Big Brother is cracking down on tuners

[08F450Superduty]

Found this link today about Edge Products getting busted and fined big time by the EPA.
Edge Products LLC Settlement | Enforcement | US EPA

[siduramaxde]

I wonder how much they will have to pay me to get my cts race back?

[chuckster57]

I can't see them offering any more than what you paid for it. It does say that the vehicle must be returned to its factory programming and the factory equipment must be re-installed, who pays for the equipment change?

I am sure when you bought your product, it came with a "FOR OFF ROAD" use only warning, right? If that's the case, and your using it to operate your truck on public roads, then you should count your blessings the EPA isn't knocking on your door to collect a fine.

I am not a "tree hugger", but I do enjoy breathing cleaner air.


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[Phil G.]

In the instance of the 6.4L, my understanding (no first hand experience) is that a high percentage of those engines were quite frequently delivering single digit mileage in stock form and high teens like the other engines once tuned. If this is the case, how can returning the them back to single digit stock mileage be good for the environment?

[lari2001]

Holy smokes (no pun intended). I wonder if the EPA will go after all the other companies out there that sell delete kits and programers. Bye bye Edge products.

[chuckster57]

I thought I read that they stopped H&S from selling the mini max. FWIW, I think big brother is just getting started.


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[superduty6.4]

Originally Posted by chuckster57

I thought I read that they stopped H&S from selling the mini max. FWIW, I think big brother is just getting started.


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They've stopped them from producing emissions delete tuners. They recently came out with the new model number mini and it still has the dpf on tunes.

[lari2001]

Dang, this does not bode well for me. I was looking forward to the day i got to tune my 08 and remove that stupid dpf.

[zedd]

Originally Posted by Phil G.

In the instance of the 6.4L, my understanding (no first hand experience) is that a high percentage of those engines were quite frequently delivering single digit mileage in stock form and high teens like the other engines once tuned. If this is the case, how can returning the them back to single digit stock mileage be good for the environment?

From what I've read, the mileage benefits of the DPF delete have been over-hyped. And your mileage figures may be a bit low. Unloaded, my truck gets 12-13 in town (where I drive it very little) and upper teens on the road. That's totally stock. Towing my relatively light fiver i get a few mpg lower, depending on terrain. An F450 with a high numerical rear end will probably do worse.

But it isn't about mileage, it's about particulates. Diesels emit tiny particles that are especially bad for your lungs. Not to mention the smoke.

[smotrs]

Originally Posted by chuckster57

I thought I read that they stopped H&S from selling the mini max. FWIW, I think big brother is just getting started.


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Edge was one of the first ones hit a couple years ago. Then they followed up with SCT and most recently H&S. Probably won't be too much longer before we hear something regarding Spartan.

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[Phil G.]

Originally Posted by zedd

From what I've read, the mileage benefits of the DPF delete have been over-hyped. And your mileage figures may be a bit low. Unloaded, my truck gets 12-13 in town (where I drive it very little) and upper teens on the road. That's totally stock. Towing my relatively light fiver i get a few mpg lower, depending on terrain. An F450 with a high numerical rear end will probably do worse.

But it isn't about mileage, it's about particulates. Diesels emit tiny particles that are especially bad for your lungs. Not to mention the smoke.

OK, so your truck is pulling decent untuned numbers, there's one. I'm sure there's probably more too....

I understand the focus is the particulate matter that the EPA is concerned with. That in itself is not the only component that clogs our air. How about the emissions from creating, shipping and burning the extra fuel that is required when MANY (not all) of the stock trucks are running. If MANY of them can be tuned to see a 50% +/- mileage gain, I wonder what that is worth in reduced emissions.

I suspect the trade off for no DPF is worth it. There is a good chance that a lot of the equipment used to extract, refine and deliver that extra fuel didn't have a DPF on it....

[08F450Superduty]

The biggest problem I see is that when the DOC/DPF is deleted the owners are running the hot tunes and creating clouds of black smoke and thinking they are cool but its just wasted fuel not HP and that is what attracts the man to crack down, we created our own problems. JMO
I was hoping to do the DPF delete and run my Banks Clean Tunes but with these companies getting busted think I will leave it alone, fuel is cheaper than the fines and I do prefer the clean air, a lot better air quality than it was in the 70s.

[smotrs]

What it comes down to is this. The tuners hurt themselves. They could have easily tuned it to eliminate as much smoke as possible while still making power but instead they went for power overall.

So what we got was a bunch of vehicles smoking up the highways pushing 300+ additional horses and drawing attention to everyone in the diesel community.

Sucks it had to come to this.

[wheelhopper]

I recently bought a Livewire TS. My intention was to delete. I am not interested in running 12 second quarter miles. I just want some extra power for towing and better fuel economy when not. My plan was to be reasonable about the tune, just like I did with my 7.3. I just spoke with SCT about getting a DPF delete tune. They stopped offering them from SCT just this past November. Figures I just missed it. My understanding is that you can still get the DPF delete tunes, you just have to go to a private tuner to get them. Which means buying the $600 tuner will not do it anymore. Now you need to add the cost of buying the custom tunes from a tuner.

[Phil G.]

"Edge will pay a penalty of $500,000. This amount was reduced substantially in light of Edge’s current financial condition."

I would not be surprised to see Edge Products LLC gone but a new company "very similar" born......... given all of the liability they just inherited with this judgement.