OTT vs Stryker tune thread to end all threads (hopefully)

edit: fuel economy comparison added

I’ll start with a full disclosure. I paid for the YotaWerxs tune and have been driving it for a little over 5k miles now. I was given the opportunity to try the OTT tune for free given I would write up a fair and unbiased review of the two and how they compare. I am not being paid, nor swayed, to write this to lean towards either of the two. This is not meant to start a “tuner war” but more of a fact finding mission and a desire to be able to answer questions better about the two tunes and to come from a point of experience and not just feeling based on provided dynos or other opinions that have only experienced one tune or the other.

Since this is an in depth review I will break this down into 4 sections: power, on street driving, off-road driving, and throttle response (off-road driving comparison will come later as I have not taken the 4Runner off-road yet). If you are reading this and all you are concerned about is getting a tune that has more power than the Magnuson tune when driving normally or want greater than stock throttle response then stop reading and just buy either of these tunes. If, however, you want to know the distinct differences between these tunes and have a specific use case in mind then read on.

TLDR: the largest difference is in the throttle mapping and off-roading so feel free to skip to those sections.



Power
Both of these tunes deliver in the power department so hats off to both of them. There is however a slight difference in how that power is delivered and managed.

Stryker:
Note: I will only talk about the Stryker and not the Stryker + since the main difference is throttle mapping and that will be discussed later.

The Stryker tune has plenty of power down low but once you get to higher rpms the power levels off then starts to fall a tiny bit. To be fair, this is a 4Runner so greater than 5k rpms is rarely seen and most reading this aren’t drag racing their truck. Christian and I have spoken about this at length and his philosophy is his tune is created for people that tow or have very heavy trucks (this will come into play later) so this approach makes perfect sense. This does mean that power comes on quick and to some reading this that may make perfect sense and to others this is not desired (more to come on that later). Personally when seeing the dyno it reminds me more of a small turbo application where power comes on strong and fast but falls off towards the end. The main difference here is YotaWerxs limits the power at the higher rpms for several reasons but mostly because the tune is meant for towing.

OTT:
The power delivery here is exactly like I have said in the past even with no experience with the tune. One look at the dyno and you can see that the power comes on smooth and linear while steadily climbing all the way to redline. This is fairly typical of a supercharger application since the faster the engine revs; the faster the supercharger spins. This means that the throttle is really intuitive when accelerating and easy to stay in a gear when desired.

On both of these tunes when pressing the pedal down the power is instant leading to easy passing situations and makes the former nemesis of the 4Runner, a steep hill, seem like a walk in the park. I have taken both up some serious inclines and neither disappoint.


On Street Driving
Here is where the similarities end. Like I said before if all you want it power and better than stock accelerator pedal response stop reading and go buy one. I’m going to break this section down into parts as well. I live in Maine and have access to a variety of driving situations and unique terrain which lends to a more complete understanding of the two tunes. In this section I am discussing the differences on the street greater than say 15mph so the differences in the throttle response and mapping aren’t playing as much of a role. I will not talk about kick down since both can do this and with OTT this is mostly dependent on which throttle mapping file you choose.

Both of these tunes are easily drivable on the street and are intuitive; steady pressure on the throttle leads to holding speed and gently pressing the throttle leads to gentle acceleration. There are two important differences however…

Going up a hill
The assumption here is that you are modulating the throttle to attempt to stay in overdrive until the extra power is needed.

Stryker:
This tune seems to want to hold the gear for as long as possible without downshifting until absolutely necessary but will then generate boost and easily accelerate up the hill but does make it a bit more difficult to simply maintain speed since when the shift happens it goes from a point of not making enough power to making too much. This isn’t a bad thing, just slightly different and is really easy to get used to.

OTT:
On contrast the OTT tune will downshift fairly easily to seemingly reduce the load on the transmission. This means you can easily maintain the desired speed but can accelerate if desired.

Cruise Control
This is the first major difference.
NOTE: This only applies if your have Advanced Cruise Control.

OTT:
Performs just like stock, no issues.

Stryker:
When you are cruising on a semi-level road there is zero issues. Now when going downhill or approaching a slower vehicle something happens and is very noticeable, rpm surge. There are several people that have discussed this and it isn’t a make or break issue. The cause however is due to resistance in the driveline. When coasting downhill the expected behavior is that the 4Runner will begin to accelerate using nothing but gravity. However, what actually happens is the resistance will cause the 4Runner to slow down (reduce rpms) to the point of needing a ‘bump’ of acceleration (increase rpms) and it does this quickly and repeatedly the entire time when deceleration occurs.

