The Truth on CDI's

[Hunterworks]

There are so many questions surrounding CDI's so I thought I would clue you in.

What does it do and why do you need it?

A CDI is the brain of your vehicle that controls spark and lots of other electronic controls. CDI stands for Capacitive Discharge Ignition.

The number one reason is to get past the rev limiter so you can go faster. While all of them do this there are other factors to consider.

Presently there are only two manufacturers of CDI's and that is Procomm and Dynatek. No matter whose decal is on it, it is one or the other. We changed that with our new Tri-Fire Plus CDI.

Hunterworks has sold both over the past four years and had to drop one of them because they are simply bad CDI's. While I can't say openly which one it is on the internet because of being liable, I will say the white writing on it is very small.

It is quite a common practice to Private Label products in all markets not just CDI's. We do it as well.

One of these CDI's has had numerous problems like very low reliability, hard start issues, etc. The other has been for the most part bullet proof.

I will say again there is one more manufacturer and one more choice.

How do you know who sells which? One way is to look at the white writing on the CDI box itself and the other is to look at specs on it.

Typically Procomm made boxes has little white writing on it and has a 7800 rpm rev limiter and a Dynatek has a little bit larger writing on it and has a 9000rpm rev limiter.

Look at the photo at the bottom of the page to see what they look like.

So how do you decide for sure which one your getting when you buy one? Don't buy a black one, buy our new HW Tri-Fire Plus, it is green.

Ok, what makes our CDI so much better?

The Tri-Fire Plus has several features on it that the othes don't. Let's see how they stack up.

Updated 7/30/08 We have been selling these a while and people are buying other brands because they cost more so they must be better. The reason ours is less expensive than most others is we no longer sell them thru distributors. Since we don't have to add their percentage in the retail price I decided we would lower the price from what we started selling them at and pass the difference on to you instead of keeping the extra profit to ourselves.

Triple Spark or Multiple Spark: Fires the spark plug three times instead of once for lightning fast starts and complete burn of the fuel charge. This also stops misfires for incorrect mixtures.

Procomm: Doesn't have it
Dynatek: Doesn't have it
Stock CDI: Doesn't have it
Tri-Fire Plus: Has it!!!

Safety Switch with 5000RPM Rev Limiter so when the kids are riding it or your brother-in-law it won't accellerate fast or go over 30mph.

Procomm Doesn't have it
Dynatek Doesn't have it
Stock CDI Doesn't have it
Tri-Fire Plus Has it!!!

Does not allow the Four Wheel Lock to be engaged while moving which could cause damage to the front differential if engaged while moving. We are not talking about 4WD but the 4WD lock. The stock CDI does this for Safety.

Procomm: Allows it
Dynatek: Allows it
Tri-Fire Plus: Does not allow it
Stock CDI: Does not allow it

Brown Out Voltage is the voltage at which the CDI no longer fires the plug. Why is this important? If you run your battery down say using too many electrical accessories like a winch or lights and drop the voltage in the battery below this voltage the vehicle will stop running. Brown Out Voltage on each model: Procomm 11volts, Dynatek 9volts, Tri-Fire Plus 6volts and stock CDI 6 Volts.

Procomm: Dies quickly
Dynatek: much better
Stock CDI: Great
Tri-Fire Plus: Great

Having a Reverse Limiter is a safety issue but aftermarket CDI manufacturers have different ideas. The reverse limter is a rev limter lower than the forward Rev limiter which does not allow very fast speeds in reverse. Do you need to go fast in reverse? No, but it is very handy to have no reverse limiter and the reason why is; say your drive forward down into a ditch, creek etc. and can't go forward anymore and need to back out, the reverse limiter will kick in too quick and not allow you to back out so your stuck where you are.

Procomm: lower than stock, this really sucks
Dynatek: No revers limiter Great
Stock: limiter
Tri-Fire Plus: No limiter

Each CDI has a timing curve in it which is very near the stock timing curve. I can tell you without a doubt a Rhino does NOT respond to different timing curves so closer to stock is better and if you add a High Compression Piston to your Rhino then you don't want a too far advanced timing curve. A little advanced timing curve barely increasing power.

Procomm: Take your pick they don't have consistent timing curves
Dynatek: 7 degrees above stock
Tr-Fire Plus: 2 Degrees above stock
Stock: Stock curve


Each box has a Rev Limiter which controls top speed and while most people won't ever hit any of the limiters in the after market boxes you will hit the stock one quickly. I hit a after-market CDI rev limiter only once at 64mph in my Rhino. Also there are hard limiters and soft limiters which describes how the engine reacts to the limiter. The Tri-Fire Plus is the only one with a soft limiter which cuts spark over a 500rpm range so it does not just run up there and cut out real hard.

