Down Hill Braking on a Ford Chassis
Guru's, This may seem a silly question, but, on my DP when going down a long or steep grade, I just downshift my Alison to a lower gear and hit the exhaust brake as needed. I never have to use the ...
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..As already indicated, a gas engine's throttle plate and vacuum it creates naturally gives it very good engine braking, without having to add an exhaust brake like what is required with diesels.
This is a subject I always find very ironic - people think diesels are so much better for their engine braking, when reality is the exact opposite - diesels engine technically has ZERO engine braking by themselves. They have to have a device added to choke up the exhaust to slow it down. A gasser OTOH, naturally has good engine braking with the vacuum created by its throttle plate. No need to add something to it that chokes the exhaust to give it braking like you do with a diesel.
..All that said, the tow/haul mode on the torqueshift tranny Ford uses with its V10 gasser in the F53 chassis, works very good. It utilizes the V10s NATURAL engine braking by downshifing very well. I'm very happy with it. When descending a steep hill, I just turn on tow/haul mode, and tranny automatically downshifts as approprate to keep speed down. Pretty much, when you let off the throttle in tow haul mode, it immediately downshifts and slows things down.
This is a subject I always find very ironic - people think diesels are so much better for their engine braking, when reality is the exact opposite - diesels engine technically has ZERO engine braking by themselves. They have to have a device added to choke up the exhaust to slow it down. A gasser OTOH, naturally has good engine braking with the vacuum created by its throttle plate. No need to add something to it that chokes the exhaust to give it braking like you do with a diesel.
..All that said, the tow/haul mode on the torqueshift tranny Ford uses with its V10 gasser in the F53 chassis, works very good. It utilizes the V10s NATURAL engine braking by downshifing very well. I'm very happy with it. When descending a steep hill, I just turn on tow/haul mode, and tranny automatically downshifts as approprate to keep speed down. Pretty much, when you let off the throttle in tow haul mode, it immediately downshifts and slows things down.
