Downshift or exhaust brake?

opnspaces wrote:
I was just thinking after reading a post about gas vs diesel trucks where somebody mentioned they liked diesel because of the exhaust brake. I've never had a diesel, always gas. If I come up to a long downhill I have always downshifted and kept the speeds where I wanted them with only an occasional push on the brake pedal.

For those of you who have driven both, is a diesel with an exhaust brake that much better at controlling speed going down a grade? Or is this just another Ford vs Chevy type of question?

I have a diesel without an exhaust brake, and although it has a manual transmission, the amount of engine braking it provides with a load is pretty minimal. A truck of the same size with a gas engine would provide better engine braking than my truck. However, as has been stated, a modern diesel (or even one like mine with an add-on) with an exhaust brake will provide significantly better engine braking than a gas engine, mostly by virtue of a much higher compression ratio.