Exhaust brakes

[Atlee]

From what I can tell most pickups with diesel engines do not come with exhaust brakes on them, except, I believe, for the latest iteration of the 6.7 Cummins.

For those of you who have diesels, do you add an after market exhaust brake? If not, why? What happens when you are towing in the mountains, especially the western mountains?

[hammer21661]

Second Chance wrote:
My 2013 GMC 2500HD came stock with it (as do all of the new DuraMax vehicles as far as I know). Just for the record, though, it's actually a variable vane turbocharger and not an "exhaust brake" as implemented on may class 7 and 8 tractors.

Dodge has had that since 07.5.

[Second_Chance]

My 2013 GMC 2500HD came stock with it (as do all of the new DuraMax vehicles as far as I know). Just for the record, though, it's actually a variable vane turbocharger and not an "exhaust brake" as implemented on may class 7 and 8 tractors.

[hammer21661]

rhagfo wrote:
Hammer21661, sorry you had a bad experience, a call to Pacbrake might have solved your problems.
I have a 5 speed manual and shifter mounted switch, I leave it on most of the time just need to turn off about a block from home to get the EGT back down to 300 degrees.

I did call them they said that was how it was supposed to work and I think I even have a thread about it on here.

[AH64ID]

Grit dog wrote:
Oh and it sounds awesome with the straight pipe!

Haha! I hate the unmuffled sound and added a resonator to my muffler to cut the high pitch wine out.

Love the brake, but hated the sound with only a muffler.

[Grit_dog]

Oh and it sounds awesome with the straight pipe!

[Grit_dog]

Necessary? No.
A very nice luxury while towing or hauling heavy in the mountains? YES
Put a BD brake on my Ram last year before the trip to AK. After 1700+mi of hauling the AF with a 7klb trailer in tow, the front wheels on the truck barely had any brake dust on them. By comparison the wheels would have been brake pad colored without the EB.
At $1200 it was not cheap but it sure is nice to pull the switch headin down a long grade and just fit back and coast to the bottom. No downshifting and no service brakes needed at all to maintain speed until the grade gets about 8%. It'll hold back 18k gross Rollin on 6-7% grades all day.

[john_bet]

Ragho, We have 2 of those buses and I have driven the other one too and it is the same. But then we seldom do over 50mph and as some would say on flat ground and a lot of county and city streets. I do not know the strategy on how it works with the DT-466 and Allison. Just my observation. JMHO as always. Have a good day. Loved driving thru the high desert in June.

[rhagfo]

john&bet wrote:

rhagfo wrote:

ah64id wrote:

john&bet wrote:

seattlefirervr wrote:
This shouldn't be a debate, if your diesel truck does not have an OEM exhaust brake, then seriously consider installing one. You will save on your personal stress and brakes all the way around.

My truck is not new enough to have one so I will save my money. Changing pads on my brakes is no big deal every 90-100K. JMHO.

There are aftermarket transmission controllers to put one on your 04.5 auto.

John&Bet are from a flat state, may not really need one. I typicality travel over the Oregon coast range to the coast. Didn't have one for two years. We then installed a Pacbrake turbo mounted, air activated, love it almost NEVER use service brakes on a down hill. This is with 19,000# GCVW, just a sweet rumbling of the EB holding us back.
Brake has worked great for over a year, the plus it comes with a 12V 150 psi, on board compressor, makes airing tires easy.

Be careful there. We spent 50 days on the road this past May thru July to Montana,Idaho,Washinton,Oregon(Portland,Bend,Burns,Ontario), back to Mossoula via US-95 etc. I am now at 171K+ miles and have only put on one set of brake pads. I have more miles out west than around here in so called flat land. Yes an EB might be good, but I can drive careful and buy a few sets of pads for the price of an EB. I drive a '13 Navastar school bus with a Packbrak EB and can not tell if it works or not. JMHO. Have a nice day.

It is not about replacing pad and shoes from time to time, it is about getting to the bottom of a long grade with cold brakes! I drove at 19,000# CVW for a year before getting the Pacbrake, never had an issue just needed to use the brakes to slow the rig more than I liked. If you can't tell if the Pacbrake in the School Bus is working or not, it likely is not!!

[john_bet]

rhagfo wrote:

ah64id wrote:

john&bet wrote:

seattlefirervr wrote:
This shouldn't be a debate, if your diesel truck does not have an OEM exhaust brake, then seriously consider installing one. You will save on your personal stress and brakes all the way around.

My truck is not new enough to have one so I will save my money. Changing pads on my brakes is no big deal every 90-100K. JMHO.