On the face this seems like a bad thing but lets keep in mind that this tune was designed for towing or for very heavy applications. Now, that said would you want to put yourself in a position to ‘run away’ down a mountain? Typically I would put the 4Runner in S mode (sequential not sport) to keep it from shifting above X gear while going downhill but this seems to negate the need for that. However, there may be a wear and tear associated with this it isn’t the end of the world.


Throttle Response
This is the major difference between the two tunes. Almost a night and day difference not only from stock but from each other. OTT takes the win in this category hands down; period.

Reversing
At the start of my day I have to reverse from my driveway like a lot of you. The only real difference is that my driveway is on a slight incline (this is a pain in the winter). This may not seem important enough to have its own category but trust me, it is.

Stryker:
When you shift the selector into “R” the truck doesn’t feel the same as stock. When releasing the pedal hill hold will hold the truck for a few seconds but, if you delay or don’t meet the conditions to active it you will roll forward! Now combine this with the more sensitive throttle mapping you get a situation where your automatic transmission has to be driven more like a manual with small burst of acceleration to get out of the driveway slowly. Now, if you don’t mind whipping it out all “Dukes of Hazard” style then by all means just keep your foot touching the pedal. This issue isn’t present when on level ground or even if you are facing up the hill.

OTT:
Feels just like stock, nuff said. Will hold steady in my driveway and won’t roll forward. Easy to modulate the throttle out of the driveway slowly.

Accelerating from a stop
This part of the review will be the most subjective since I have only tested the ‘mild’ version of the OTT suite of throttle mapping tunes.

Stryker:
Here is where the Stryker and Stryker + tunes vastly differ. The Stryker + wants to accelerate too quickly and shift far later leading to a more sporty feel while the Stryker tune is more controllable. The Stryker tune is easy to get used to and all of my friends and my wife can drive it easily but they all had the same reaction “wow this has a lot of torque (or power)” since they aren’t used to cars that just go when the pedal is pressed. It is easy to get used to and after a few minutes of driving you can recalibrate your foot to modulate how you want to.

That said in more adverse conditions this will still have a bit too much punch since the throttle seems to go from 0 to “Go!” in a very small window and can quickly lead to loss of traction in my 4Runner which is mostly stock weight with stock size tires. Now, if you have a much heavier truck with larger tires this would be subdued and would probably feel just right so take this with a grain of salt.

OTT:
There is more power over the Magnuson tune everywhere (same as the Stryker) but it is more manageable for my application. Since I have options of what throttle mapping there is available I went with ‘mild’ after discussing with Allan how I drive the truck and what my priorities were.

In case you are wondering; I wanted something more responsive that stock that is easy to modulate since I drive in snow, ice, and steep technical terrain off-road. So far this is exactly how I would expect this to drive. Very easy to modulate the throttle to gently roll into power when reversing or going forward up hills. Obviously the power would be there if I want it, but the finesse is what I was after and this delivers in a big way! I honestly can’t say enough about how this feels when going slow and I’m very excited to take this off-road to the same trails where I tested the Stryker tunes.

Off-Road
I can only speak to the Stryker and Stryker + tunes here. I have not taken the OTT tune off road yet, but you can get an idea based on what I have already mentioned. I have taken the Stryker tunes over fire roads at higher speeds, over sand, rocky terrain, and highly technical terrain that requires dedicated spotters.

Fire Roads
Nothing crazy here, acts just like it does on road with the only exception being that traction is even more limited but was super easy to control and was a blast to drive!

Sand
Driving in sand on beaches and some dunes we have here in Maine were no problem. Typically you want to have higher wheel speeds and greater slip over sand so the MTS and A-Trac mean more here than the tune.

Rocky Terrain
Here is where things take a turn for the worst. Driving slowly in any condition is a challenge for the Stryker tunes. The Stryker + is miserable when trying to go up hill over rocks much less anything technical but the Stryker is better. I wouldn’t call it ‘great’ for this but it will get through it just fine and honestly you could easily look over the pitfalls in this category if you love the instant acceleration and street driving experience. For me however, at least 10% of my time is spent off-road and about 1/3 of that is over rocky terrain that requires some finessing of the throttle. So out of 10 I would give the Stryker a 6 in this category while the Stryker + gets a 4, stock would get a 10.

