Montana Owners Club - Keystone Montana 5th Wheel Forum - View Single Post

RickW · 04-03-2009, 03:38 AM

On the warranty, the chip (or any other modification) has to be the cause for the failure for them to void the warranty. Your warranty can not just be voided because you have have/use one. You hear the same thing about BioDiesel. Use it and they will void your warranty. I got news for you, distributors are adding Bio to Diesel everyday. Some are because of local laws requiring a usage of renewable fuel sources. Again it has to be proved that the Bio caused the damage/failure before the warranty work can be denied. Typically, in the example of Bio, the failure is in the fuel system. Guess what you drop an injector it does not matter if you are burning Bio or not, if they say it is the fuel you will pay for the repair. Remember Warranty work is on their nickel. Out of warranty work is on yours.

As for the programmer/chip, I have a programmer installed on my 2001 7.3L. I installed the programmer back in 2005 long before we bought our first 5th wheel. My mileage logs showed a 8% improvement with the addition of the programmer. The additional power is very noticeable. It has been 75k+ miles since installed and not a lick of trouble. (I also burn BioDiesel in the summer months again with no problems). Personally I like having the extra power. When I do have to get out in the passing lane I am not having to push the truck to give everything it has to get around the slower vehicle and get back to the right lane.

My next door neighbor has a 2006 F350 SRW 4x4. He is a contractor and pulls a 24' flatbed all week and then a 30' Toybox on the weekend for motorcycle racing. He burns 3/4 to a full tank of fuel a day. When fuel hit $4+/gal it was killing him. He had the intake, programmer & exhaust done. He "claims" he saw a increase of 10%~12% in fuel economy. (But he does not keep detailed fuel logs so we can not put pencil to paper to verify exact improvement, but his mileage has improved).

Bottom line is you have to do what you are comfortable with. We each have different comfort levels. That is evident in the wide range of tow vehicles used to pull the same or similar 5th wheels.

04-03-2009, 03:38 AM	#19
RickW Montana Master Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Wylie Posts: 532 M.O.C. #9139	On the warranty, the chip (or any other modification) has to be the cause for the failure for them to void the warranty. Your warranty can not just be voided because you have have/use one. You hear the same thing about BioDiesel. Use it and they will void your warranty. I got news for you, distributors are adding Bio to Diesel everyday. Some are because of local laws requiring a usage of renewable fuel sources. Again it has to be proved that the Bio caused the damage/failure before the warranty work can be denied. Typically, in the example of Bio, the failure is in the fuel system. Guess what you drop an injector it does not matter if you are burning Bio or not, if they say it is the fuel you will pay for the repair. Remember Warranty work is on their nickel. Out of warranty work is on yours. As for the programmer/chip, I have a programmer installed on my 2001 7.3L. I installed the programmer back in 2005 long before we bought our first 5th wheel. My mileage logs showed a 8% improvement with the addition of the programmer. The additional power is very noticeable. It has been 75k+ miles since installed and not a lick of trouble. (I also burn BioDiesel in the summer months again with no problems). Personally I like having the extra power. When I do have to get out in the passing lane I am not having to push the truck to give everything it has to get around the slower vehicle and get back to the right lane. My next door neighbor has a 2006 F350 SRW 4x4. He is a contractor and pulls a 24' flatbed all week and then a 30' Toybox on the weekend for motorcycle racing. He burns 3/4 to a full tank of fuel a day. When fuel hit $4+/gal it was killing him. He had the intake, programmer & exhaust done. He "claims" he saw a increase of 10%~12% in fuel economy. (But he does not keep detailed fuel logs so we can not put pencil to paper to verify exact improvement, but his mileage has improved). Bottom line is you have to do what you are comfortable with. We each have different comfort levels. That is evident in the wide range of tow vehicles used to pull the same or similar 5th wheels.