Explain to me why Bill is the best?

[muns53]

Hi,

I have an '02 7.3L Excursion and I'll share why I chose PHP over the others you mentioned. You may be after different objectives, so this may not be helpful. I agree with what's been said in this thread so far but I had other objectives, too.

I wanted a small core set of strong tunes that I would feel confident would hotrod my Ex, but that weren't going to harm my motor or tranny, since I plan to keep it and use it for a very long time. I also wanted the option to change out tunes in the future as my needs/mods changed and love the fact that Bill does live tuning if I ever wanted to go that route. I did NOT want to buy a separate set of guages and tuner, but I really needed EGTs and an accurate read on Tranny and Engine Oil temps. I also really wanted the ability to read and clear DTC codes, since my Ex is not under any Ford warranty. I desired to support a family-centric business that would work with me on my potentially unique requests and did NOT want to buy from a large company. I wanted to entrust my Ex's programming to someone with a long history that others in the industry looked up to and that wasn't going to move on to other pursuits. I wanted to talk personally with the person writing the tunes to explain my Vegistroke system and get some tunes optimized for veg oil as fuel.

So, after talking with Corey and with Bill on the phone and researching all the various competitive options in depth, I purchased a Gryphon with some custom tunes. I have been able to meet every criteria above and couldn't be happier. A few unexpected perks: this very active forum with very helpful moderators and members; the cool bonus features in the Gryphon, such as modifying tranny shifting, fooling around with 1/4 mile and 0-60 times, storing memory parameters, etc. My Gryphon currently holds the 65Tow, the 80Performance and the Fuel Sipper tunes. I will soon have a 65VeggieTow and a 80VeggiePerformance tune in the lineup.

The limitations of the Gryphon (and any programmer) are only holding three tunes at a time and the inability to switch on the fly. If you want a chip and/or don't need the code reading/clearing function and/or if you want/have analog guages, the FU Chip or FU2 Chip appear to me to be the best deal in the industry. You get access to every one of Bill's programs and have the ability to load in custom files down the road as your needs/mods change. Plus, it's on a common platform, so if you wanted to buy individual tunes from other diesel tuners, you could run them on your chip in one of the positions. DP's chip doesn't allow that; not sure about some of the others.

Good luck with your decision! Hope that was somehow helpful to you!

[T444E]

Thanks to everyone for their responses. That is why I joined this forum, to hear directly from PHP customers. I have been around this stuff for a few years, and I'm on my 3rd chip. I've tried 3 of the more "mainstream" tuners in the last 6 years. Only 1 of the 3 was I not happy with. I'm not gonna go into whose tuning that I've had and liked(I'm not here for that). I am VERY interested in PHP. The more I read here, the more interest I have in the minotaur software...

[Kwikkordead]

I just returned from a trip with my 1999.5 F-550 pulling a Cedar Creek 36 RLTS. Total vehicle weight: around 24,000 lb.
7.3 4x4 ZF6 with 4.88 rear axle. 2500 rpm @ 70 mph in OD.
I was running with a Diablo Predator before and was forced to return the truck to stock tune just to tow the trailer because the EGT would easily hit 1400 degrees on any hill, even using thier mildest Tow/Safe tunes.
.
I purchased a Phoenix 6 position chip with
Stock
High Idle
25hp Heavy tow
40hp Medium tow
80hp Performance
Smoke Show.
.
After installing the chip and pulling the trailer, I found that on the 25hp Heavy Tow, the engine would pull the trailer up any hill up to about 4-5% grade in OD without having to shift down.
The turbo would simply spool up and the EGT's would not go over 1100 degrees - cooler by 100 degrees over the stock tune.
It was very surprising to me how much better the engine sounded and ran as well.
Bill knows his stuff and if I ever have a need for a another chip on a different truck I will not consider any other vendor. VERY satisified customer.

[Jackpine]

VERY nice post, Dan. This is the kind of thing that says much more than what I posted.

Why don't you mosey on over to PHP's website and cut and paste this "User Testimonial"? It's one of the best I have read.

- Jack

[Kwikkordead]

Originally Posted by Groovy Chick

Thanks so much for the post, Dan -- glad Bill could give you what you wanted with the Phoenix chip.

(And would you mind of I swiped this post and put it in the testimonials section on the website? Super idea, Jack!)

Swipe away, permission granted!