Any Experience Yet with the Superchips TrailDash

[mhiscox]

Anyone have user opinions about the Superchips TrailDash released a few months ago?



I found a few mentions on the Jeep forums, but nothing very critical, in either sense of the word. It'd be great if there were ExPo members willing to share their thoughts.

And if you're wondering WTH a TrailDash is:

http://www.superchips.com/Store/TrailDash.aspx

 

[chrismc]

Interesting. In my opinion, it would be a heck of a lot more useful if it was a small, interface-less Bluetooth accessory combined with an Android/iPhone app. I think most people already have enough screens in their vehicle, and don't need to add one more. Removing all that redundant hardware (screen, CPU, storage, etc...) should make it a lot more affordable as well (I would never pay $600 for this thing, plus all the accessories). I think they had a great idea but totally missed the mark in this day and age.

 

[mhiscox]

Interesting. In my opinion, it would be a heck of a lot more useful if it was a small, interface-less Bluetooth accessory combined with an Android/iPhone app. I think most people already have enough screens in their vehicle, and don't need to add one more. Removing all that redundant hardware (screen, CPU, storage, etc...) should make it a lot more affordable as well (I would never pay $600 for this thing, plus all the accessories). I think they had a great idea but totally missed the mark in this day and age.

I wouldn't argue the point, but I'm content with my belief that there's a case to be made for dedicated components, even though all the functions can be had through appropriate apps on an Android or iOS phones or tablets. I'm willing to have a dedicated performance monitoring system, and if I fell for this, it'd be an upgrade for a ScanGauge unit I already use and find useful. I'd also expect to profit from the easy-to-change tuning parameters.

I would expect most people with share Chris's view, but if anyone did put out the funds for one, please let me know what you think.

 

[762X39]

I'm with Mike on this one. I prefer dedicated devices. I don't own an Android or iOs device (might make the jump and get a Toughpad though). I don't think the price is a stumbling block if the advantages it provides are worth it to the person buying it. It really is about what fits your need's. If I owned a new Jeep, the information it can provide might be worth it to me.

 

[JRhetts]

I too agree with Mike. Separate devices are for me an insurance policy that only a limited # of things will go down all at once [short of a direct hit by lightning].

 

[mhiscox]

If you want anything done, I guess you have to do it yourself . . . :sombrero:

So I broke down last week and spent my allowance on the Trail Dash.




It came lickity-split from Summit Racing.




Nice flashy packaging,




with lots of stuff inside (down to the cable ties and alcohol pad). I hadn't realized it came with a windshield mount--a plasticky Arkon unit that works pretty well--and I ended up using it instead of putting something together out of my RAM mount collection.




It has nice printed Getting Started Guide that essentially says "plug in the ends of the cable."




The User Guide is well written and informative, though at this stage it's just letter-sized paper folded in half and saddle-stapled. I wouldn't be surprised to see a more polished booklet come along for later purchases.




The proprietary cable is thicker than I expected, about the thickness of a TV coax cable, though plenty flexible. Both ends are fixed, and even the small end is about an inch wide, so it could be a problem fishing the cable through the dash area of a normal car. As has happened a dozen times for me, though, the 2007-10 JK's plasticky tab-into-slot, press-together dash panels, along with the huge gap between the windshield base and the dash, made the wiring pretty easy.




The Trail Dash replaces the last of my faithful ScanGauges (I've had four). The ScanGauge works fine and costs a lot less, but the difference between ScanGauge and Trail Dash is kind of like going from Pong to Call of Duty: Black Ops.




I stuck down one of my round plastic mounting disks, suctioned the Arkon mount to the disk and then slid the Trail Dash over the mount prongs. Quick and secure, and it'll be easy to slide the Trail Dash off the mount if I want to remove it.




I'm always amazed when anything electronic boots up and runs as expected right out of the box, but the Trail Dash did. It initialized quickly.




It only took about a minute to decide I had Chrysler/Dodge product, and then, after I told it I didn't have a manual tranny, it took about 20 seconds more to decide I had a Jeep Rubicon. Happy, happy, joy, joy.

 

[mhiscox]

This thing does a lot of stuff. It's titanium whiffleball bat fodder, for sure, but it looks like it can do some useful things, and do some things (like trip computer functions) easier, and way flashier, than the ScanGauge.



The basic screen gives you some big analog gauges and some smaller digital ones. Any of the gauges can be changed to any of about 20 things by just touching the gauge and selecting your preference from a list.




If you prefer all digital gauges, you can have that instead. Same ability to select whatever you want.




There's a setup screen where you tell it things like your axle ratio, which the Trail Dash will take into account as it figures out other readings.




Probably the main reason I was especially interested in this unit was the ability to quickly select and deselect various pre-programmed tuning programs. I'm eager to see if any of these make much of a difference in either performance or fuel economy.




