Yeap, as shookman34 answered you can. That was going to be my plan if I had not decided on the Edge unit. Also thanks to all who are enjoying this thread, and I really appreciate everyone keeping it civil

 

Excellent comparison MoJo. Thank you for your honest comparrison of the two, time, money and effort. I've only been a member since Dec, but yours is by far the best post yet. I too had been wondering if you could run the xcal tune and use the edge just to monitor. You answered the whole shebang. I currently am awaiting (unpatiently) my xcal custom tune from the group buy, and now with the info from your post intend to get an edge just for the monitoring capibility. If you put individual gages for everything the edge can monitor you'd have a truckfull of gages and it would cost much more than the edge. Once again thanks for your well thought out post.

 

Exellent review, that is what Ive been waiting for. Im 100% convinced that the Edge will be the one to go with. Thanks

 

Read HWM3's review, his edge vs. xcal2 times are posted for you to see. Troyer tuned XCal2 clearly wins. I may have set the bar too high for the Troyer tunes upon arrival as there were people absolutely amazed (like marc carpenter) with the tunes whereas I was a bit skeptical. My pedal felt a little odd and I still can't get used to it today, but the power is definitely there at WOT. My outlook on the XCal2 is constantly changing. I'm hoping I will be able to do some more custom tuning (if you read the post where I had it dyno'd, the XCal2 threw errors) and finally be able to post one of my reviews like I usually do. I installed the pulley's (apologies Matt) and a seperate review will come with those as well when I can clearly decipher the gains, if any (like usual).

 

Im just looking for a canned tune and I like what people are saying about Troyer but im not looking to go out racing. Even with the Edge I will only stay in the 87 octaine range. My truck has no power what so ever stock. I just want a little better power plus the guages are a nice bonus. If Troyer could put his tune in an Edge I would buy that hands down. I really didnt want to deal with a tuner at all but my truck needs help. I appriciate your input. I guess I still have to read more.

 

Read all of the posts you can find on the tuners. Pay attention to what kind of posts each 'reviewer' typically puts up...and then decide for yourself who is being objective and who picked their winner before they even tested the units. It's one of those topics that people get heated about. The kind of thing where people think "I spent my money on this one so it is obviously the best and anyone who disagrees is lying". Its always good advice to read as much as you can, then pick the one you like the sounds of. Read other forums as well...you will find that in one forum one guy is god, whereas in another forum they have never heard of him. Take the average of all the opinions you can find and that is usually not to far from right answer.

Bill

 

Also consider whether or not the poster has actual experience with the tuner, or just throws their opinion around with nothing to back it up.

 

Now why are you making statements like that ????
If you are skeptical that is your right, but "amazed" is not a word I remember using to describe Mikes tuning..I am pleased, happy, content, and surprised maybe.....Is there a reason you picked me out of all of Mikes satisfied customers to refer to? Please, I found this to be a very informative review, DO NOT attempt to start a slander thread out of it...I am offended that you chose my name to throw around here....

 

hwm3: You are 100% on the money with that statement. Many members have input from hear say sources and not first hand. It is hard to promote, or put down a product that a member personally has not touched.

For all members: For the record, I want everyone to know I was not looking for the "Maximum Performance" I was looking for what I decided on, the Edge. Every truck may not respond to the same tune the exact same way. I again am overly happy with my choice and can only provide input on my personal experience between these two products. A well built custom tune should always "Out Perform" a generic tune from a performance standpoint and once again that was not my overall goal. Thank you all for reading

 

Marc, I was by no means trying to cause a dispute. I was told over the phone and have also read on here you were running very lean from the factory and due to the custom tuning you picked up over 40rwhp from what I recall. I am nearly positive this is what I was told, hence the reason I singled you out. So settle down a little, had no intentions of offending anyone. Mojoe, don't know where you got that but just understand I was not replying to your post(s).

