Camper Tuning. We went to visit one of the better camper (camper) tuners in the Benelux, the Dutch firm Bullpower from Dronten.
Does it make sense Motorhome tuning? and if so what's the use. We try to give you an honest and objective answer to all these questions.
Engine tuning or camper tuning is common and increasingly common. Camper owners also want more power but also want to drive more economically. On the one hand, campers are becoming increasingly luxurious and therefore also fuller and heavier. And on the other hand, people also want nice, smooth and more economical driving during the holidays, so camper tuning could be a solution. As soon as the first hills appear or the wind picks up, all momentum is often lost and fuel consumption increases considerably. In many cases, the structure on a standard chassis has become too large and too heavy for all the extras and accessories on the camper. . The weight and often the large frontal surface of the camper body and the associated high air resistance make it difficult to keep up with the pace of other traffic. Especially if you want to drive quietly and smoothly at a low speed. Now a lot has been written often, if not too often, about engine tuning in general, but what we have in common is to take a closer look at camper tuning specifically. And that was not entirely without success.
What does a specialist do now, who initially does not talk about tuning but about fine adjustment. It uses the fine adjustment of the ECU, the so-called engine management, also called the control cousin or Electronic Control Unit (ECU), so that your engine is not set to an average, but specifically to your wishes and driving behavior. After all, you want to be able to drive pleasantly and smoothly under all circumstances, with traction power flexibility at the right time and, importantly, low fuel consumption. This ECU unit keeps track of, among other things, the speed, the temperature of the engine and the intake air, the amount of added fuel and the oxygen content present, etc. All this data is compared by this controller and based on this, the combustion time, among other things, is determined. determines the amount of fuel required and some other things. The modern camper is of course sold in many countries where the fuel varies in composition and quality. In addition, different countries handle maintenance intervals differently, for example. The manufacturer calculates a safety margin for all countries to prevent serious damage to the engine from poor quality fuel, oil, etc. The constant pursuit of more economical engines and increasingly strict environmental standards with regard to exhaust gas emissions force manufacturers to become increasingly economical with the supply of fuel, for example. Things such as air temperature, atmospheric pressure and average driving behavior also play a role. In a number of countries, the ECU unit is even intervened for tax reasons, the manufacturer then opting for an average balance. In Europe and certainly in Western Europe, the fuels and conditions are good, such as fuel, maintenance intervals, etc. This means that the safety margins in these countries can be adjusted (fine adjustment) without affecting the lifespan of the engine. Within these margins there is sufficient room to optimize your camper. The manufacturer's safety margins are not exceeded with the fine adjustment. With an order from the insurance channel, we set out and tested various tuners in the Benelux, for two reasons. Firstly, it was to determine whether it could be harmful for insurance reasons and secondly, to know whether it actually makes sense. Of the 28 campers tested, we asked all camper owners about their findings and conclusions. We arrived at a surprising result. With 4 campers tested, no results were noticeable or measurable on the test bench, although they had paid an average of 600.00 euros. With 8 campers tested, the result was no more than a few horsepower more and virtually no more torque was measurable. But the most striking thing was with 3 tested campers where the owners indicated that the campers had been tuned, but upon inspection it quickly became apparent that this could be true simply because the car did not have an electrical control (which older vehicles) so these have never been tuned. They did say that they had received more power, but after checking it turned out that the fuel pump had been twisted, which did produce more power, but also cost significantly more fuel. But there were also positive results to report. What was convincing, however, was that there were 13 tested campers that had only been with the same company independently of each other, so curious as we are and became by all the stories from the camper owners, we went unannounced to the company in the Netherlands. It soon became clear to us who we were dealing with. everything was neatly taken care of and it was quickly made clear to us what exactly engine tuning or, as they prefer to say, fine adjustment, also a finely explained adjustment without having your own test bench can never be a good rig/fine adjustment. Look here for more information!
With this article we wanted to demonstrate that tuning/fine-tuning a camper *A should really be specialist work. * B If properly adjusted, the standards of a GOOD TUNER will not or cannot have any adverse effect on your camper. A GOOD TUNER writes and creates its own programs and tests them on the test bench as they progress. With some exceptions, we do not want to withhold the address details of this Dutch company. Need more information?
bullpower fight 14, 8253 PH Dronten. www.bullpower.nl
