In 2009 I towed our 5ver over the Creston Salmo pass in BC with an 03 Duramax. I manually placed the truck in low gear and listened to the engine rev to over 5000 rpm as it struggled to hold back the gcvw of about 21000 lbs... about 35 mph. Second gear was a run away. In 2011 I went over the same pass with the same trailer using a 2011 Powerstroke. The engine was able to hold the trailer back in 2nd gear at about 3600 rpm and 45 mph. This year with 25000 lb gcvw my 2017 Powerstroke had no trouble what so ever maintaining 55 mph in 3rd gear at 2900 rpm. It was just a matter of setting the cruise and letting the automatic exhaust brake do its thing. There are a couple tighter bends in the road that prompted me to brake slightly to drop a few mph and then press resume on the cruise. The turbo boost would rise or fall depending on how much exhaust braking was required to maintain 55 mph. I was very impressed.

The first time I pulled a load with a diesel I realized that the diesel would not hold the load back as well as the old spark plug motor. Then I found the joy of a Jake. A test I would like to see is same size gas engine compared to diesel/exhaust brake with same weights

4x4ord wrote:In 2009 I towed our 5ver over the Creston Salmo pass in BC with an 03 Duramax. I manually placed the truck in low gear and listened to the engine rev to over 5000 rpm as it struggled to hold back the gcvw of about 21000 lbs... about 35 mph. Second gear was a run away. In 2011 I went over the same pass with the same trailer using a 2011 Powerstroke. The engine was able to hold the trailer back in 2nd gear at about 3600 rpm and 45 mph. This year with 25000 lb gcvw my 2017 Powerstroke had no trouble what so ever maintaining 55 mph in 3rd gear at 2900 rpm. It was just a matter of setting the cruise and letting the automatic exhaust brake do its thing. There are a couple tighter bends in the road that prompted me to brake slightly to drop a few mph and then press resume on the cruise. The turbo boost would rise or fall depending on how much exhaust braking was required to maintain 55 mph. I was very impressed.They do work well. If you were using cruise the service brakes may have been coming on too.

Never like the term'Jake Brake'. Jake Brake is a trademark of the Jacobs Corporation not a type. There are 3 types, compression brakes (jake), exhaust back pressure brake (Blue Ox and others) and mechanical retarders.Not sure which type different builders use. I have a Blue Ox on my 1997 7.3 and it works quite well actually bit I only use it manually when the need arises.

Modern exhaust brake equipped trucks are DA CHIT!!!33k combined down several miles of 14% locked in second maintaining 30-35 with cruise control on. Brakes nice and cool at the bottom!

Sure wish I had an exhaust brake on my Cummins 5.9, but I simply can't afford $1500 for the kit and $1000 labor. Surely there's something out there cheaper.

Engine braking now vs then. | Good Sam Community

19 Replies

FishOnOne
Nomad
Jul 22, 2019
4x4ord wrote:
In 2009 I towed our 5ver over the Creston Salmo pass in BC with an 03 Duramax. I manually placed the truck in low gear and listened to the engine rev to over 5000 rpm as it struggled to hold back the gcvw of about 21000 lbs... about 35 mph. Second gear was a run away. In 2011 I went over the same pass with the same trailer using a 2011 Powerstroke. The engine was able to hold the trailer back in 2nd gear at about 3600 rpm and 45 mph. This year with 25000 lb gcvw my 2017 Powerstroke had no trouble what so ever maintaining 55 mph in 3rd gear at 2900 rpm. It was just a matter of setting the cruise and letting the automatic exhaust brake do its thing. There are a couple tighter bends in the road that prompted me to brake slightly to drop a few mph and then press resume on the cruise. The turbo boost would rise or fall depending on how much exhaust braking was required to maintain 55 mph. I was very impressed.

The 2020 Super Duty's will have even a stronger turbo so it'll be interesting to see if there's better exhaust brake performance to an already great performing exhaust break.
ktmrfs
Explorer II
Jul 21, 2019
Old-Biscuit wrote:
"In 2009 I towed our 5ver over the Creston Salmo pass in BC with an 03 Duramax. I manually placed the truck in low gear and listened to the engine rev to over 5000 rpm as it struggled to hold back the gcvw of about 21000 lbs... about 35 mph."