I on the other hand am not amazed but am somewhat pleased with Troyer's tuning. When I referred to amazed to describe his tuning, that was not from your mouth but from several others. I have heard countless times about how their truck performs like an entirely different one post-XCal2, I unfortunately never saw those kind of results. That is not to say I didn't notice any gains, because I certainly did, but not of the scale I had expected.

I am not aware as to whether or not hwm3 had made any adjustments to his Edge but if not, there are significant gains to be had as shown in other Edge tuning threads.

 

No problem bro, I was more or less stating a point, then meaning to single you out I edited the post to be more specific. I guess the best place for end users like me in this tuner battle zone is on the sidelines since I am now satisfied, but I will continue to answer any questions that members have for me to the best of my abilities. I more or less got to post my experience on the subject

 

I think that this is an important portion of your post... and, let me preface this by saying that I'm not necessarily supporting any side of this so-called tuner war that has been brewing on oodles of F-series sites over the past several months.

The bottom line is that misconceptions can be easily drawn. What one views as a 'spectacular' gain may be viewed by the next guy as a 'minor' gain. Objective reviews are just that; objective. That's not to say that either guy is wrong but more that they have varying paradigms on what they view as 'spectacular' and 'minor'.

I really feel that there's enough untapped potential within the Triton motor, be it a 5.4 or 4.6 (maybe even the 4.2), to get 'noticeable' gains out of any tuner that you try.

Some offer canned tunes, some offer canned tunes with tweaks, some offer more of a custom tune, and some offer strictly custom tuning. What's perfect for one guy won't be perfect for all and, as was mentioned earlier, this is where the silly debates flare because they know their product but not the other guy's... this being said, the one guy swears by his and doesn't give a lick about the other guy's because, in his mind, there's no way that the gains that they're experiencing can be as good as his own...

Well, the truth be told, big gains can come out of all of the tuners on the market... XCal, Edge, Predator -- I could go on.

For me, I enjoy my XCalibrator 2 tunes and yes, I'm Troyer Tuned. You won't see me flaunt it across the boards but, for me, I know I've personally made the right decision for what I want my tuner to be and do. I've never compared it head to head with any of the other tuners but, for that case, I don't really care to because I'm happy with what I have. For others, it may be the Edge... yet for others, it may be a Predator or 1745 or BillyRayJoe's SuperDuperTrooperTooner. That's fine. Be glad we all have choices like this to make with our modification dollar...

Bottom line guys... buy it, try it, enjoy it, communicate about it, don't be goofy and bicker about it, and help each other out with your own objective opinion... it may be skewed in some ways but, overall, if you care about what you're posting (like MoJoe obviously did), you'll take the time to offer good information so that someone here can benefit from it...

RP

Josiah -- I'm not picking on you here man... not at all. Just wanted to point out the objectivity that is hidden within every post here at f150online.com... everything from tuners to detailing products have some level of that personal objectivity and subjectivity hidden within the post... again, I hope you don't take offense to this because I absolutely wasn't singling you out bud.

 

Exactly. I think your review was right on.

Josiah, the reason I made no changes to the Edge tuning is I wanted them both tested in their "out of the box" forms. There is definitely more power to be made by adjusting the parameters in the Edge, but what affect does that have on the truck? Is it gonna cause a lean condition to only get worse? Since it has been shown that these trucks vary a great deal, any adjustments made to the tuning will have different effects on different trucks.

This seems pretty apparent in reading some of the threads here about loss of performance by some after updates, while others seem unaffected. Again, different trucks respond in different ways to tuning changes.

This doesn't mean I think the Edge is a bad product. I just think you need to be careful in making adjustments, and don't get too aggressive.

 

I've been known to take a handful, don't mind me.

 

Hey Josiah and anyone else with an XCal2 or Edge - I've noticed that my gas pedal does act a lot different now that I'm tuned compared to before. There is definitely a 'dead area' right in the middle of the throttle. I've gotten used to it but it's definitely weird. Does the Edge have the same symptom or does this only occur with the XCal2? Thanks for your input guys.