Undoubtedly the slickest screen is the off-road screen, which is even slicker if you have a Rubicon, as it'll let you control your sway bar disconnects and your front and rear diff locks from the screen. It'll also let you disable your tire pressure monitoring system so you don't get errors when aired down. And an inclinometer is thrown in. Seems like it'll be fun, if largely unnecessary.

There's also an RCA video in connector, and "Camera" is one of the easy-to-get-to screens, so at some point I'll probably hook up a camera for the heck of it, though I'm not sure what I need to point it at.

I've no miles on the truck since the installation, so I can't tell you whether it will all work as expected. So far, so good, though. Everything seems to be working right with no hassle on my part.

There's a lot to this unit, and more if you want to really get into it, as you can attach additional sensors and make gauges for them (like an air tank pressure readout, in my case). You can also make custom backgrounds and do a bunch of other advanced techie stuff that's explained on the website.

The Superchips website has lots of detail about the things you can monitor and has better screen shots than what I've posted, so you might want to check it out if you're interested. And I'll post up again after I get some use out of the unit and, especially, if the different tuning programs produce any noticeable benefit.

 

[mhiscox]

The Trail Dash seems to be working as expected. It has nice displays, and it's kind of fun for an empiricist to know RPMs down to the RPM or fuel level to the percent of full. (It'd be ideal for teaching the difference between "accuracy" and "precision," though. )

I decided to try out the Fuel Economy tuning yesterday. You pick it out from among the different tuning options:



and then there's a bunch of "Please Wait"s and progress bars and "Writing File"s; all in all, it took about five minutes during which you have no idea of what's going on, nor any control over it. You have to be there for the entire process, though, as there are several "Touch Screen to Continue" and "Turn Key to On, but Do Not Start Engine" messages.

Then I drove it around and looking at the Jeep's built-in Avg. MPG rating. It seems like maybe mileage went up a bit. Or maybe I drove in a way to make mileage go up. Or maybe I'm crazy.

The skeptic in me says that there's no reason that the mileage should improve, as the truck seems to perform just as well, and if that's all there is to it, Chrysler would have done it. Regardless, from a driveability standpoint, there's no change I've noticed.

So . . . I'll let you know after a couple of months. The good news for now is that the unit seems to work right and didn't brick my engine computer while doing whatever it did.

 

[X-plorenow]

Thanks for the info Mike, looks interesting.

 

[haven]

Not directly relevant to the topic, but Jalopnik.com points out that the new small computer tablets have dimensions similar to the Double-DIN size of most auto entertainment head units. Double-DIN spec is a minimum of 7.2 x 4.22 inches. The Apple web site says the iPad Mini measures 7.9 x 5.3 inches. The Nexus 7 is closer, at 7.8 x 4.7 inches. Jalopnik predicts there will be kits developed to mount the smaller tablets in vehicles, with the ability to remove them easily.

Why bother? The small computers can be used for navigation, music and video presentation, and, with connection to the OBD port, engine monitoring and management. And considering the cost the car companies want for their fancy entertainment systems, there could be a big market for this sort of installation kit.

http://jalopnik.com/5954065/the-new-ipad-mini-will-fit-almost-perfectly-in-your-dash

 

[mhiscox]

Thanks for the info Mike, looks interesting.

Thanks for the thanks. Now for the news.

Oh, fiddle faddle. This was my bad, as I've had enough experience to have expected this to happen, but . . .

As mentioned above, about twenty miles ago, I used the Trail Dash to change the "tune" of the JK from "Stock" to "Mileage." In doing so, it not surprisingly erased the vehicle engine parameter history. No big deal, as it'll build up a new history in the normal course of driving if I give it long enough.

Sadly, I have no sense and trucked off to the test station to get the Jeep emissions tested prior to its upcoming registration. Well, there's an hour out of my life that I won't be getting back. As I should have predicted, the truck couldn't be tested because three of the sensors reported "Not Ready." So I'll be making another trip to the test station after I've gone through the Jeep's convoluted "drive cycle," or maybe I'll just drive it for several weeks and see if it shapes up with normal use.

I'm an expert on all of this aggravation because I had the same problem when I got the ex-Expeditions West Tacoma delivered up here. My helpful driver had cleared a spurious error with a code scanner and I ended up with four "not ready" sensors, which led to going through about 90 minutes of a very absurd drive cycle that, among other things, required driving ten miles without stopping while varying the speed between 35 and 45. (Which certainly made us the slowest vehicle on I-5.) To the JK's credit, though, there's a key position/engine light interaction that will let you know if the sensors are or are not ready. Beats going to the test station only to find out you can't pass.

Always something.

 

[X-plorenow]

That stinks, sorry Mike. Makes sense, but I wouldn't have thought of it either.

Quick question, now that you have used it for a short while how would you compare it to Scanguage II?

 

[mhiscox]

That stinks, sorry Mike. Makes sense, but I wouldn't have thought of it either.

