Question on tuners- Considering HD warranty, what is the best tuner module to get for the BO? TTS, PV, SE? I'm looking for best tune-ability and most performance benefit without voiding warranty. Any advice is appreciated. I'm not sure of the benefit of one tuner product vs another. My BO has the VH 2-2 pipes and SE intake, I think it had some type of new map uploaded but previous owner is not tech savvy at all so did not know.

 

The Power Vision tuner has more capabilities than the HD SE tuner. For example, it can correct a speedometer. Because it also includes a display capability, it can also display otherwise unavailable data, live, while riding, such as head temperature, instant fuel mileage, spark retard, etc.

I am not familiar with the TTS.

But . . .

Avoid any tuner that "locks" the tune in your ECM. Note that at Least one tuner (that is NOT the Power Vision tuner or the HD SE tuner) "locks" the tune in the ECM so that no other tuner can access it. That is a huge no-no, because locks YOU to only going to tuning professionals that use that specific brand tuner and so know how to use your specific tuner to tune your bike. Why would this be necessary? Let's say you change the exhaust system, or change cams. You will need a re-tune. Furthermore, since the tune is locked, your HD dealer cannot do diagnostics on the bike without using YOUR tuner. That's an instant turnoff to the HD dealer, and especially if your bike is still under warranty. The dealer could use the locked and therefore non-HD tune as an excuse to not do work on the bike or to treat it as non-warranty.

If you use either the Power Vision or HD SE tuner, no one can know, or care, what tuner was used to tune the bike last time. I THINK that the only "footprints" left are the settings that are different than "stock". A dealer can still do a safety reflash (e.g. the current Breakout fuel level display ref lash), without screwing up your tune. And, even if he somehow did, the Power Vision and HDSE can both store a tune right in the device (the Power Vision can store 6 I believe), so you could correct a dealer overwrite, while using the provided tuning software to preserve whatever important safety change the dealer made.

The above are some of the point you should consider.

By the way, the Power Vision even allows you to rename any tune to match the name of your original factory tune, so a casual access by an HD dealer would not disclose that you had installed a non-factory tune. The tech would actually have to examine individual data fields to detect that it was not a factory tune.

Jim G

 

Jim- thank you for the info and cautions. I am tech savvy, but I'm still in the stone age with knowing Evo motors, carbs and Twin Tec / Dyna 2000i PC programmers. The TC stuff and EFI tuning is new to me.

Here is the TTS system:
http://www.mastertune.net/harleydavidson.htm

I "heard" that the SE setup tunes parameters that the PV cannot. I take that for what it is, internet info, and not fact. When I do cams and eventually get some dyno time in I'd like the dyno shop to be able to tune parameters as well.

 

You heard incorrectly - exactly the reverse of reality. The Power Vision has capabilities that the HD SE unit does not.

p.s. Who told you that the HD tuner is better? The HD dealer?

 

sorry for the added noob question- what is the specific SE tuner model I should be looking at? In assuming, not the SERT (although it looks pretty nice!)

 

Cool thank you

 

Part no. 32109-08C is the "Screamin' Eagle Pro Super Tuner" itself. $460 MSRP currently.

BUT, the HD kit, unlike the Power Vision kit, does not include the necessary cable. The HD part no. for that varies by model and year of bike. Tere are 2 different cables, depdnign upon your model/year bike, and you need only ONE of them, and they cost $46 each.

Do NOT buy the "Screamin' Eagle STREET Performance Tuner". That is WAY less capable and among other things, restricts you to fully street legal tunes only.

Jim G

 

Damn nice of you to share all of this info Jim, much appreciated. If you are using the PV, what are you using for downloaded maps? I looked on their site and they only have maps from 2012, and does not say whether its for the regular or B motors. Does PV charge extra for allowing self-tunes or tunes from a dyno shop?

 

IO'd love to have one of those horns. It looks classy compared to the stock Breakout horn. But, I'm guessing that this horn MAY not work on any Breakout that has ABS, because the ABS unit itself, or its plumbing, will interfere with the Horn mounting. The mounting method APPEARS to require you to mount it at a specific height in the frame, as the frames diverge as you go lower, and converge as you go higher, and this mount seems to mount to BOTH of them.

Am I right or wrong about this?

Jim G

 

You are actually a bit ahead of me on timing.

I just ordered my PV-2 today, and it won't get here until Wednesday 6-11. However, I don't much care what canned tunes are available, as I already have a Stage 4 Race kit and dealer tune, and am currently trying to schedule a custom tune, because the dealer tune was a disappointment.

The (human) tuner I am planning to have do the tuning is comfortable with both HD SE Super Tuner Pro, and Power Vision. I actually have the HD tuner already, but realized I will need the Power Vision to do the speedometer correction after my planned re-gearing of the bike anyway, and I do like the ability to temporarily mount the Power Vision display unit to take a look at some of the ECM data fields under actual running conditions.

So when an unmarried returned PV unit popped up on eBay recently in a PV dealer ad, at a discounted price ($360), I asked Dynojet how I could test to be SURE the returned unit was not actually "married" to the original buyer's VIN. Dynojet was gracious enough to describe where in the software you look to check that, I had the dealer perform that check and verify it is indeed unmarried, and I bought it this morning. It shipped same day.

If I can get in for the tune before the PV arrives, I'll have the tuner use the HD tuner. If my tuning session occurs after the PV arrives, I'll have him use the PV.

The speedo correction via PV making the change to the VSS field directly in the ECM is a superior solution to any of the aftermarket speedo correction units, and when I subtract the cost of an aftermarket correction unit from the price of the PV, I'm getting an awful lot of tuning and operating display abilities for not that much money.

PV does NOT charge any extra for the ability for a custom tuner to use the device. That's a feature they provided in the base unit. You can also buy additional licenses for the PV unit that allow you to tune additional vehicles (i.e. marry more bikes to the one PV unit) for $199 each.

Also, if you buy a married PV, you can get PV to unmark it for you for $199 (plus shipping I assume, both ways).

Jim G