Originally Posted by
FlyinRyan
So here's the deal guys. *Editing in progress*
I am at the point where it no longer is effective for me to tune these trucks, in volume, over email. That's not to say it isn't profitable- i have had a great deal of success with it- but with the phone and the FB and so on going off constantly because people do not grasp what is entailed in email tuning has been a major factor in not only my personal life, but my health as well.
One of the downsides to having a small business is that people tend to overlook the fact that I am not open 24/7. The more time I spend on the phone, on FB, on emails, etc, the less time I get to spend on the tuning. The volume of work I get is already enough to where I feel my time is limited- so managing that window I have is crucial.
Beyond that- and this might be because of my shift towards being more Facebook-centric in my focus- the younger generation of owners that is now modifying these trucks seem to have a growing sense of entitlement. There is a certain expectation of the sun and the moon, and when you have to abbreviate the conversation to move on to other tasks, one is met with anger or at least a whole bunch of attitude. I can do without all that, even if I make less money each month.
The fact of the matter is that communities such as this one make up a shrinking percentage of my sales, yet still dominate my time by an overwhelming majority. And sadly, almost all of that time is spent on "tech support", as the trucks themselves do not take much time to tune.
In contrast, none of the above happens with the newer platforms I work on, regardless of what software I use. More than ever, I find I have to pick my battles....It is better for a multitude of reasons to shift towards in-person tuning for these older platforms where the support is less, and the vehicles themselves are more finicky.
Within the last few weeks, I have had a previous issue return where my tune files sent over email were being corrupted and affecting fuel trims. Basically , when a closed loop tune is sent, the truck will learn an initial value and "freeze" in place. This skews fueling. When you try to get around it with open loop, the fuel trim values (which in OL should be 0'd out) are still there. SCT and I originally traced it back to both bad X3 firmware and a localized corruption issue on my laptop, a year ago, but after months of zero issues it has returned. I've swapped laptops again (1200.00 out the window) for the sole purpose of trying to remedy this issue, and so far, no joy. Between the original occurrence 2 years ago and now, I have hundreds of hours invested not to mention numerous calls/emails with Aldo, Rudy Benn and Scott Barbour from SCT trying to rectify this issue. I do not know if the other tuners that do these platforms have these issues- frankly, I do not care.
Thus far it would appear that the problem does not exist if I am loading the tunes via my interface instead of how you, the customer , would do so via the Device Updater program.
For all of the reasons mentioned above, it is time for me to change how I conduct my business. I will still happily tune these trucks, the condition will now just be in person, preferably on the dyno. I am already aware this is going to piss off alot of people that somehow think I owe them something , but, after 5 years of slaving away, it is time for me to put my well being first.