Forum Discussion
it is a different way of doing the brake. I think cummins adds a separate exhaust brake, ford in the early ones did some sort of magic but it works fairly good, (I have a 1st gen 6.7, just the last year) in 15 they went to a different turbo setup and use the veins in the turbo to make the exhaust brake, works almost as good, takes up less space makes the programing a little more involved, then at some point they added a button so you could turn it off and on. in my old 7.3 I added a box that turned the exhaust back pressure valve into an exhaust brake.. surprisingly it worked half decent.
a F550 as a daily driver kind of wouldn't be my first choice for one reason. the unloaded ride, yes the rear suspension is stiff, mind you on tame roads it would probably be fine. we drive them all over a mine site and they are absolutely horrible for what we use them for, but they do turn sharp. they must be good for campers, it is the most popular overlander build platform out there. mind you they are changing to liquid springs so that might be the difference right there. if I can find a F550 diesel 4x4 cheep, I'll jump all over it.. then see how many thousands those liquid springs are haha
None of the big 3 class 1-5 trucks have ever had a standalone exhaust brake from the factory.
The ole cold weather warmup backpressure valve on the 7.3 you mentioned was probably the closest to an inline exhaust brake of any of them. And that was 25 years ago.
All the diesels in this category class 1-5 began having exhaust braking capability and/or programming when they went to variable vane turbos in the early to mid 2000s. Concept is the same for all of them. Only Cummins figured it out much better than the other 2. To be fair I haven’t driven the latest Gen of Dmax or Powerstroke and they work too, but those that use both or all 3 and going have their brand loyal blinders on readily admit one stands out from the other 2.
Regardless, “overlander” vs typical truck camper is a big difference. Typically in weight. Hence the bigger trucks. (Although plenty of that “need” in the folks building fancy overlanders is fueled by the cool trend to spend 10s of thousands lifting a huge truck.)
And the reason most of them convert to air or hydraulic suspension like you mentioned is because otherwise they’re like driving a $200k covered wagon at far faster speed than a wagon can go!
A lot of it is stretching to make the application “work” at a huge cost of expensive modifications to make it palatable where it matters the most. It’s backwards logic.
Some make sense. Folks who have monster TCs and other heavy gear and usually towing somewhat heavy in conjunction. Most I think just want a u toob channel and are more about the “build” than being rough tough “overlanders”. Because if they were, a vehicle that weighs too much to be towed by a normal tow truck or pulled out by a normal winch or normal vehicle, with rock hard tires (oops there’s another 10 grand for big soft tires) and 150”-220” wheelbase and 9’ wide is in no way a good “overlander”. It’s a much better over the road…er.
That's ok. Jeff is now tracking right again for his needs. Great discussion though!