Dr. Martin Luther King had a dream also and look what it got him...

Seriously though, has anyone even stopped to think about it this way:

So you go to Eddie for road blow, no make that road tuning and he takes you to his own personal road dyno out in the Davis farmlands. How long do you think the bug eaters in Davis are going to put up with speeding cars and loud exhausts around their property? I can not confirm this, but I would assume that even the farm houses in Davis are modern enough to have telephones, but I could be wrong.

Envision what might happen if Farmer John's prize winning milk cow Bessie gets out and steps in to the road as you are balling down the road dyno and you hit her. Hell even a dog or cat could run out in to the road and you will be screwed.

Or what if Farmer John himself pulls out in front of you in his rusty old Chevy truck and you hit him and kill him.

Or what if you are just a crappy driver and you put yourself in to a ditch as you jump on it in first gear and "the car freaking squats and the nose points skyward" with all the newly found torque?

Or what if the ticket happy Davis Police Department happen to see you in the middle of your dyno pull? Kiss your car and your license goodbye...

You know who is liable in all of these instances - yup that is right you the car owner and possibly your parents as well if they bought the car for you. And in any or all of these cases, you will probably lose your car - is it worth risking your vehicle that either you or mommy and daddy paid for to go to an unlicensed and uninsured business? Hell if you have an accident with Eddie in the car and he implants his laptop in to his skull I would bet that he will sue you as well.

I would rather have my car tuned on a real dyno in safe controlled conditions. by a tuner that is established and plans to stay around in the business instead of a fly by night operation.

 

and a tuner who has a liability waver which protects you, the consumer, from any damage done to the tuner or his facilities while in the process of tuning your car.

 

please stop bumping this thread

 

+ 10000000

 

I think this thread should be a sticky...

 

Ali G --

Most of your last post was probably fairly valid. There's definitely a risk to it. I'm not sure where Ed stands on insurance, but having just completed 40 hours of state-mandated insurance training, I can tell you that it would be cheap and easy to get said insurance. It's really not as complicated or as costly as I previously thought, and the options are almost limitless... doesn't really help with speeding tickets though.

However, the "farm land" where Ed is located is even more open than you described. There are stretches of road that go for miles and miles through the middle of open fields with no houses or even cross streets. It's pretty desolate. I doesn't seem to be cow farm land, just crop farm land. Looks a lot like Eastern Washington where I'm from, actually. There is very little "property" in terms of houses. These farmers don't own back-yard gardens, they own hundreds or thousands of acres of field, with one house on each.

Ed's pretty good about knowing the longest, straightest, emptiest stretches and taking it easy while driving through the other ones, which are still far from resembling civilization, btw.

On a side note: road tuning is always preferential to dyno tuning from a performance standpoint. Places don't do it because, as you pointed out, it's a logistical nightmare. Unless you happen to have vast farmland available as Ed does, it's essentially impossible to road tune a car. Dyno's (i.e. -- rolling roads) exist out of necessity and convenience. They only approximate what the car actually experiences on the road. They are a comprimise. The load will never be the same as it is on the road, the wind resistance is lost, the ability to do runs in high gears is lost... at the top of 3rd you WRX guys are going like 90-something mph. Do you think the wind from those little fans is going 90 mph? No. It's an approximation of what the car would see on the road. If you want the smoothest, safest tune for a car you drive on the road, you tune it on the road. Top tuners have always said that the very best tunes in the world are done on the dyno and then refined on the road. As good as you make it on the dyno, it can always be made better once the car is put in the real world. You start on the dyno for time and convenience reasons... otherwise it wouldn't matter.

My favorite part is that the car is tuned to ME, not just to the mods on the car. I was driving it. I don't have to take the tuner's word for it. Ed can do a couple different throttle sensitivities and ask me which one I prefer. He adjusted the idle to my liking and adjusted the start-up throttle correction for my flywheel. He encouraged me to point out anything that I didn't feel was 100% perfect. He doesn't have to try and drive the car on the dyno and look at the laptop at the same time. I really liked having the opportunity to be in the car and feel it as it progressed in the tune and actually take an active part in the tune.



