Ram exhaust brake at slow speeds.
This issue was brought up in another tread and I didn't want to hijack it so.. On our first trip out with the new TV we went to the NC mountains...of course :B. Going up the 6-7 % grade was awesome...
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CampingN.C. wrote:
This issue was brought up in another tread and I didn't want to hijack it so..
On our first trip out with the new TV we went to the NC mountains...of course :B. Going up the 6-7 % grade was awesome to say the least. However, coming down didn't necessarily meet my expectations.
Now this was Hwy 226 for all you locals reading. Very twisty and slow speeds. By twisty I mean it was hard to stay in my lane on some curves.
I thought the EB would easily hold me coming down but I'm pretty sure it wasn't on. I had to keep stabbing the brakes to keep the speed down. RPM's were approaching 3K, close to redline. I wasn't really watching the speedo but I'd guess around 15-20 mph. I had it set on auto, should I have set it on full? Or will it just not work that slow.
You should have it on full. In the Auto mode it only tries to hold a speed at which you set by tapping the brake pedal. Also at that slow of speed (below 20) it will not react as fast as you would like it to and will not work below about 12 MPH (that's the lowest I've had mine to work). With the RPM at 3K , you would definitely know if it was working or not. The exhaust brake is not designed to stop you just to assist in a stop or help hold speed on a hill. At 15-20 MPH your brakes should be all you need and if they won't do it then you are overloaded or you have a brake problem. The computer senses acceleration and deceleration and has preset to certain specs. If you are coming up to a curve and you apply a lot of brake pressure and the truck starts to slow down quickly the exhaust brake will not come on or it will go off if is on and you start to slow down faster than the preset. Also I have found that if I want it to work below 20 I have to manually shift it to a lower gear and leave it. Once you get to a gear that the torque converter unlocks (2nd gear I believe is the lowest gear to lock) the exhaust brake will not come on.
This is another plus for the hand shaker transmission. It will work in all gears. My 2010 6 speed would almost stop you if you went to 1st gear. It would work down to an idle.
Next time try full on in TH mode and lock it in second gear.
