Sprint Booster vs. Tuning

Long post warning... I thought I’d make a thread about my personal experience with tuning this truck and also the Sprint Booster, since I’ve had both (not at the same time tho). I have a 2021 TRD OR 4x4 DCSB with 265/75/16s. I am one of those who never had an issue with the shifting in my truck. I guess a lot of that is probably because by the 6th year of this generation, Toyota has resolved much of the transmission hunting issues that earlier 3rd gens had. My truck will shift to the highest gear it can in most situations, but that doesn’t bother me personally. I have never experienced it hunting for gears tho... as in it doesn’t go back and forth between gears like it can’t make up it’s mind, as I know a lot of 3rd gens do. It holds its gears unless I give it gas and obviously want it to downshift. I also have a 2017 4Runner Limited (wife’s) and my Tacoma shifts a lot like that does (except it has a 6th gear, and the 4Runner just has 5). But I would say both the Tacoma and the 4runner’s shifting are both very predictable and no more frustrating than any other auto that I’ve driven. Again, everyone’s truck and driving style is different, so this is just my experience with my truck.

I do find the engine/throttle is tuned way down to be sluggish and anemic for fuel economy, and the 4Runner was the same way from the factory. Shortly after we got the 4Runner, I got a Sprint Booster and it made that truck come alive. Tunes aren’t available for the 4Runner like they are for the Taco (at least they weren’t when we bought it new in 2017), so the Sprint Booster was the only affordable option to give that truck the help it really needed to get up and go. I know the Sprint Booster doesn’t increase horsepower, but it does increase throttle response and gets rid of a lot of the throttle lag, so it made a huge difference in the way the truck feels when it’s accelerating.

When I got the Taco, it felt the same way as the 4Runner... slow and laggy. As I mentioned, I didn’t have an issue with its shifting, but I wanted more throttle response and quicker acceleration without having to floor it everywhere, because that just feels really weird to me to have to mash the gas so much just to get up to normal cruising speed in a reasonable amount of time. Everyone on here raves about the KDMax tune, so I gave it a try. My truck did not do well with it for whatever reason. I experienced random hard shifts, and some random stumbling/stuttering (like very quick gear hunting for a second or 2 before it would make up its mind what gear it wants to be in), which I never had an issue with before the tune (and don’t now). I also noticed a dead spot in my pedal between about 25-50% throttle, particularly in 4th gear going up a grade (I work in the mountains and live at the base, so I go from 1000 ft. up to 6000 ft. elevation several times a week).

Now, I’m not dogging on the KDMax or any other tune at all. In fact the tuner who did my truck was super cool, he refunded my money without me even having to ask and he simply flashed me back to stock, so no big deal at all. He even offered to pay for my gas because I drove over an hour each way, which I refused but thanked him for. I’m not sure why the tune made my truck drive/shift less smooth than my stock tune, but that was just my personal experience. YMMV. Maybe I would’ve loved the KDMax like most seem to if I had 33s or bigger tires, or if I had lots of off road or camping gear in the truck, etc... but I personally didn’t like the way MY truck drove with it. I did like the throttle response it gave me tho.

So since the Sprint Booster worked out so well in my 4Runner, I got one (used here on TB) for the Taco and I love it. After playing around with it for a day, I settled on “sport 6” mode (the 4runner is on S8, and they feel about the same now - probably because the 4Runner is heavier and they’re different V6s of course). Once I got it set how I like it, I unplugged the controller and it’s set... as opposed to mounting it (I don’t need to mess with it anymore, I like to set it and forget it). The Sprint Booster gave me the get up and go I was looking for, but didn’t change anything that I didn’t need or want it to. So I thought I’d share my experience with this, in case others are looking to improve their acceleration only. Cheers!

 

Very well said. I also have a Sprint V3 throttle booster on my 2019 TRD Sport. I use mine on "Green 9", and it made the response so much better, especially at those times when I am on an entrance ramp on a freeway. I also highly recommend the Sprint V3, but do a good search online as you CAN get it cheaper if you just look.

 

TLDR but kdmaxx all the way.

 

Just letting people know there are alternatives, which in my case worked out better than the tune. Normally I wouldn’t respond if you didn’t even read my original post, but to be clear, I’m not trying to talk anyone out of a tune. I just personally like how the Sprint Booster made my truck drive better.

 

Weird that it made shifting worse.