^^^ so I'm not saying dyno tunes aren't good. But they're not as precise as road tunes. Just last night actually I was asking somebody why his P&P VF30 didn't make 18 psi until just a hair shy of 4000 rpms. He said that was just on the dyno, and "on the street I get full boost <3000rpm in 4-5th gear.... ~3500rpm in 3rd." What does that mean to you? The load on the dyno and the load when actually driving on the street were TOTALLY different! How well do you think his car is tuned when he's hitting 18 psi at 3000 rpm on the street but his car was tuned while not making 18 psi until 4000 rpm???? Isn't that some crap. It probably spikes like a **** and who knows how the AFR responds.

Obviously, for getting WHP numbers a dyno makes more sense.

Jeremy

 

...and yeah, I think he's crazy for sitting in the passenger seat looking at a laptop while people who's driving skill he is unfamiliar with do 3rd gear rips down a road ... hahaha. Would I do that ****? Hells no! LOL.

 

Heat

Ton Loc "I could get killed telling you this ****."

Pacino "You could get killed walking your DOGGY!"



^^^ we all take risks. I know you all drive your cars hard. I drive mine hard too. Those pulls out in farmland where probably the second safest situation I've ever gone full throttle... the first being on the track. Still insane from Ed's point of view (IMHO), but for one of us to be afraid of doing it there or shunning the idea when we all drive hard in much more risky situations is a bit hypocritical. yah?

 

What insurance company is going to issue a policy for illegal activities and being a danger to yourself and the general public? I doubt anyone would issue a policy on that business model, and if they do good luck collecting on said worthless policy.

I still do not even beleive that there is a business license involved here, much less insurance.
It is still not legal and anything could happen out on the open road.
Glad you are willing to risk your car and your license on his knowing these roads. I sure as hell would not be.
And they have a real business that they do not want to risk losing when the eventual happens.
Ed Owns the farmland?
But they do more than enough to allow for a safe and reliable tune.
Comprimise - you should change that to safety margin?
So it is better to blow through town at triple digit speedsand risk yourself and others?
So the dyno puts the car under harder load than a road tune does since the cooling system is not getting what it would really see out on the road. Sonds like the car is getting tuned to handle the heat soak better to me...
Ed has you convinced of this I see...
Best as in most power or safest for the car? I do not dispute that road tuning is a good tool, but I would prefer not to rely on it.
But you can get a good solid safe tune on the dyno. Maybe you are not getting everything out of the car, but I would prefer not to be tuned on the ragged edge anyway - maybe that is just me...
So you were an accomplice to a crime, congrats...
I can adjust my idle speed through my in dash monitor for AC on idle and AC off idle - big deal.

What flywheel do you have and what startup issues do you have? I have the Exedy 14lb flywheel and have no startup issues at all from it.
And if I found something I did not like about my car my tuner would take care of that as well. It is part of the service.
Because it is so hard to hold the wheel straight and look to the left to watch the laptop/AFR as you press the gas? Translation: I really like to take the lives of others in to my hands as I rip down the Davis Road Dyno at triple digit speeds.

 

Assuming he has a business liscense and assuming that he put down the description of his services on the application form, I wonder what the county would say to him if they ever found out his "Road Tuning" consists of top gear runs and has the customer have half part in it. I'm not saying we all don't speed, but it would be very interesting if one day the county paid him a visit for the heck of it. Also what would his location of business be:

A. The park where he has BBQ's
B. His dorm room
C. That long stretch of road behind (insert name here) house.

 

Damn this thread is long and dramatic...can I get the cliff's notes?

 

here you go.

You suck, screw you, you suck, screw you, you suck, screw you... etc....

 

Jeez guys, give it a rest. What has Ed personally done to some of you (the majority posting that has nothing to do with him or his business)? I see this kind of fighting every day i have never talked to Ed, and in no way am on his "side" I just feel that no one deserves this kind of treatment.

Edit: I definitly didn't waste my time reading this whole thread, TIA

 

I think what happened is that Ed called in to question the abilities of another tuner and started this whole stupid drama episode, so now people are simply pointing out things to consider before taking their car to EQ. Topnotch pointed out some very valid concerns. It would appear that Ed is operating a business without a business license, which likely means he lacks liability insurance as well. Of course the liability insurance status is speculation, however, the business license claim is a bit more concrete seeing as how a search of licensed business in the Davis Business Directory yields no results for "Equilibrium Tuning" or "EQ*" (and it's not case sensitive).

 

and then the usual assclowns (myself included) just poke at the issue from the sidelines, either with posts or witty and relevant signatures and locations.


welcome to SRIC, hope you enjoy your stay. while visiting, please try not to take things too seriously.