I love the Range AFM

BriDroid · April 15, 2019

I got one from a member here today in the mail. I plugged it in and went for a quick drive. I can't believe that I waited this long to get one! Not only is it staying in V8, the shifts are SO MUCH better!! It feels like a totally different truck. I can only imagine what a tune can do! Thanks to everyone on here for steering me in the right direction!

TheGreatOne · April 15, 2019

Heard the good and the bad about this product.....but guess I'll try it out

TRKLGND · April 15, 2019

This product does absolutely nothing for transmission shifting. They don't advertise it that way either. It simply tricks the ECU into thinking you have put the truck in manual mode and selected one gear lower than the top gear your trans has (5 if you have a 6 speed and 7 if you have the eight speed). BTW, you can do the same thing for FREE by moving the sift lever down one notch. It's your money. Spend it how you want to.

BriDroid · April 15, 2019

23 minutes ago, paracutin said:

This product does absolutely nothing for transmission shifting. They don't advertise it that way either. It simply tricks the ECU into thinking you have put the truck in manual mode and selected one gear lower than the top gear your trans has (5 if you have a 6 speed and 7 if you have the eight speed). BTW, you can do the same thing for FREE by moving the sift lever down one notch. It's your money. Spend it how you want to.

I agree that they don't advertise the shifting, but it does seem to change how the transmission reacts. I was driving around town in L5 before, and it also shifts better in L5. It doesn't studder and act like it doesn't know what gear to shift into as much with the Range and when in L5. It might trick the ECU into thinking that you're in manual mode, but at least it shifts into 6th gear with the Range. It of course doesn't do that when you're in L5.

Edited April 15, 2019 by BriDroid

Dino76033 · April 15, 2019

15 minutes ago, paracutin said:

This product does absolutely nothing for transmission shifting. They don't advertise it that way either. It simply tricks the ECU into thinking you have put the truck in manual mode and selected one gear lower than the top gear your trans has (5 if you have a 6 speed and 7 if you have the eight speed). BTW, you can do the same thing for FREE by moving the sift lever down one notch. It's your money. Spend it how you want to.

I think he is.

wforrest08 · April 15, 2019

2 hours ago, paracutin said:

It simply tricks the ECU into thinking you have put the truck in manual mode and selected one gear lower than the top gear your trans has (5 if you have a 6 speed and 7 if you have the eight speed). BTW, you can do the same thing for FREE by moving the sift lever down one notch. It's your money. Spend it how you want to.

WRONG the Range allows the driver to use all the gears in the transmission.

Yeah silly to think anybody would want to use the high gear in the tranny for anything like driving on the highway...

But hey it’s his money he’s not wasting on more gas to go from point A to B...

TRKLGND · April 15, 2019

29 minutes ago, wforrest08 said:

WRONG the Range allows the driver to use all the gears in the transmission.

Yeah silly to think anybody would want to use the high gear in the tranny for anything like driving on the highway...

But hey it’s his money he’s not wasting on more gas to go from point A to B...

You're right. You do get to use all of the gears. So do I. I put it in Drive if I'm going on the highway. So I'm not wasting money on gas either. In fact, I'm $200 ahead.

TRKLGND · April 15, 2019

For $429 (about double the list of the Range AFM) you can get the Diablosport inTune i3 and have a decent canned tune AND AFM delete.

wforrest08 · April 16, 2019

4 hours ago, paracutin said:

For $429 (about double the list of the Range AFM) you can get the Diablosport inTune i3 and have a decent canned tune AND AFM delete.

For 550 (Black Friday deal) I got a Blackbear auto-cal & tunes with free lifetime retunes when needed for future upgrades currently including AFM delete and a properly shifting tranny... who cares

Point is the Range is a viable option and has it’s place. Tuners show up on the ECM hit counter the Range doesn’t for one. In fact I had one on my truck before it was tuned for the first 3k miles new of the lot. Was going to be till I was out of bumper to bumper but decided since I couldn’t stand how stupidly the tranny hunted all day long for a gear or slammed them at low speed that either A. I was going to take a chance on possible future warranty claims being denied or B. the truck was getting sold.

Bought the Range for under 200 new sold it after tune to a coworker for 100. I was out a whole hundred bucks... probably lucky the bank didn’t foreclose on my house I’m out sooo much ?

Just cause you don’t see a need for it doesn’t mean somebody else don’t some of us don’t want V4 any of the time even on the highway...

TRKLGND · April 16, 2019

My truck is rarely in V4 on the highway. At 75mph the engine load is usually enough due to drag to keep in V8 mode.

Since getting your tune, have you needed service at the dealer for anything drive-train related? Just curious if the dealer said anything about the tune. The warranty is the only thing keeping me from getting a tune. My truck is quite a bit more expensive to tune than yours. I have the 6.2L with the 8 speed. I need to send the TCU to HP Tuners to have it unlocked before it can be tuned.

dieselfan1 · April 16, 2019

13 hours ago, paracutin said:

For $429 (about double the list of the Range AFM) you can get the Diablosport inTune i3 and have a decent canned tune AND AFM delete.

And void your warranty. No thanks.

I've been running the Range for a little over a week now after I installed a Borla S Type catback exhaust system and it works as advertised. Put it in drive and go.

I even got my monthly OnStar diagnostics report and it said nothing about not being able to read my information. This has been a problem in the past with previous versions.

wforrest08 · April 16, 2019

3 hours ago, paracutin said:

My truck is rarely in V4 on the highway. At 75mph the engine load is usually enough due to drag to keep in V8 mode.

Since getting your tune, have you needed service at the dealer for anything drive-train related? Just curious if the dealer said anything about the tune. The warranty is the only thing keeping me from getting a tune. My truck is quite a bit more expensive to tune than yours. I have the 6.2L with the 8 speed. I need to send the TCU to HP Tuners to have it unlocked before it can be tuned.

On the highway mine was in & out of v4 all the time.

Nope only warranty problems I had in the bumper to bumper warranty period was cosmetic paint issues (both rockers ended up getting repainted pass side twice). Still have a year of power train left since it’s a 015 with 5/100k. I don’t deal with my local stealership anymore and I fully expect they would deny any warranty work based on the other “mods” to the truck the tune would be icing on the cake for them. I drive right past them on my way to the stealership I use 30 miles south of them. That stealer sells new lifted/leveled trucks off the lot, owns a off site performance/custom shop, and nobody there has ever said anything about my mods/truck except “d@mn that’s sharp”, “nice looking truck”, or “you thinking about trading that in?” I seriously doubt they would deny any warranty claim unless corporate GM got involved.

3tspapat · April 16, 2019

Tuners haven't figured out how to tune the eAssist so with that model, you will need to go with the Range to disable or Drive in M/L modes (not enough demand and also they are lazy, don't care about a challenge, or in it just for the money). I've been doing that for awhile and no issues, but just curious to see the difference in having L8 with V4 shut off. I got mine strictly for research purposes. But then again I wipe my A$$ with money so I can afford such luxury. Then again I am somewhat money conscious and thrift so I did purchase a used Range and I only only use dollar bills to wipe.

Edited April 16, 2019 by 3tspapat