curdle Posted December 6, 2019 Share Posted December 6, 2019 I have been contemplating fitting a Steinbauer power module to my MH to take advantage of the increased power. Has anyone on the forum previously fitted a unit? If so, grateful for your feedback on the results. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curdle Posted December 10, 2019 Author Share Posted December 10, 2019 Aaaaah, no reply. So should I bother to update after fitting to report success or failure? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted December 10, 2019 Share Posted December 10, 2019 Yes, please provide an update after you’ve fitted the Steinbauer unit. Within these forums there is just a single reference to the Steinbauer product, but this is in a document on a Admin-only forum that you cannot view. It would be of little value to you in any case, as it criticises a firm for installing the Steinbauer unit badly (with consequential costly problems) and there are no details of how effective the unit was during the time it was functioning properly. Steinbauer ‘tuning’ is occasionally mentioned on other motorhome forums, but normally relating to vehicles not Mercedes-based. I vaguely remember Harvey Postletwaite saying that, if someone paid for a vehicle’s motor to be tuned and did not immediately notice an improved performace afterwards, the money had been wasted. But as Steinbauer has been marketing ‘tuning boxes’ for over 10 years, there’s every chance that their advertising is accurate and you’ll notice a significant performance hike. What’s the cost going to be? (I assume you’ll fit the module yourself.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtravel Posted December 10, 2019 Share Posted December 10, 2019 A friend of mine in Italy who has your identical motorhome has installed the Votronic 1212-30 Booster and is satisfied. See https://www.votronic.de/index.php/en/products2/series-vcc/standard-version/vcc-1212-30-new Designed to interface Schaudt electronics, I'm not sure but I think the new Hymers are mounting it as original equipment. Check it out with any Hymer retailer. Max Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keithl Posted December 10, 2019 Share Posted December 10, 2019 mtravel - 2019-12-10 2:59 PM A friend of mine in Italy who has your identical motorhome has installed the Votronic 1212-30 Booster and is satisfied. See https://www.votronic.de/index.php/en/products2/series-vcc/standard-version/vcc-1212-30-new Designed to interface Schaudt electronics, I'm not sure but I think the new Hymers are mounting it as original equipment. Check it out with any Hymer retailer. Max Max, The Steinbauer Power Module is an engine tuning box and not a solar panel controller, significantly different devices! Keith. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtravel Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 Max, The Steinbauer Power Module is an engine tuning box and not a solar panel controller, significantly different devices! Keith. Oops&sorry. I absent-mindedly read the question and did not notice Harvey Postletwaite's sentence. I would have understood that it was referring to engines and not to batteries. Good designer, I met him a couple of times when he was technical director at Ferrari. Max p.s.. Are they legal in the UK? What about MOT ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 About 7 years ago it was reported that possible revisions to the MOT rules would result in a vehicle failing the test if the examiner spotted an add-on 'tuning box', but there is nothing in the current test regulations to say this should happen. Plainly, if a tuning box were to negatively affect a vehicle's emissions, the vehicle might fail the MOT test, and it's sometimes suggested that the box be removed before the test so that (if the emission test results happen to be 'marginal') the visible presence of the box does not influence an examiner's judgement. Tuning boxes are not illegal in the UK nor is 'remapping', but any form of performance increasing could impact on a vehicle's warranty and on the vehicle's insurance cover. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 Tuning boxes are discussed on this link by a UK company specialising in remapping diesel engines to improve their performance https://www.darksidedevelopments.co.uk/Blog/tuning-boxes/ As is emphasised on the blog, unless a vehicle’s motor’s power/torque figures are measured on a dynamometer before and after a tuning box has been fitted or remapping has been carried out, it won’t be possible to know what the real effect of the exercise has been. A ‘twin channel’ tuning module for the motor fitted to my Ducato is advertised for £279.99 and is claimed to increase the motor’s Fiat-quoted 148PS/350Nm figures to 186PS/411Nm - but, although (hopefully) it would be obvious after the tuning box had been fitted that power and torque had increased, there would be no way of knowing if the advertised increases had been achieved. A Steinbauer tuning module for my Ducato is advertised at £790.80 and states an increase to 176PS/420Nm but it’s impossible to say whether paying the additional £510 cost would be worthwhile. Fortunately for me, whatever my Ducato’s power and torque figures actually are, I don’t feel any need to increase them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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