Procomm: 7800rpm
Dynatek: 9000rpm
Stock: 6800rpm
Tri-Fire Plus: 8000rpm soft and 8500 Hard

Some report radio interference once they add a after-market CDI

Procomm: Don't know
Dynatek: causes interference
Stock: Does not
Tri-Fire Plus: Does not


Price, you simply get what you pay for. Buy cheap you get cheap. As with all products the cheaper you make it the less reliable it will be from using cheap parts.

Procomm: Least expensive
Dyantek: Depends on where you buy it
Tri-Fire Plus: Less than either and higher than each depending on where you buy it

As you can see our new Tri-Fire Plus is THE CDI to have!!

If I have not convinced you yet let me share this last tidbit with you. There is a company out there that converts Rhino's over for military use and they have hired a independent company to test different parts for use on the vehicles. The company tested all three CDI's and only one passed, the Tri-Fire Plus, so now they are going to use our CDI for the vehicle. Our timing curve, Triple-Fire and Brown Out voltage is what really set them apart. Imagine one our troops being chased down by the enemy and he is running back to his vehicle, he needs the vehicle to start quickly, it will now he has our CDI on there.

All this being said one of them I would not have on my Rhino if they gave them to me and I wouldn't sell them if they sold them to me for $25 with a 300% mark-up, the next one is a great CDI but not as many features as our new one.

Yeah I know we sell our CDI but the above information is the absolute truth. We have had some time to get it right and like other times we might be last to come to market but we usually hit the nail on the head and we did this time!!

Rhino 450 Owners read on:

Rhino 450 Tri-Fire CDI Info

The Tri-Fire Plus CDI was developed with the Rhino 660 in mind. The Rhino 450 and 660 have the exact same CDI except for the timing curve and rev limiter.

We knew the Tri-Fire Plus would work fine in the 450 what we were not comfortable with was the gain in top speed like the 660 has.

Please don't buy the Tri-Fire Plus for the 450 for a gain in top speed, you might gain 3 mph or nothing.

Buy the Tri-Fire Plus for the 450 for the following reasons:

• Lightning fast starts
• The safety reduced rev limiter switch
• No reverse limiter
• Some increased power in the lower RPM
• All other features the Tri-Fire has and others don't

Read what one of our customers had to say about the Tri-Fire Plus in a 450

Today me and a friend tested the new Hunterworks Tri-Fire CDI on a 2007 660 rhino with less than 200 miles and also on a 2007 450 rhino with less than 200 miles.

Before we installed the new box on either rhino we did some test runs with the stock CDI's only. The 660 has 26" terracross tires and 14" ITP SS wheels, everything else is bone stock. The 450 was bone stock with stock wheels and tires. The 660 hit a top speed of 41 mph before the limiter kicks in with the 26" tires. The 660 with stock tires and stock CDI will hit 42 mph. I assume the larger diameter tires may have thrown the speedo off 1 mph. Now the 450 would hit 37 mph before the limiter kicks in.Roughly top speed with stock CDI's was 41-42mph(660) and 37mph on the 450.

We tested the new Tri-Fire on the 660 first. Immediately as you turn the key the 660 comes to life. Hard to explain how fast it cranks. Less than a split second. Also we could tell the idle speed was way faster than it was with the stock CDI. No problem we simply turned the idle screw down a 1/4 turn and everything was fine. Bottom end power and mid range power was the same as the stock box and so was the acceleration. The 660 would get to 44 mph pretty quick but from 45 through 49 -50 it took a long straight away to finally top out. The reverse limiter was also removed. Great if your ever stuck in mud and have to go in reverse to get out.

Finally we tested the Tri-Fire on the 450. Like the 660 it cranks very very fast. The 450 did not require any idle adjustment like the 660. From a dead stop and then wide open throttle the 450 picked up a pretty good amount of pep. Now it is able to spin the tires with ease and also do doughnuts with ease. Near impossible to do either with the stock CDI. The 450 would get to 35 mph pretty quick and like the 660 a long straight away was required to finally hit a top speed of 40mph. The reverse limiter is also removed.

We did not get a chance to play with the toggle switch that acts as a 30 mph governor as stated in the instructions. Both rhinos had no issues with the digital display. I weigh 220lbs and my friend 165lbs we took multiple turns on each bike and all speeds were identical.Yeah I know many people say the CDI WILL NOT give any bottom end gains and it did not on the 660 but the 450 it was pretty evident that the bottom end increased.

So in a nutshell if your looking to have ultra fast starting,faster top speeds, no more limiters, (and more bottom end 450 RHINO ONLY), than this is the CDI for you. Thanks again to Todd at Hunterworks for an awesome new product for us rhino owners. Keep up the good work.

dbmachine, member
www.ridesidebyside.com

Todd
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