 

I agree it is weird. I wonder if it has to do with maybe getting a higher octane tune by accident (I always run 87)?.. Or my tire size wasn’t correct? Maybe my truck just didn’t take to it for some electronic reason? I don’t know. I really wanted it to work out, but there were a handful of times in the week or so I had the tune that it felt like my engine would miss for a few seconds when I punched it. I don’t think it was an actual miss, I think it was the tranny quickly going back and forth between 2 gears until it decided which one to use... but the feeling of it was a stutter, like how a miss feels.

 

So you think you were running a 91 tune but only filling w 87? How many miles u think you put on the tune?

 

I don’t think I was running a 91 tune (I definitely asked for an 87), I’m just wondering about the possibilities of why the tune made my truck’s shifting more erratic than my stock tune. I also mentioned I had a big dead spot in my pedal. I could rock it back and forth in certain scenarios (4th gear going up a grade) between ~25-50% with no response from the truck. With the right conditions, I couldn’t even feel when I let off the gas going uphill from say 1/2 throttle to 1/4 throttle.

 

Ahhh, I see. Damn that's wild. Maybe it's a 21 thing.

 

I've got a 21, no problems at all. Is it possible his tune was corrupt somehow?

 

Idk if that's possible. Definitely weird tho.

 

I bought my 21 off road about a month ago and got the KdMax tune with 300 miles on it. I had the opposite experience, though the factory tune was crap. KdMax made it much more drivable

 

I wonder if it was because I drive up 5000 ft+ elevation so often? I do it 3+ times/week for work. I think I drove up 5 times the week I had KDmax installed. I’m sure the majority of people with this tune are mostly driving around town and on the freeway (which I did not notice my issues nearly as much or at all in those settings)... and not going up 20-40 miles worth of mountain grades every other day as I do. Maybe most people wouldn’t notice the things I did? Or maybe my file was just corrupt. Regardless, I never really had the dreaded gear hunting in my ‘21, so I just wanted better acceleration and response, and I find the Sprint Booster is great for that.

 

Anyone running the sprint booster with the manual? If so, thoughts and likes/dislikes.

 

I know Robmotive on YouTube is and he loves it.

 

Robmotive on Youtube. He has a 2020 with a manual transmission. He did a video on it, in fact, he has done several videos on the Sprint booster, after he installed it. He really loves it! Although I admit that he can get carried away a little, still though, his videos are helpful. Go to Youtube and search for Robmotive and then look for Sprint. His videos are there.

 

dislike. but i appreciate it. i used a Pedal Commander, same thing as the SB, for about a year until the first versions of OV came out, the alpha files for the MT trucks. even those early and unrefined files were better than the pedal amps, but i am glad i found the Pedal Commander when i did. my 2017 was so awful to drive untuned that i nearly sold the truck, decided to try the PC and i was ok with it. but a Coyoza tune on a custom exhaust is what my dreams were made of and that came true eventually.

 

Try 04B10.. that shit was crap.

 

That actually goes a helluva long way to improve the actual feel of no longer having to absolutely mash the pedal and floor it every time just to get up to a normal cruising speed in a reasonable amount of time. BUT.... because the Sprint Booster changes the throttle curve (in more than just a simple linear way - like just pushing the pedal down more), it also helps a lot when going up that 5K ft. mountain that I have to drive several times a week because I can now give it that typical 10-20% throttle to drop a gear and it does it consistently and predictably... instead of constantly riding that fine line of pressing the pedal, say 25-30% (in stock form) to get it to drop one gear, or inadvertently going slightly too far and it drops 2 gears and winds the engine way the hell out - when I had no intention of going from say, 4th all the way down to 2nd and hitting 5500 rpms in 2nd gear instead of 4000 in 3rd like I intended. That happened a lot before the Sprint Booster while going up mountain grades. It has never happened since the SB. It also significantly shortens the lag time between giving it gas and the truck responding.

 

Not true at all. It does nothing to the pedal. The pedal is not connected to an old fashioned throttle cable that connects to the carburetor. The pedal is connected to a wire that goes to the computer. Depressing the pedal sends a signal to the computer to then tell the throttle body flap to open. The problem is that this signal is slow to get there, resulting in a lag. The Sprint Throttle booster increases the signal, making it faster to get to the throttle body, resulting in quicker response, depending on what setting one sets the throttle booster at. It works and it works well, without doing anything to the factory settings of the tuning. I have one and have been using it for over a year. I don't even think about it anymore as it is just there, and works well. It is not something you have to change, etc, once you set it to where you are comfortable. I highly recommend it.