programmer help

  I just purchased a 03 2500 with 25k miles in excellent condition.  First of all I want to keep it that way. The truck came with a superchip programmer. I Tow a 32' (including hitch) travel trailer. I was wondering if the programmer will help the performance or fuel economy at all. I am totally new to programmers and don't want to do more harm than good. Stock seems ok to me. Pulled once so far.

  If I do use it and put it in the 87 octane setting is it ok to pull, or do I have to switch it back everytime. Also I noticed in tow and performance mode Superchips recomends using 93 octane. Is this a must? Also any advice on shift points and pressures would also be appreciated. BTW the truck has aftermarket wheels with 31x10.50 tires.

03av2500 said:

  I just purchased a 03 2500 with 25k miles in excellent condition.  First of all I want to keep it that way. The truck came with a superchip programmer. I Tow a 32' (including hitch) travel trailer. I was wondering if the programmer will help the performance or fuel economy at all. I am totally new to programmers and don't want to do more harm than good. Stock seems ok to me. Pulled once so far.

  If I do use it and put it in the 87 octane setting is it ok to pull, or do I have to switch it back everytime. Also I noticed in tow and performance mode Superchips recomends using 93 octane. Is this a must? Also any advice on shift points and pressures would also be appreciated. BTW the truck has aftermarket wheels with 31x10.50 tires.

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First, there are several threads in this section that talk about this and will answer the rest of your questions but I will take a stab at 2 of them, just to be nice.  (and keep me out of the back yard yeat a few more minutes).
You can pull with the 87 octane setting, if it seems to be pulling without much difficulty.

If it recommends using 93 octane (91 in the mountain west areas) you will probably need to use 93 octane.  The Tow/Haul mode is labeled at the performance section inside the computer...as you would see if you used a tuner program like HPTuners.  When you press the Tow/Haul button on your AV it tells the computer to use the perameters in these sections and your Superchips programmer probably bumped up the timing in the engine section at the same time it bumped up the shift points in your transmission section.  When you use Tow/Haul the computer looks at these numbers only and the low octane reference tables will be ignored.  If it says use 93 octane use it, at least when you are towing but make sure your tank was near empty when you fill up before towing.