunes (both 60hp & 120hp) are excellent tunes for daily-driving and don't produce alot of smoke. The 175, would be a tune I would use on race-day with it's agressive turbo-tuning and very aggressive tuning (it can be quite "jumpy" for daily-driving when you let off the pedal, then give it throttle again quickly).

2.) Now for the Smarty.

This product has thoroughly impressed me as well. The Smarty in my book has proven to be a solid contender and an equally powerful match to the XRT.

I am currently running the R12ME software in it and the settings are as follows: Catcher-level - 9, Tq. Mgmt - 4, RP - Default, Timing - Default. With those settings my truck seems to have really woken-up in the low-end torque department! The Smarty's Tq. Mgmt. system is an excellent feature to have especially for guys like me, who have lifted trucks with big mud-tires and alot more rolling-mass than a stock vehicle. It really helps to get the truck moving along. The Smarty has an extremely smooth power delivery with 0 surge. It doesn't hardly smoke until full-throttle, even on the highest power level (which for me is great b/c it doesn't attract un-wanted attention (AKA - cops). I have only been running it for a few days now and can honestly say that so far, I am thoroughly impressed with the Smarty. :thumbsup:


I can't currently give any information on MPG's and fuel mileage...but I will give that in a few tanks once the "fun" wears off.

Casey & Marco...You both have created excellent products that have done everything you said they would, and performed even better than you said they would! And for that, I applaud yall. :thumbsup:

I am proud to now own both products, and I will continue to run both and keep reporting my information.

I now see that I cannot be partial towards either product b/c, so far, they both have proven to me that it is virtually impossible for me to choose between the 2. :S:

 

[ken white]

LOL...

You didn't help me decide at all...

:thumbsup:

 

[Alabama Mud Machine]

LOL...

You didn't help me decide at all...

:thumbsup:

I had the same problem.

Both tuners seem to have different purposes, but they both do them equally well.

If you were going to run nothing but the high-hp tunes on both, I would suggest buying both, and using the Smarty to drive to the track or pulling-grounds, then using the XRT 175 when you are competing.

This is just a suggestion if you were going to run nothing but the highest settings.

The XRT 60 & 120 tunes are great daily-driving tunes.

It is a hard choice to make after using both.

I suggest if you can't choose between the 2...buy both, try them, and keep the one you like the most and sell the other one.

 

[palady6.7]

Quick question what did you have to do to go from the xrt- to smarty? load stock on xrt then go to the smarty or is there more? I quessing you don't have to go back to a complete stock truck? thanks

 

[MorSmokPls]

Nothing unexpected there. Both sound like great tuners. AMM, I applaud you for holding to your word. I dont think anyone can accuse you of any bias on that one. Keep it up and I look forward to your feelings in a few weeks when the "fun" does wear off. Like having an extra 175 horse will ever not be "fun".

 

[Alabama Mud Machine]

Just followed the "Return To Stock" instructions in the XRT manual, then installed the Smarty right afterwards.

By the way...You said your truck is lifted, right? Well, the Smarty's TQ. Mgmt makes my bigass truck MOVE off the bottom-end. I have 4.10 gears in mine, which kinda helps out. LOL

 

[Alabama Mud Machine]

Nothing unexpected there. Both sound like great tuners. AMM, I applaud you for holding to your word. I dont think anyone can accuse you of any bias on that one. Keep it up and I look forward to your feelings in a few weeks when the "fun" does wear off. Like having an extra 175 horse will ever not be "fun".

Thanks dude, I try to be a man of my word. I'll admit it was hard to push myself to install the Smarty...but I'm glad I did. It truly is an equal competitor in this dog-eat-dog market. :thumbsup:

Oh, and the "fun" probably won't wear off anytime soon...B/c like you said, having an extra 175 horses under the hood never gets old. LOL

 

[palady6.7]

Just followed the "Return To Stock" instructions in the XRT manual, then installed the Smarty right afterwards.

