You guys are forgetting one thing about aftermarket tuners. This is the same thing that makes factory tuning suck. No two trucks are the same no matter how similar you may think even if they came off the same assembly line one right after the other.
1. Factory tuning is mild, so it is reliable no matter what.
2. Plug and play tuners are better, but still have to be conservative to stay reliable for all possible circumstances and be able to be placed on any truck "Blind" without ever testing it.
All this being said, the best thing to do is not use a tuner, but have the truck tuned, you'll get better power and know what the limits are for your truck with all of its other options as it exists.
In my area, Speed Engineering, they use a Dyno Jet and all kinds of computer stuff, they can tune a truck beyond any after market plug and play tuner safely and give several power settings for different driving situations like towing or racing. Every testimony is that the trucks with aftermarket tuners suck compaired to the Dyno jet tuned trucks. And they can fix it back so Ford doesn't know.
Most Tuners are advertised with 150 to 200 hp gains. If a real engineer tunes your truck I've seen the dynos and the true wheel horse power can be gains of over 300 over stock and the torque goes close to 1000 foot pounds. The crank power ought to be 150 to 200 units above both those figures.
