jason, welcome to the Tahoe Forum. i am fairly new to this forum as well.i dont know that much about the blackbear tune but i did a little searching on this website and found some useful info. the post below was a post of 'smoothfrc'
"This is my take on it....
If you get a handheld tuner, it is very generic and can only do a limited amount of things (Generic tunes for different octane levels, tire sizes, shift firmness, etc) And most of these tuners run in the $300 range.
BB also does a non scan mail order tune for $200 which would still be a generic tune - but given they have the experience under their belt with these trucks, I imagine this tune would be more "refined" then the handheld tuners, plus you have the luxury of requesting additional changes to go with any mods you have.
BB also have a "scan" mail order tune, i believe this is for $300. This would involve you hooking up a scanning tool to your truck, driving it around and whatever and sending it back for a more individualized/custom tune for your individual truck. There are all kinds of deposit charges for the equipment and such along with this.
Both of the above BB options would require you to manually remove Your PCM and swap it out with the mail order version. Maybe not a big deal - never had to do it myself.
The benefit to doing a group tuning session in my eyes would be that you wouldnt have to remove your PCM, and Justin would be in the truck Scanning while tuning. I believe this gives him an even better view on how to tune the trucks, and he can adjust the tunes realtime. This may net a similar result to the BB Mailorder SCAN tune - but it also gives you the opportunity to discuss changes realtime with Justin and maybe have a piece of mind that the tune is working while he is present. Plus this option does not require you to fiddle with the scanning software or the additional costs associated ($50 less for the tune, and no hardware deposits)
Another benefit with BB is the free retunes. If you make changes down the line, you can just have those changes made to your tune (Justin stores and back's up all the tunes he performs). I find this to be a great benefit, as i am not the type to make alot of changes at once - but a little here and there.
I guess i have heard some horrific stories about mailorder tunes in the past, and i just like the idea of the tuner physically having his hands on MY truck while he is tuning it.
As for - What does it get you, i think that is all dependant on what it is YOU want. I for one would like a little better MPG - Would like the sensitivity turned DOWN on the V4-V8 switching. (Think it is at 8%? from the factory, would like to try 12%?) And look to Justin for his expert tuning skills to make any other changes he feels are necessary - maybe remove a little of the TQ management, firm up the shifts a little, etc. This may also get me to finally pick up a CAI prior to getting the tune."
-this write up is thanks to smoothfrc... he posted this up elsewhere. hope he doesn't mind
hope that helps