By the way...You said your truck is lifted, right? Well, the Smarty's TQ. Mgmt makes my bigass truck MOVE off the bottom-end. I have 4.10 gears in mine, which kinda helps out. LOL

Thanks I just read you post on my other question about the xrt-edge she moves but shudders like a son of b--ch in 5th or 6 gear

 

[Alabama Mud Machine]

Thanks I just read you post on my other question about the xrt-edge she moves but shudders like a son of b--ch in 5th or 6 gear

Mine did that with XRT, too.

Mine would do it in the lower gears right after it shifts when the RPM's are down when it drops off into the valley, then it shuddered until it hits about 2,000 RPM, then it would quit until it shifted again...LOL

 

[palady6.7]

Mine did that with XRT, too.

Mine would do it in the lower gears right after it shifts when the RPM's are down when it drops off into the valley, then it shuddered until it hits about 2,000 RPM, then it would quit until it shifted again...LOL

This may be one of the big differences between the 2 tuners if you are not planing on upgrading the trans right away being able to adjust tq :confused013:

 

[Marco]

tkhan,
while I obviously appreciate that you have choosen my product, let's not turn this thread into my toy is better than yours. That's not what it is meant for!

Let's hear from the horse mouth (aka AMM ) his likes and dislikes about both products. AMM's testing is a great opportunity for all of us! The forum users will get un- biased test results for educated decisions. The customers may get a clearer picture of what they're using. We, the guys who build the toys may be forced to change things to the better. A win-win-win situation. That's as long as we can keep this thread civil and on topic.

AMM, you're doing a great! One question though. Do you have any gauges yet? EGT / Boost at least should be there in order to provider more meaningful results.

Thanks,

Marco
P.S. On edit. The above is not directed towards tkhan! It is just meant as an remainder to ANYONE... got it?

 

[Alabama Mud Machine]

You have not touched on download times, how do they compare in that respect. ... Furthermore, as you wrote, in my book less smoke is a very important, I need not draw attention from state DOT. Lastly, in our traffic situation in cuba, i mean Miami, smooth power is a must for driving in town.

Those are very good points. I did forget to mention upload times.

These times are not 100% dead-on accurate, this is just an estimated time average from my personal experiences.

The XRT takes me about 20-25 minutes to upload to my truck from stock (as long as I don't get any checksum errors). It takes me about 12-15 minutes to change tunes or update the tune I am running to a new version.

The Smarty took roughly 5 minutes to upload to my truck from stock. The download time was significantly faster, which was a nice change of pace.

I didn't mind my XRT's long install time...Sometimes it just seemed that it was a bit of a time-consuming process to change tunes, etc...And that you had to make sure you had plenty of time to do it. That is one of the very few complaints I had with the XRT. The other complaint being that you couldn't really adjust many parameters, you just picked a tune, and downloaded it. The Smarty has fine-tune adjustments to customize your truck for any driving conditions, and any modifications you might have done to your truck.


Now for the Smarty...

One thing I would like to see with the Smarty would be a large color-LCD display. The small screen is nice and simple. However, in my opinion, I think that would be a nice change of pace for MADS, and "fresh-face" for the Smarty tuners to have a full-color LCD display. It's just a thought.

 

[Alabama Mud Machine]

Hey Marco. I don't have any gauges yet. MattPopp is sending me his PMT to use as a set of gauges for the time being, until I can get enough money to buy a full-set of Isspro EV2 gauges and pods from James @ Rollin' Smoke. He's my dealer that I get my truck stuff from.

When I get my gauges, I'll be getting the Isspro EV2's in these: Pyro (EGT), Boost, Tranny Temp, Rail Pressure & Fuel-Pressure.

You think those would cover the bases pretty good? Or you got any other suggestions for gauges?

