F350 Super Duty vs 3500 Denali vs The Ike Pulling 30k lbs

Me Again wrote:
^^It does not, at least on our 2015 RAM's. FWIW that is a really stupid thing for them to do. The uninformed could get their brake REALLY hot and not know it.

I haven't played around with my Ford while towing on steep grades enough to know exactly how the Ford cruise control works but it certainly does apply the wheel brakes. I think it applies the brakes to slow the vehicle down and also causes the transmission to downshift. It is possible that the wheel brakes are then released to allow the engine to hold back on its own.

The automatic mode on the exhaust brake is what I use and it works excellent. You simply set the exhaust brake to automatic and the truck tries to maintain the speed the truck was going at the moment the brake pedal or accelerator was released. So say on a steep grade I have the exhaust brake set to auto as I come over the crest of the hill. If I let off on the accelerator at say 60 mph the EB will try to maintain 60 mph. If the truck starts accelerating down the hill the system will adjust the turbo vanes to produce more back pressure. If the truck continues to accelerate the system will apply the wheel brakes which will trigger the transmission to start downshifting at which point the wheel brakes automatically release and the EB adjusts to maintain the desired set point. If the EB can not maintain the set speed the wheel brakes will be applied again causing another downshift (so long as the downshift results in an engine rpm within the limits of the engine). If the transmission can not downshift further and the turbo vanes are maxed out the wheel brakes are applied momentarily to gently bring the truck back to its set point at which time the wheel brakes release until the truck gets going too fast again. If I know the hill is long and steep, I can touch the brake earlier which will cause the downshift to take place without the truck accelerating first. If I want to slow down a little more I simply brake to my desired speed and let go of the brake pedal .... now the new speed is set. If I want to speed up a bit I simply accelerate a bit and the speed i'm travelling at when I let off the accelerator becomes the new set point.


Edit: When the wheel brakes apply they come on very smoothly. If the dic is set to "towing" the amount of trailer brake power is displayed during the brake application. The other indicator is that if I watch in the mirror at night I can see the brake lamp glow reflect off the front of my trailer during the brake application.

Cummins: I can't help but think this is how the Ram system works while on cruise. If you're on that steep grade again it would be interesting set the EB to "on" without using "auto" or cruise and see if it still holds back.