Diesel Performance Chips

[RDMOCALA]

Has anyone installed a performance chip in their class A diesel pusher. If so, what was the outcome? Better horsepower? Better fuel mileage? Was it easy to install? What kind did you purchase? etc. Any information would be appreciated.

 

[Scooterfan]

What I've heard is there is a backlog...I can't attest personally to this but check supply before you get too excited. Now, do they work...YES! You will get better horsepower. Fuel consumption improvement varies, it's (relatively) easy to install (Plenty of YouTube videos). Good luck

 

["EZ"]

My son in law and Daughter both have chips in their Ram 2500's They both have over 1200 lb./ft. of torque. So, yes, chips do work!

Here's the problem in an RV. You may have a 2500 series Allison transmission. If you do, you can't turn your engine up because you'll blow your transmission apart. You'll need a 3000 series Allison minimum. If you already have one you're good to go!

 

[JRS]

The Allison 3000 is rated up to 450 HP

 

[billnourse]

Can't speak to the motorhome power plants, but I have an old Bully Dog tune in my 2002 Duramax. I have it set at the second level (Tow/Haul). I might have seen a slight increase in mileage, and a pretty good increase in power. We have a grade here that is about 5% and a long pull of about 5 miles. With the tune I lowered my time for the climb by about 5 seconds and was better able to maintain speed. This was pulling a 32' Holiday Rambler 5th wheel at about 11,000#. One drawback is the increase in Exhaust Gas Temperature. You don't want to get over about 1250 degrees for any extended period of time, and a chip will definitely get you there in a hurry on a hard pull requiring a downshift to increase RPM and more air through the turbo or lowering your speed. On a real hard pull I can hit 1,400 degrees pretty easy if I don't watch it. You will definitely want a gauge to monitor your EGT.

 

[Headhunter]

I hate to burst any ones bubble. You just cant not go out and buy a new chip and install it in a diesel MH engine and get more power. 99% of all Diesel engines in MH's are Cummins. There are about 100 different engines and grades. True some you can order a different chip from Cummins and bump up from say from a 380 HP to 450 HP. But they are not cheap, and have to be installed by a service technician. And yes they have to match your Allison transmission, usually a 3000.

For instance the Cummins 340 HP can not be beefed up to say a Cummins 360 because the 340 has a 2500 Allison Tranny. On the same hand a Cummins 360 HP I believe .6 can not be beefed up to say a 400 HP, you have to go up to the next engine size, like the 380 HP engine in a Tiffin Phaeton, can be beefed up for a cost like $10K from the factory with a chip to 450 HP. You can also buy the Chip after initial purchase of the MH from Freight liner or Cummins and have it installed. But again it DEPENDS on the DP Cummins Engine you are talking about.

HH

 

["EZ"]

When I sold Class 6 through Class 8 heavy Ford and International trucks for 15 years, International had 13 pages of engines available to put in the truck. So if you wanted a Cummins engine there were maybe 6 pages to choose from. The engines were designated by engine platform then by HP. So if the buyer wanted a certain engine like an M11 or an N14 there were usually 6-10 engines to choose from. A 350 HP N14 might be $5000. A 500 HP N14 might be $10,000. And everything in-between. They basically charged you by the HP rating. Same engine. Same parts. Nothing but the HP was different on the electronically injected engines.

Some people wanted to cheat the system and bring the truck in at 350 HP and then "turn it up" to 500 HP in the shop. Guess how much it cost to do that? Right, the other $5000 you would have paid to begin with. We had to link up with Cummins computers to do the HP down load so they knew how much the guy paid for the HP he got and they charged him the same amount as he would have paid from the price book. It was done by engine serial number so it was pretty hard to scam the system. Most of the stories you hear the old guys talk about saying they "turned their diesel engine's HP up" was on the old mechanical engines. They were actually turning up the fuel pump so it would give the engine more fuel. This is why the black smoke would roll out of the exhaust. But it's been since the nearly 1990's since any of them have been built. Those days are long gone!

The super chips that people are using to increase their HP on todays diesel engines are mostly the small engines and mostly in pickup trucks. Powerstroke, Cummins 6.7L, Duramax guys are all about "rolling smoke" out of their pickup trucks. Most of them end up trashing their transmissions or rear ends because the factory didn't build the truck with the necessary components to handle that much power. Ram is offering a high torque Cummins package with 1000 lb/ft of torque FROM THE FACTORY! But they put the right transmission behind it and offer a 100K mile warranty with it. Like Head Hunter said, be careful. You must have the right Allison transmission before you turn up your diesel engine in your RV and that means a 3000 series of larger.