Five Star Tune 700 mile test

[Knightab]

Thank you 5star! I feel much better hearing you respond to all the concerns! as I said though I live the tune just the cruise issue threw me a loop, you have reinforced that a learning curse is in order.

[5 Star]

Originally Posted by tderonne

It's worth noting at least for others reading the thread, that the feature of having different shifting with the cruise control on is a new feature on the F53, not all of them have that in the software. I suspect the breakpoint is the 3 valve switch in 2006 when the cruise became part of the electronic throttle control, but I'm not 100% certain on that. I think the comments above are all on a couple year old F53's.

tderonne, thank you for your input! We have seen the issue on very few F53's. Of the ones we have seen the issue with it happens very seldom on certain 2009 or newer coaches. But has not been on any certain codes/makes.

[cc8375]

Originally Posted by rodz

Stand up or not, it never should have been sold with them being well aware of the cruise control issue.

I would buy 5 STAR again!!! Well worth the investment!

[5 Star]

Originally Posted by Milehghcty

I have the 2007 F53 under a 2008 box. Hope mine don't fall into the "couple of year old F53s" that tedaronne mentioned. Like I said earlier, I haven't installed yet (still sitting in the garage until this winter till we head south), but like earlier comments the reason I got the tune was so I could drive with cruise control more ... now I can only drive in cruise only on the very flat roads with no head winds which you see very seldom. I'd say I drive with cruise probably only about 30% of the time and would rather have that at 75% of the time. Guess I will have to load mine, but I'm in hilly country so would be hard to test as really don't have any flat roads.

You will be able to drive with cruise control on the majority of the time. Test cruise control on flat and hilly lands. But primarily test it on the roads you are most familiar with. These will give you the best test results overall. Once you have your test I would be happy to make any adjustments/modifications that you would like.

[5 Star]

Originally Posted by Johndale

The cruise control on my 2003 sightseer works great. Going up hills it downshift perfect. I have not tried it in the mountains but hills of Oklahoma not a problem.


Sent from my iPhone using iRV2 - RV Forum

Johndale, Thank you very much for posting your experience with our tune on your rig.

Originally Posted by rgmiller32

On a short trip last weekend, using the tune for the first time I found it to be greatly improved over no tune. Took a route we have taken at least 8 times and found that with cruise on or off, the coach downshifted less often and for shorter periods of time. Only did the drop to 3 twice this trip. Past trips would be in the 12 to 15 time frame. Did notice a couple of delayed 4 to 5th shifts. Mostly around the 50-55 speed range. Still greatly improved.

rgmiller32, Thank you for taking the time to share your experience on your rig! The familiar routes always make for a great comparison as we travel them quite often. Gives us a great before and after test!

[5 Star]

Originally Posted by z3406

My 2014 Bounder 35K has one trip on it now with the 5 Star. I also had the dreaded double downshift on rolling hills while in cruise. I also called 5 Star. They offered to recalibrate the tune but asked me to get al least 5 driving cycles on the unit first. The ECU is adaptive and needs some time to adapt to new parameters. I am off on another trip this weekend so I'll see if it improves and call 5 Star again when I get home and report what the unit is doing.

Please keep us informed as the drive cycles/adaptive learning takes place. As the vehicle adjusts into it's final phase per say, it will give us the data we need to make the adjustments for you.

Originally Posted by beepaj

I noticed the same thing. I'd like to hear from some older rig owners. I'll know in a couple of weeks as we're taking our '99 to VA. I'll report back.

beepaj, I am looking forward to your report post trip. I think you will see a lot of great testing ground between your home and your final destination to put the tune through the works.

[5 Star]

Originally Posted by Peter27C

I spoke to Mike yesterday and he acknowledged the issues I raised with him. I raised the issue of returning the unit, which he said he would take back. He suggested that I ran another couple of thousand miles and then to switch back to standard and see the difference at that point.
He said he would take back the unit at that point if I was not happy. How can I argue with this so I will put some more miles on it. I am heading for Ft Lauderdale then New Orleans then up to Oshkosh so the miles will go on in the not too distant future.

He also said he could tweak the tune a bit more, but he was not keen to do that. I need to record the issues in more detail if we are going to do that.

Pete

Peter27C, Given the length of time the tunes (primarily those from the group buy) have been on the vehicles we prefer to get more mileage/drive cycles on them before making too many adjustments. Given the drive cycles on the rigs, it gives them the opportunity for the adaptive learning to fully take place with your driving style. As these changes occur, we are able to get a better idea based on what is going on with the rig. We can collect this data and make adjustments to your tune to get it dialed in for your driving preferences.

Originally Posted by dabrooks

I have been running the 5 Star for several months and couldn't be happier. I don't use the cruise as much as others but I intentionally used it before and after the Tune was added and was very happy with the way it ran after the tune. I have done several test and find I get better mileage with the cruise off.

dabrooks, Your test and insight is much appreciated. I prefer to drive the rig vs cruise control, but it is my preference. Jacob, Mike and the others here at the shop all drive differently. By having the ability to tweak and adjust for different driving styles on top of the vehicle specs it allows us to truly dial in the custom tune.