Thanks,

AMM

 

[mattpopp]

Hey Marco. I don't have any gauges yet. MattPopp is sending me his PMT to use as a set of gauges for the time being, until I can get enough money to buy a full-set of Isspro EV2 gauges and pods from James @ Rollin' Smoke. He's my dealer that I get my truck stuff from.

When I get my gauges, I'll be getting the Isspro EV2's in these: Pyro (EGT), Boost, Tranny Temp, Rail Pressure & Fuel-Pressure.

You think those would cover the bases pretty good? Or you got any other suggestions for gauges?

Thanks, AMM

Hitting the mail today, they are boxed up and ready to go.

I have the Isspro EV2's also, great gauges, love them.

Also you can keep the pillar, its a two gauge though. When you get the two boxes, the one with the pillar in it does not reflect who I am. That is a horrible thing that the wife got as a gift, you will see. It is down right embarrassing to be seen in public with it. The least that I can do is pass the empty box on to somebody else for further embarrassment, assuming it sits around in your garage for your friends to see it thinking its yours.

 

[jsledder]

Do you still have the stock tranny??

How about the boost fooler, are you using that with these programmers? I thought they had foolers built in?

You have any idea on mileage yet? (compared to the XRT)

 

[wildhorseplains]

AMM it sounds like one of the benefits of the Smarty is the finer tuning capabilities as in one can set the tine so they don't kill their transmission.
So if I don't want to replace my transmission right away, would you suggest the Smarty?

 

[Alabama Mud Machine]

Do you still have the stock tranny??

How about the boost fooler, are you using that with these programmers? I thought they had foolers built in?

You have any idea on mileage yet? (compared to the XRT)

Stock tranny.

No, I'm not using my Quad fooler...It's sitting in it's box at the house.

No idea on mileage yet...I'm not going to give any mileage results until I've ran at leat 2 tanks of fuel through my truck, to be sure that the Smarty will have settled itself in by then.

 

[Alabama Mud Machine]

Hitting the mail today, they are boxed up and ready to go.

I have the Isspro EV2's also, great gauges, love them.

Also you can keep the pillar, its a two gauge though. When you get the two boxes, the one with the pillar in it does not reflect who I am. That is a horrible thing that the wife got as a gift, you will see. It is down right embarrassing to be seen in public with it. The least that I can do is pass the empty box on to somebody else for further embarrassment, assuming it sits around in your garage for your friends to see it thinking its yours.

Dude, you're scaring me...

Can you use a diff. box...Or at least could you wrap the box in duct-tape or something? :S:

 

[Alabama Mud Machine]

AMM it sounds like one of the benefits of the Smarty is the finer tuning capabilities as in one can set the timing so they don't kill their transmission.
So if I don't want to replace my transmission right away, would you suggest the Smarty?

Dude, I'm staying neutral on the recommendations...That's part of my deal.

I'm not recommending one tuner or the other for things like that.

Both tuners would be fine for a stock tranny...The tranny's life-span is largely determined by how heavy your right-foot is. The easier you are on your truck, the longer your tranny, along with numerous other parts, will last.

 

[ken white]

I had the same problem.

Both tuners seem to have different purposes, but they both do them equally well.

If you were going to run nothing but the high-hp tunes on both, I would suggest buying both, and using the Smarty to drive to the track or pulling-grounds, then using the XRT 175 when you are competing.

This is just a suggestion if you were going to run nothing but the highest settings.

The XRT 60 & 120 tunes are great daily-driving tunes.

It is a hard choice to make after using both.

I suggest if you can't choose between the 2...buy both, try them, and keep the one you like the most and sell the other one.

My needs are as follows:

- Little to no smoke
- Must be code free with both EGR and Exhaust Deletes
- Increased mileage
- I have a 4k+ pound slide in truck camper, 20' dual axle trailer that hauls my quads and built jeep TJ, and also a 17' boat that I use individually or in combinations from time to time, so I want good pulling power with low EGT's as well.
- It must be reliable

I guess I don't want much...