I'm not too worried about this one. I found the official JK "drive cycle" on line and I can go with that if it doesn't straighten itself out in normal driving. It'd be worse if I was about out of registration, but in a fit of advanced planning, I started six weeks before the deadline, a good move in retrospect.

Quick question, now that you have used it for a short while how would you compare it to Scanguage II?

Kind of like a black and white portable versus a plasma hi-definition display. Lots of things the Trail Dash does that aren't in the ScanGauge repertoire, and the touch screen interface is easier to use. Probably the biggest difference is the presentation of the information, with the Trail Dash giving you gauges with color coding and other fancy stuff (and more stuff at one time, if you want) while the ScanGauge is old-school numbers only.

The ScanGauge probably is 80% as functional as the Trail Dash (and it's the most important 80%) but the Trail Dash is easier to use, easier to read and a whole lot flashier. Which could be good or bad. The ScanGauge kind of just sits there whereas the Trail Dash is bright, colorful and Right There. It's really useful when you care about the information, but given that lots of the time you don't care much about what they're telling you, the ScanGauge is far and away the easier to ignore. I'm glad I have it and, being kind of geeky, all the stuff it does appeals to me, but I can see where others could well find it over-the-top.

Having said all of this, though, don't lose sight of the fact that the Trail Dash provides the "tuning" functionality not available from a ScanGauge. One way to think about it is that the Trail Dash has the functionality of the ScanGauge AND something like the Superchips Jeep FlashPaq, which is about $300. So my suspicion is that the Trail Dash is a much more defensible choice for someone hoping to get something out of the different powertrain tunes than for someone whose just going to read engine parameters and trip information and clear an occasional trouble code.

 

[X-plorenow]

Thanks Mike, great information as always. I appreciate it.

 

[mhiscox]

Here's the update I promised . . .

First, I should have mentioned it a while back, but the problems with the emissions sensors caused by my ill-timed use of the programming function straightened themselves out as expected. It took a couple of weeks of daily driver duty for things to snap back into place. Once the sensors were happy, no problems passing the emissions test. So the moral of the story is simply not to dork around with the programming functions within a few weeks of needing to pass a smog test.

Beyond that, though, all's well. The ability to have any of twenty readouts is pretty cool, and some of the stuff, like the transmission temperature and battery voltage, would be seriously valuable in some situations. You can also put JK dash readouts like the ambient temperature readout or the average fuel economy on the Trail Dash so you can devote the JK's readout to another function, such as Distance to Empty.

As I noted above, though, what you get with the Trail Dash is a single unit that handles both the parameter readouts like a ScanGauge and programming different engine tunes, like a FlashPaq. So with the price of fuel dropping, I decided to run premium fuel for a while to take advantage of the Level 5 Performance 91 programming:



It takes about three minutes for the unit to swap in the new programming.

So does it work? It seems like it probably does. I did about 400 miles of mixed driving and I think the truck seems more powerful. I've no idea what the Superchips engineers changed, and I could be imagining things to make me feel better about spending money on this thing, but I thought throttle response was better and I felt like downshifts under load came easier. It might be a little bit faster when accelerating from a stop, but the biggest thing I noticed was that it made the truck seem lighter . . . the truck didn't seem quite as big a burden for the Jeep's engine. I've known all along that the reason this 7000 pound Jeep is pleasantly driveable is because of the 5.13 gears, and any improvement due to the engine returning is comparatively small. I do think, however, that the tuning made things just punchy enough that most drivers wouldn't consider it underpowered.

I'll repeat that this is all subjective and I didn't care enough to even collect any basic performance data, but as things are now, the truck seems more than responsive enough to meet my needs. We're obviously not talking about truly quick performance, but I'm pretty sure that most everyone would find the current performance to be good enough to live with long-term.

There was one thing that was an issue for me: I had mounted the Trail Dash, with it's big, bright and borderline gaudy screen, within easy reach to the left of the gauge hood:



and, to be honest, that made the information it presented too "in your face." Things like RPM, instantaneous mileage, or throttle position are distractingly bouncing around every second, while other things, like battery voltage and average fuel economy, pretty much just sit there. So I had this big, clear display



in a great place to look at it all the time, but there wasn't anything on the screen I wanted to look at all the time. In such a prime location, it actually proved kind of annoying, especially at night.

But the information is useful enough that you wouldn't want to hide the unit, plus there are reasons you'd need to interact with it, so what I needed was a visible, accessible place that was not as visible as where I'd had it. Turns out that there was space to move the mount to the right of the audio/nav unit, where it's still pretty easy to read and get to, but not nearly as distracting.



So all in all, I'm pleased I have the Trail Dash and I think that both the flexibility and readability of the display make it an improvement over a ScanGauge, though probably not enough of one to warrant the 3x higher cost. But if you think you'll take advantage of the engine programming, I think it's worth serious consideration.