There are aftermarket transmission controllers to put one on your 04.5 auto.

John&Bet are from a flat state, may not really need one. I typicality travel over the Oregon coast range to the coast. Didn't have one for two years. We then installed a Pacbrake turbo mounted, air activated, love it almost NEVER use service brakes on a down hill. This is with 19,000# GCVW, just a sweet rumbling of the EB holding us back.
Brake has worked great for over a year, the plus it comes with a 12V 150 psi, on board compressor, makes airing tires easy.

Be careful there. We spent 50 days on the road this past May thru July to Montana,Idaho,Washinton,Oregon(Portland,Bend,Burns,Ontario), back to Mossoula via US-95 etc. I am now at 171K+ miles and have only put on one set of brake pads. I have more miles out west than around here in so called flat land. Yes an EB might be good, but I can drive careful and buy a few sets of pads for the price of an EB. I drive a '13 Navastar school bus with a Packbrak EB and can not tell if it works or not. JMHO. Have a nice day.

[Dave_H_M]

I drove my 7.3 pulling 11.5K fifth wheel for 13 years without an EB. Towed the smokies usually twice a year.

I don't understand smoking brakes on a 6% grade. On a lot of them I had to add a smidge of throttle to maintain speed.

Additionally none of the trailer trucks I drove had an EB.

I am not knocking EB's, I am one person that got along fine without one.

[NRALIFR]

ah64id wrote:
For folks with experience using a 7.3 exhaust brake, brakes for this engine must use very low backpressure to keep the lifter seated. This low pressure means low braking power, and isn't a good example of modern exhaust brakes.

http://www.jacobsvehiclesystems.com/faqs/view/3/

That was not my experience at all. I installed a US Gear Decelerator on my '95 F350 and was very happy with it's performance. The type of EB I used included a waste gate that prevented over-pressurizing the exhaust system. The braking performance was good enough that I rarely had to use the service brakes on the truck while descending a steep grade. I also liked it better than the Tow-Haul mode on my current truck. It was much more controllable, being either ON or OFF with the slightest movement of the throttle. The braking force I always felt was very good.

Some things I did in conjunction with installing the EB were to replace the turbo pedestal with one that had the exhaust BP actuator removed and welded over removing a source of oil leaks, and gutted the exhaust BPV housing of the butterfly which improved the exhaust flow.

I used it all the time, and never had a problem with it sticking closed.

:):)

[wcjeep]

RAS43 wrote:

Turtle n Peeps wrote:

All new pickups with diesel engines have exhaust brakes on them.
I will be odd man out on this and that's fine. My 93 and 06 do not have EB's and I don't miss them at all. (yes I have driven trucks that have them)
Been to Co many, many times and my brakes never even got warm on my 06. Came down Steamboat this year and I hit my brakes only a few times coming down from 11,000 feet.
Even my 93 engine brakes just fine.
I'm only at 16 gross and I know that's not much compared to some that tow their house on wheels. Maybe that's the difference between me and people that "have to have" and EB

I guess I am odd man out X2. Had an exhaust brake(Decelerator) on my '99 Ford and it worked okay. But I had to repair something on it often. Or it would stick closed at the bottom of a hill and I'd have to pull over and let it cool off. When I traded for my '06 I let the brake go with the truck and have done just fine with this truck. The turbo acts like an exhaust brake and keeps my speed under control, even pulling doubles and grossing 22000lbs thru our Colorado mountains. After 8 years the brake pads are original and still around 70%. Same with our 5th wheel-8 years old with original brakes.
I let the transmission do it's job and only touch the brakes when speed gets too high for the road. They never get hot. And I have traveled over most of our passes, even Red Mountain. JMO

Were you using the Exhaust Back Pressure Valve? I think it's original design was cold start only.

To the OP. Get an exhaust brake. My vehicle brakes are always cool to the touch. This means they are at 100% in case of emergency. The warmer the brakes the less ability they have to stop.

[rhagfo]

GoPackGo wrote:
I don't believe that changing pads is the issue. The issue is that you may have to use the brakes so much that they overheat to the point where they don't work AND you're only half way down that 6% grade. Then you get to try out one of those runaway ramps.

Tim

X2

Nothing more relaxing than listening to the rumble of our Pacbrake, while watching all the cars in front of us riding the brakes on the way down a long grade!!:B

[ChuckV1]

Again sorry, 6.0, but there is two things one needs out here in west,
an EB an chains, both are important at differant times of the year
while traveling thought the passes.....