Henry Wang
Vancouver BC
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Joined: 02/01/2009
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Just got back from a weekend of camping in British Columbia Southern interior in the Osoyoos area. For those of you in the know, getting in and out of Princeton is the one of the proofing grounds for your truck's pulling power and more importantly the stopping ability.
With consistent 7 and 9% grade hills, your truck has it's work cut out for sure. A couple of weeks ago I installed exhaust brake and a digital gauge pack to monitor my engine from BD Power. This trip was the acid test.
On a 7% grade going down hill, I had my truck in drive position (D) with overdrive (OD) on coasting at 90 km/hour and I was actually slowing down without touching the brakes. In fact, I had to touch the gas once in a while just so I didn't slow down too much.
On a 9% grade going down hill, I was in D with OD off coasting at 70 km/hour and holding very steady. It didn't slow down further or speed up.
On the way up, my absolute highest temp for EGT was 905 degrees F (alarm set at 1050) and transmission was around 176 degrees F (alarm set at 230). Turbo boost was maxed just over 20 PSI (alarm set at 33). Very nice to know that I am not over working my engine.
The best part was the feeling that I can coast for a long ways down hill without touching my brakes, saving them for actual emergency stop or the hard corner at the bottom of the hill.
I highly recommend this upgrade for anyone who can afford it. I will likely make my money back by the reduced brake and rotor servicing cost and the safety improvement can't be quantified.
Cheers
Henry
- 2003 Dodge 2500 diesel crew cab, BD exhaust brakes, BD X-monitor digital gauge
- 2004 Arctic Fox 22H
- 24 feet high mobile rock climbing walls
- Days camped in 2010 - 0
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SoCalDesertRider
SanDiego, CA, USA
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Joined: 12/14/2003
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That's great performance from both the engine and brake. Really though, you should be downshifting when descending hills, not running in overdrive or drive. Same for ascending the grade as well.
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Henry Wang
Vancouver BC
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I am using the gear that I went up the hill as a reference as I am going down the hill. So if I went up in D, I will descend in D.
Considering the speed that I was traveling at, I couldn't have downshifted any further. The speed limit was 100 KPH on a single lane. I was only doing 70 and 90 in the two separate areas and I slowed right down to 30 or 40 for the deadman corners at the bottom of each hill (which I both braked and down shifted to 2nd to use the engine brake to coast around the corner).
If I down shifted to 2nd, I would have been doing about 50KPH with my RPM at 2,500 in a single lane with the speed limit at 100 KPH which would likely result in a few road rage incidents behind me.
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DSteiner51
Wooster, Oh
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Joined: 01/30/2004
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I am happy for you. It appears you spent a bunch of your hard earned money for ??? I don't have any of that stuff and a 6-7% slope is a simply nice grade. For a 4 mile long 7% slope I shift down and engage the cruise, sit back and relax. Nothing to it. I routinely travel 15-20% without problems. It is called shifting down.
D. Steiner
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haveTCwillboondockUS
not on the interstate
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Joined: 06/05/2009
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those Dodge trucks are the cats meow. i love em'
The Ironworker and His Conscience
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ryoung
Indiana
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Joined: 11/11/2002
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Henry Wang wrote:I highly recommend this upgrade for anyone who can afford it. I will likely make my money back by the reduced brake and rotor servicing cost and the safety improvement can't be quantified.
I don't think it's a question of afforability, but rather the necessity of it. It all comes down to how much mountain towing you do. Sure it would be nice to have, but for my towing habits, it's just a waste of money.
ryoung
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Paul Clancy
BC Canada
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Joined: 09/16/2005
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I tow nothing but mountains because I'm surrounded by them , coquahalla, rogers pass, hope princeton, cascades etc...10,000lb 5th wheel and have never felt the need for an exhaust brake. Duramax/allison grade braking keeps the rig well in control using cruise control to set speed. Without this feature I'd probably be looking at an ebrake. The new dodges have them but both Ford and GM use the trans. Without all this tech slowing and downshifting works, just nice to have some on board logic helping control the descent so I can worry about traffic.
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Kennedycamper
Algoa, Texas
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Joined: 05/24/2006
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Waste of money is a judgement call. BD makes quality products. An exhaust brake is good inshurance if pulling in the steep hills or mountains. Especially if your hauling a heavy trailer.
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Dave H M
IL
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Joined: 08/11/2006
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Now that got me to thinking about saving the coins 
I changed the brake pads on my F250 at 136K. Guess if it was drven long enough I could make an exhaust brake pay for itself, but someone else would have to be driving that thing long after i am gone.
Me, I have to use the brakes very little doing 7% grades on the interstate.
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nolra
Houston
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Joined: 01/13/2009
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How does the exhaust brake lock up the transmission? I assume it has a switch to lock up the torque converter. Did you do the install yourself? Sounds like a good setup.
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