2003 Duramax LB7-----REV Limiter set at 3250 rpm

:H

I have a US Gear 4" exhaust brake on my 5.9L Cummins
Truck/trailer combo 22k
Exhaust brake 6% grade----55 mph
Glad to see exhaust braking OEM ------ great tool for diesel trucks

nope! duramax with grade brake or exhaust brake shuts off fuel and will rev to 5000rpm. friction increase as the cube of RPM so doesn't take much increase in rpm to increase braking.

If duramax goes above 5,000 it will shift up a gear regardless of what the gear slector is in. That's why the tach goes to 5K. And why GM eliminated the redline above 3200 because people weren't reading the diesel suppliment owners manual on how the grade brake/exhaust brake works and what rpm it can go to.

To the OP's comment. I had (son now has) an 04.5 duramax with grade brake only, and now a 15.5 with exhaust brake. While the grade brake feature provides significant retardation, it is no where near as effective as the exhaust brake.
Chris_Bryant
Explorer II
Jul 21, 2019
Old-Biscuit wrote:
"In 2009 I towed our 5ver over the Creston Salmo pass in BC with an 03 Duramax. I manually placed the truck in low gear and listened to the engine rev to over 5000 rpm as it struggled to hold back the gcvw of about 21000 lbs... about 35 mph."

2003 Duramax LB7-----REV Limiter set at 3250 rpm

The rev limiter won’t do anything for an engine braking over-rev, but if it’s limited to that 5k can’t have been good for it.
Old-Biscuit
Explorer III
Jul 21, 2019
"In 2009 I towed our 5ver over the Creston Salmo pass in BC with an 03 Duramax. I manually placed the truck in low gear and listened to the engine rev to over 5000 rpm as it struggled to hold back the gcvw of about 21000 lbs... about 35 mph."

2003 Duramax LB7-----REV Limiter set at 3250 rpm

:H

I have a US Gear 4" exhaust brake on my 5.9L Cummins
Truck/trailer combo 22k
Exhaust brake 6% grade----55 mph
Glad to see exhaust braking OEM ------ great tool for diesel trucks
Gulfcoast
Explorer
Jul 21, 2019
Sure wish I had an exhaust brake on my Cummins 5.9, but I simply can't afford $1500 for the kit and $1000 labor. Surely there's something out there cheaper.
Cummins12V98
Explorer III
Jul 21, 2019
Modern exhaust brake equipped trucks are DA CHIT!!!

33k combined down several miles of 14% locked in second maintaining 30-35 with cruise control on. Brakes nice and cool at the bottom!
SidecarFlip
Explorer III
Jul 21, 2019
Never like the term'Jake Brake'. Jake Brake is a trademark of the Jacobs Corporation not a type. There are 3 types, compression brakes (jake), exhaust back pressure brake (Blue Ox and others) and mechanical retarders.

Not sure which type different builders use. I have a Blue Ox on my 1997 7.3 and it works quite well actually bit I only use it manually when the need arises.
jbc28
Explorer
Jul 21, 2019
4x4ord wrote:
In 2009 I towed our 5ver over the Creston Salmo pass in BC with an 03 Duramax. I manually placed the truck in low gear and listened to the engine rev to over 5000 rpm as it struggled to hold back the gcvw of about 21000 lbs... about 35 mph. Second gear was a run away. In 2011 I went over the same pass with the same trailer using a 2011 Powerstroke. The engine was able to hold the trailer back in 2nd gear at about 3600 rpm and 45 mph. This year with 25000 lb gcvw my 2017 Powerstroke had no trouble what so ever maintaining 55 mph in 3rd gear at 2900 rpm. It was just a matter of setting the cruise and letting the automatic exhaust brake do its thing. There are a couple tighter bends in the road that prompted me to brake slightly to drop a few mph and then press resume on the cruise. The turbo boost would rise or fall depending on how much exhaust braking was required to maintain 55 mph. I was very impressed.

They do work well. If you were using cruise the service brakes may have been coming on too.
JRscooby
Explorer II
Jul 21, 2019
The first time I pulled a load with a diesel I realized that the diesel would not hold the load back as well as the old spark plug motor. Then I found the joy of a Jake.
A test I would like to see is same size gas engine compared to diesel/exhaust brake with same weights

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Engine braking now vs then.

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