Holy Moly the new trucks are TALL
:( So my beloved brother offered to lend me his 2012 F350 to haul our new to us 2008 Fleetwood Regal from Red Deer, Alberta to Osoyoos, BC. Today we tried to hook it up to his Reese hitch and we were ...
Forum Discussion
Best wishes to your daughter and family.
If you happen to find a truck you like and it doesn't have an exhaust brake already (most do not), I have some experience with the 3rd gen 48RE and exhaust brakes. The first model year that had an automatic that was blessed by Dodge to allow an exhaust brake was 2006. You could actually purchase (and have installed) the Jacobs (Jake) brake from the Dodge dealership. My brother has a 2006 with the Jake brake and it works very well. When I bought the heavier trailer in my sig, I decided to add an exhaust brake to my 2004.5 truck (also an auto). I narrowed it down to BD and PacBrake and finally chose the PacBrake. I believe the PacBrake is compatible back to the 2003 model year. I love it and will never tow anything heavy without one.
One fairly significant difference between the Jake and PacBrake is the method of actuating the butterfly exhaust valve. The PacBrake uses an on-board compressor (compressed air) while the Jake uses a vacuum pump. The latter is engine-belt driven and, therefore, requires a special (slightly longer) serpentine belt which might be difficult to source if it fails out in the boonies somewhere. And, the vacuum pump appears to be prone to failure. When my brother's failed recently, a local dealer quoted $900 for the pump alone. We found a rebuilt one at O'Reilly's for about $300. Fortunately, they're not too difficult to replace.
If you happen to find a truck you like and it doesn't have an exhaust brake already (most do not), I have some experience with the 3rd gen 48RE and exhaust brakes. The first model year that had an automatic that was blessed by Dodge to allow an exhaust brake was 2006. You could actually purchase (and have installed) the Jacobs (Jake) brake from the Dodge dealership. My brother has a 2006 with the Jake brake and it works very well. When I bought the heavier trailer in my sig, I decided to add an exhaust brake to my 2004.5 truck (also an auto). I narrowed it down to BD and PacBrake and finally chose the PacBrake. I believe the PacBrake is compatible back to the 2003 model year. I love it and will never tow anything heavy without one.
One fairly significant difference between the Jake and PacBrake is the method of actuating the butterfly exhaust valve. The PacBrake uses an on-board compressor (compressed air) while the Jake uses a vacuum pump. The latter is engine-belt driven and, therefore, requires a special (slightly longer) serpentine belt which might be difficult to source if it fails out in the boonies somewhere. And, the vacuum pump appears to be prone to failure. When my brother's failed recently, a local dealer quoted $900 for the pump alone. We found a rebuilt one at O'Reilly's for about $300. Fortunately, they're not too difficult to replace.