Originally Posted by j.smith

We are presently in Alaska, have about 10k on the 5 star tune and have to agree with the OP, it is pretty useless in cruise. Also found that it is pretty much useless at 50 - 55 mph, seems the faster you go the better the coach deals with grades. Anything less than 63 mph results in downshifts to the 4500 rpm range, skips 4th and drops right into third. There is a definite improvement in the shift pattern when not using cruise. Not sure if I am going to keep the tune or not, if they cannot figure out the cruise issue it is not very useful for me. Full disclosure, we are driving a 2015 Suncruiser 38Q, 26,000 GVW, actual weight 23,500, towing a 2012 two door jeep wrangled.

j.smith, if we have not made any adjustments or revisions please let us know so we can make changes for you. This way we can further dial it in for you and get it to your liking for your Suncruiser.

Originally Posted by rodz

Stand up or not, it never should have been sold with them being well aware of the cruise control issue.

rodz, If the issue impacted all rigs, certain makes, specific codes, certain weights, those that tow vs. not, I would not sell the tune until it was redeveloped. On the few that exhibit the issue we are retuning them to get them dialed in to proper operating specs.

Chris

[5 Star]

Originally Posted by Knightab

Thank you 5star! I feel much better hearing you respond to all the concerns! as I said though I live the tune just the cruise issue threw me a loop, you have reinforced that a learning curse is in order.

You are welcome! I am happy to address the concerns! The learning curve is a big aspect of it. It is slightly different for the RV's vs. the regular cars and trucks we tune. A drive or learning cycle for an RV is typically a few hundred miles vs. a car/truck drive cycle that is a fraction of a mile to the gas station, back home, to the store, etc. The drive cycles for most users on the cars/trucks quantify much more quickly than the RV's.

Originally Posted by cc8375

I would buy 5 STAR again!!! Well worth the investment!

Thank you for that cc8375! Appreciate you sharing your thoughts on our tune!

Chris

[Peter27C]

Please add your model and year of coach, if we don't know that, the comment is a bit meaningless to get a handle on where the issue lies.

Gushy compliments are great for 5 Star but don't add any value for diagnosis if we don't know what vehicle year you have. We all want the unit to work, that's why we bought it!

5 Star if you can give us any insight to how we should drive to speed up the "learning process", please let us know.

Pete

[j.smith]

Thanks for the offer Mike, was planning to get with you once we get home (late July probably). We only have internet access intermittently so I don't want to start changing things until we get back. I have figured out what works and what does not, better to keep it the way it is for now.

Jeff

[mrt_1111]

Hello, I have a question. What is a drive cycle? Is it number of miles, number of times the engine is started, how long the engine has been running or something else?

Thanks

[TeJay]

For those that don't know a, "Drive Cycle". It's a combination of happenings. The vehicle is cold, the key turned on then started, run/driven for a time period as some speeds, shut down, key turned off then cooled off. The exact times the engine remains in these different situations has varied over the years with each manufacturer and I may not have it exactly correct but you get the general idea. During the DC is when the CPU learns the style of driving performed by that customer. The only way it can be sped up is to perform more and more drive cycles. DC's are used for a lot of things. If a CODE sets and you fix the problem the CODE will erase after so many DC's if that which caused it does not happen again.

We took the coach down the mountain last Sunday and back today. At first all went very well. There was an early happening without warning the engine RPM's went close to 4,800 and I couldn't get it to shift down. I took it off cruise first, then hit the brake, again and again. Finally go down slow enough and after maybe 30 45 seconds it settled back down and started shifting normally. That only happened once. The remainder of the trip was fine.
I try to run on cruise control most of the time. As I hit an OP when it down shifts first the rpm's hit about 2,500 if the hill is slacking some I'll keep it in cruise. If it's getting steeper I'll hit the RES (resume) button which takes it off of cruise and drive up the hill at 2,500 or close to it. That's way, way better than before. If the OP is doable on cruise then I keep it on cruise.

Coming up over the mountain I was able to stay up with most traffic but not on cruise. I was way better than the semi's and could maintain at or above 50 MPH all the way up.

About the only way we could use cruise more often is if the TUNE could recognize when we are on cruise then allow the road speed to drop (based on vacuum (load), TPS position, or other inputs say 10 MPH before it tries to downshift to keep the speed that was originally set. That should be possible to do but I'm not an engineer.

I'm very happy with the TUNE. I can notice the extra HP. If we enter some hilly places and I know it won't stay in cruise I can easily power over the hills without doing a lot of down shifts. In those situations I'm usually at 2,500 RPM which is OK. Sometimes it's at 3,000.

I'm going to give it more driving time for learning. I can already see changes compared to how it drove at first.

TeJay

[rodz]

Snake oil.

[TeJay]

And you are referring to exactly what??? You are making a generic snide comment when more than 35 people have responded to this thread.

Have the decency and fortitude to address the poster who IYHO is professing some sort of "snake oil." Most are here to respond, share and learn. Your comment is none of the above.

TeJay