I wanted to know if anybody had one of these and could tell me what kind of power you can get from it. I was told you need a aftermarket airfilter and exaust to get any power gain from the powercommander. Is this true?

 

The one I used was from (www.dobeckperformance.com) it seems to work well bottom end lag is very slight , HMF pipe and a Twin Air filter remove the air snorkle , it makes it crazy loud which I like. I dragged a stock King and killed it.

 

The HMF pipe itself really does not do much for you. In fact, you can get almost the same gains with your recipe of parts, but just by removing the spark arrestor in the stock exhaust instead. There's a guy selling PowerTips on eBay that are basically a much less restrictive spark arrestor so you're still legal to ride public lands and you won't start any forest fires. The Dobeck is probably the better mechanism for adding fuel as you can fine-tune the fuel delivery where as the PowerCommander has pre-determined "maps" and if they don't work for your setup or elevation, you're pretty much going to be running either slightly lean or rich. As far as air filters go, the TwinAir is definitely good, but UNI just came out with one for the King and it's much less expensive than the TwinAir. Concerning the bottom-end lag, that is an electronic ignition timing retard and cannot be fully corrected without a device known as a module or else a whole new CDI (which is probably what us KingQuad owners will see in the future because of the EFI) similar to the ones for the Kawasaki V-twins.

 

Power Commanders are the ticket for FI bikes/quads although I have no experience with one on a KQ. The dobeck is primitive compared to a PC. You can set a Power Commander to do anything you want with the mixture--you can make your own map right on your computer and watch the bike run on your laptop. I would get a Power Commander over that Dohickey anyday.

 

There have been 2 guys on the highlifter forum that had the powercommander and switched to the dobek because the gains are better. One of the guys name is hoosiervinson. I believe he is on this board as well. I would track him down and get the details on why he thinks the dobek is better if I were getting one. He seems to be an honest and helpfull guy. Good luck.

 

While you may be able to make your own map on the computer, honestly, that would be so much more difficult than adjusting right then and there on your quad.

 

All I am saying is the Power Commander can do more, you can also adjust it "coursley" on the unit itself without a computer similar to the Dobeck but obviously the real gains would come from a custom map on the computer generated by test rides and dyno runs.

If they got better gains on the Dobeck it is because they are not skilled enough to make their own map on the PC. You can program a PC to exactly what the Dobeck would do + more. On bikes there is usually a map available from someone that has done it right, might not be many good maps developed for the KQ yet.

 

How does the PowerCommander do "more" than the Dobeck? They both do virtually the same thing, just in slightly different ways: add or remove fuel.

 

The Dobeck can only adjust the equivilant of what would be the main, pilot, and accelerator pump (per their website) -- 3 course adjust ments. The PC can do the entire fuel map (throttle position vs engine rpm) for MORE adjustment and MORE possibility for power if you do it right.

This PDF tells how it is done...you can see how the potential is there.

Link

 

You don't need either unless you install a pipe and open the airbox up. Neither will fix the low end lag. According to Dynojet, the factory fuel settings are very good other than being a touch lean on the low end. But adding fuel there, will not really gain anything noticeable other than a few hundred bucks out of your pocket.