Range AFM arrived today

[Hoginedgewood]

After avoiding it for a year, using 5th gear as much as possible, unhooking the plug from the brake booster, finally ordered the Range.

first day was great. What about this summer when the motorcycle is preferred? 

Should I get a solar cigarette charger for the down days?

[Sierra706]

After avoiding it for a year, using 5th gear as much as possible, unhooking the plug from the brake booster, finally ordered the Range.
first day was great. What about this summer when the motorcycle is preferred? 
Should I get a solar cigarette charger for the down days?

Been plugged in for a year. Sat for 10 days at the airport. Few day spans here and there. -15 degree temperatures for some of those spans. No problems yet.


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[Korazu]

Just unplug it and put in the center console area when it's going to be days that you don't use the vehicle.  I am the same way to where I will ride the motorcycle for days on end  in great weather during the other 3 seasons. I am actually waiting for mine to show up in the mail tomorrow after shipping it back to have the firmware updated. I purchased it when I had my '15 and just needed to update it for the '17.

 

Enjoy it.

[Bash74]

As the other poster said. I have had it plugged in while the truck sat for 14days while in -35 weather and it didn't drain the battery.

[jhbrennan]

9 hours ago, Korazu said:

Just unplug it and put in the center console area when it's going to be days that you don't use the vehicle.  I am the same way to where I will ride the motorcycle for days on end  in great weather during the other 3 seasons. I am actually waiting for mine to show up in the mail tomorrow after shipping it back to have the firmware updated. I purchased it when I had my '15 and just needed to update it for the '17.

 

Enjoy it.

The update is great - used to get random CEL's but could be corrected pretty easily.  Updated version has been plugged in for 2 months now - no CEL's.  Looks like Range has all the bugs worked out.

[bkesting]

I sent my Range in for a firmware update when I traded in my '09 for a '16.  Just got it back two weeks ago and haven't had any issues.  Runs great and I leave mine plugged in all the time (though my truck never sits for more than two days at most between drives).

 

 

[sonerick]

I bought a Range unit in Jan. 2017 and had it plugged into my truck for about 10 months.  I had no issues, including when leaving the vehicle at the airport for a week with it plugged in.

 

However, this fall I used my truck to drive down to CT to pick up a large upright freezer from Craigslist.  I met the seller at a remote garage, about a half mile into the woods down a pretty rough logging road.  We arrived at night, and it was dark and cold.  I left the engine off but the keys in the accessory position while we loaded the freezer, so I could use the headlights to illuminate the garage and the bed light to illuminate the bed.  After loading, I started the truck but it struggled to turn over and the check engine light came on, along with Service Stabilitrack, etc.  Finally got it started, but it must have been in limp mode because no matter how much gas I gave it, it just inched along.  

 

After shutting it down and restarting a few times it went back to normal and all warning lights cleared with only the check engine light remaining.  After I got out to a main road, I pulled over, unplugged the Range device, and used my ScanGauge to check the codes and clear the check engine light.  The codes were U0100 and P0700, pretty generic ones that weren't too helpful at identifying the problem.  My theory is that the combination of having the Range unit plugged in and using the vehicle accessories with the engine off while we loaded the freezer drained the battery  enough to cause some weird communication loss between the ECM & TCM, which put it into limp mode. 

 

Since then I have been careful about leaving the Range unit plugged in, and have run the vehicle accessories numerous times with the engine off and the issue has not repeated.  This makes me fairly confident that my theory is correct.  I have also noticed that when I leave the Range unit plugged in and the truck off for an extended period (over a weekend, for example), that it is a little bit slow to start.  So long story short, don't leave yourself stranded.

 

Just wanted to share my experience.  BTW I confirmed that it has the most up-to-date firmware.

[jhbrennan]

If your Range is over a year old (January 2017) then i can almost guarantee you do not have the most recent firmware.  Should be at least version V8.6R1

[sonerick]

At the time I purchased it, I confirmed with Range that they were sending me a unit with the latest and greatest firmware that was supposed to have fixed all of the bugs for 2017 model vehicles. I was particularly concerned about this since it was going to be used on my brand new (at the time) truck.

 

You are right that they have released a new firmware since then, I misspoke there. But my point remains that I had the latest and greatest from Range at one point, it worked fine for a while, then it almost left me stranded. I won’t be making that mistake again. Unplugging the unit when the truck is off is cheap insurance against potential issues. 

 

FWIW, I think the Range is great otherwise, it does what it’s supposed to do. It definitely helped improve the driveability of the truck, now if only I could fix the fish bite issue!

 

Here’s a link from Range that point towards my theory of the Range causing the issues I described in my previous post, and your theory that I do not have the latest firmware: https://rangetechnology.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/204980535-Check-Engine-Lights

 

Edit: I double checked the firmware version, and it looks like I have V7.8.  I'll be sending it in for an update. 

[jhbrennan]

I bought my Range in Feb/17 and the version at that time was V8.0R1.  With this version when I got a CEL it always occurred on start-up, never while in motion and it happened very rarely.  I followed Range's "fix" by immediately unplugging device while engine was running, counted to 10 then plugged the device back in - that cleared all the lights.  As I understand it, if you wait too long to unplug the device, the engine can go into limp mode and then you do have to shut down and start up again.

 

I sent my Range back for a firmware update in Dec/17 and at that time I received version V8.6R1.  This one has worked flawlessly now since then.  I've never experienced any battery issues so can't address that concern.

[ESSGUY]

mine will drain my battery,learned this after sitting for a week. battery totally dead. I remove it if truck sits for 2+ days.

[Bonjosco3ss]

Site says it does not reprogram the Ecu. So basically you just take it out when it goes in for warranty work at the dealer and they can’t detect anything correct?

[bkesting]

30 minutes ago, Bonjosco3ss said:

Site says it does not reprogram the Ecu. So basically you just take it out when it goes in for warranty work at the dealer and they can’t detect anything correct?

 

Correct. Unplug it and it's like you never had it in the first place.

[Bonjosco3ss]

 
Correct. Unplug it and it's like you never had it in the first place.

Thanks. Who is the vendor for these in here.

[bkesting]

28 minutes ago, Bonjosco3ss said:

Thanks. Who is the vendor for these in here.

I'm pretty new to these forums, so I'm not sure but I bought mine directly from Range