Our technical team are responsible for all the remaps and adjustments that we make in order to improve the performance of your vehicles. We thought we’d introduce you to the brains behind the operation. So let’s start with Chris Burnell, the Founder and Director of Diesel Performance Solutions, and also one of our technicians.
How long have you worked at Diesel Performance Solutions?
I started DPS in 2006 and I used to cover the whole country [New Zealand]. I operated it on my own for about 5 years and then I brought on my first agent who was Mark, and we’ve grown ever since.
What’s your role at Diesel Performance Solutions now?
I’m a technician. I write the software modifications and I do development work and new software solutions. All DPS modifications come to us.
What’s your role in the remap process?
We write software for every single engine that we remap. To do a remap the DPS Agent pulls the software out of the vehicle and then we make the development changes to that software and send it back. Then the agent loads it back into the vehicle again.
What’s the aim of the remap?
The idea is to make the vehicle work better based on what its owner wants us to achieve - whether that be more efficiency, more power or more torque or whatever they’re trying to achieve - that’s what we’ll do for them.
How do you know what people want?
It’s usually based on the type of work they’re doing and the agents find out lots of information about how the vehicle’s used. That allows us to tailor the remap to both look after the machine and deliver an improved performance for the job the owners have to do.
What does a normal day look like?
There’s a massive variation in the types of file we look at and that creates a lot of difference from day to day. We remap a lot of utes, road trucks and agricultural vehicles and that creates a lot of variety. And most days we do a lot of development work as well which is designed to make engines perform better and be more reliable.
Where did the idea for DPS come from?
I was in agriculture at the time and we had 2 machines, absolutely identical but one had a high horsepower and the other had a lower one. Everyone wanted to work with the more powerful machine and we wanted to make that possible. So I decided to find out how to do it. That was the beginning and the whole DPS business has grown from there.
How do you use the Dyno?
Dyno is used for performance tuning. It’s an essential piece of kit for testing results. Every New Zealand Agent owns a Dyno so when they’re going to carry out a remap, they test the tractor with the Dyno before and after the remap; it gives us real clarity around how the engine is performing before and after a remap.
What would you say to someone considering a remap?
Why wouldn’t you? The results speak for themselves. We work with lots of contractors who remap all their engines or, when they move a tractor on a few years later, come back to us again to get their new vehicle remapped because they get so much out of it.
The guys really notice the difference if they work hard with their vehicles and can benefit from that half hour saving of time at the end of the day because they travelled further or got the job done faster.
If you’re not sure about it, talk to one of our agents and find out what it could deliver.