Technical Terrain
This category is where I would say hard pass on YotaWerx; sorry Christian buts its true. The inability to finesse the throttle leads to very bad bucking and rolling backward over even simple obstacles much less anything that requires spotters and very slow speeds. If you do this type of off-roading either stick with the Magnuson tune (which is almost stock like till you floor it) or try OTT with a much milder throttle mapping.

OTT:
If anyone already has this tune and would like to speak up please do, otherwise I will be taking some trips soon but some of the more rocky and technical courses near me will probably have to wait till spring.

Fuel Economy
Highway (40 - 55)
Stryker:
I always averaged about 18.1mpg on the highway while keeping speeds steady. Good mix of steep hills and flat road.

OTT:
I drove 350 miles over the exact same route I last checked the Stryker and I averaged 18.2mpg.

Interstate (60 - 80)
Stryker:
From 60 - 65 I would average around 17.5mpg but once I go 70+ the economy would fall pretty sharply. At 75mph for a sustained flat track for about 50miles I average only 15.3mpg so it seems that the sweet spot is 40 - 55 and any increased speed reduces mpg. This drop could be explained by the added resistance when going downhill/decelerating.

OTT:
60 - 65 I averaged about the same as Stryker at 17.6 mpg (call it a wash) but at 70 - 80 the mpg did not fall near as much with me still averaging 16.9mpg.

Overall Average
Just so everyone knows, I am a creature of habit. I drive the same roads, go to the same places, shop for groceries on the same day, etc… so the idling times at red lights and waiting on my wife to run into a store (or her wait on me) all average out to the same. There are a lot of time where I’m idling or coasting down hills (then climbing them again) so you mileage may vary.

Stryker:
After the first 300 miles on the Stryker I got a combined average of 14.8mph. After 5,000+ miles that went to 14.9mpg.

OTT:
So far I have put a combined 450 miles on this tune and have an overall average of 16.8mpg. Judging this off of the first 300 miles of the Stryker it’s safe to say that the MPG winner here is OTT.

The best explanation I can say for the Stryker having such a low combined is the fact that the resistance in the transmission is causing drag where the OTT simply coast free with little to no drag. This may benefit you if you have a heavy truck or towing max capacity, but me personally I would rather the resistance to overrun and overheating the brakes come from a brake upgrade instead of relying on the transmission to assist in slowing down the vehicle. Over time this resistance will wear the components of the transmission, it could reduce the life of the transmission by 10 miles or 100,000 miles; only time will tell so anyone running Stryker that has over 100k with the tune (not over 100k and the tune but over 100k since tuned) will have to chime in.

Final Thoughts
If you made it this far then you must be like me and have a thirst for knowledge and really want to know as much information as possible before making a decision. I have had zero issues or check engine lights with the Stryker tunes and for street driving they were quite enjoyable, same goes for OTT. Many people have the Stryker tunes and love them, many have OTT and love them as well. Again, this was not meant to start a “tuner war” but more of a fact finding mission and a desire to be able to answer questions better about the two tunes.

Depending on how heavy your truck is, if you tow, or how you off-road the Stryker may be your tune of choice. But know it does have its quirks and isn’t perfect but Christian seems to care about his product and is open to suggestions to make it better. I haven’t had the OTT tune on for long but it has made an impression almost immediately, the finesse in the throttle I have been missing is finally here! So if you are like me and closer to stock weight, stock tire size, and enjoy more technical off-roading most likely OTT will be the better choice.

Both have increased power and better than stock shift points and acceleration. Both seem to have a dedicated following. But for me OTT is the winner for a few reasons. First the finesse while going slow in reverse. Again this seems like a minor issue but when you are parked facing downhill and you have snow/ice in your driveway this is a major issue; especially for my wife that isn’t a “car girl” and only wants to get to work safely. Second is the cruise control. It was so much more of a pleasant experience using cruise control over some steep grades where is simply held the speed and didn’t surge. Now, I haven’t taken the OTT off-road yet but based on the finesse while backing up and at the start of acceleration I can already tell this is going to be hands down a better experience off-road in the rocky and technical categories.

Hopefully I have answered your lingering questions by now, but if you have more feel free to post a question or direct message me.