Steel Soldiers now has a few new forums, read more about it at: New Munitions Forums!
Agree- though suspect he was just reporting experience with how it aided driving with his Eco Hub swap- not really expecting it to get much responses... but it did. Is what it is.
I don't think you'll get any significant braking effect in 5th or 6th gear unless you are going REALLY fast. And globally limiting it to 5th will mean you don't get any braking effect at medium speeds where it was only in 5th starting downhill. I was at the grocery store last night and on the way home is a very steep descent of about 1/2 a mile at 30 MPH posted speed limit. The exhaust brake and 3rd gear was all that was preventing me from SMOKING the brakes down that hill. Limiting the truck to 5th gear would have meant heavy application of the service brakes - I've done that descent before with the exhaust brake turned off and I can smell the brakes when I get to the bottom.
Let’s just agree to disagree and leave it that. I’m already doing this and the exhaust brake in the 5th and 6th works perfectly in combination with the cruise control and very affectingly controls your speed on down grades without need to apply the service brakes. With the current setup, not only do you not get the integration with the cruise, the exhaust brake is completely worthless on the highway unless you want to go 30mph with your flashers on in slow lane with traffic flying past you.
thanks for the info, I installed my cruise control and wired in the service brake discrete to the ECM, I was noticing that the pacbrake would not work while cruise control switch is on but speed is not set. I will have to go in and find those setting to change it.I know this is the Eco Hubs thread, but since we had some lengthy discussion here about my feelings that an exhaust brake was critical for mountain driving when you have Eco Hubs installed I thought I would post a follow up. So, back to the exhaust brake conversation. Since I have now installed my new PacBrake, Switch, solenoid, and associated air lines, I've now gotten focused on changing the way the exhaust brake functions to make it something that is useful in a truck that is now capable of cruising 75mph on the highway.
There was a previous post that identified that there is a "target gear" setting in the TCM. I have the Allison software, but can't use it as it needs to be activated. Way too expensive to buy, $1100 and then $590 each year to keep it active. So I'll have to find a commercial Allison tech here locally to change the target gear. Where this gets exciting though is that there is even more useful changes that can be made in the ECM with CAT ET, which I also have. These improvements require that you also have the ECM setup for cruise control. Here's what I (I means my daughter who is a computer geniushave done and it makes the exhaust brake function exactly how I want it to and essentially the same as the exhaust brake in my 2014 Ram.
In CAT ET you go into the cruise control menu and set the cruise control to "Latched". There is also a setting called something like "auto retard threshold" The lowest value this can be set to is 3 mph. We had to shut the truck down and restart for all of the changes to take a affect. Now with these changes you have three different exhaust brake modes based on the status of the cruise control.
Exhaust switch on/cruise control switch off - in this mode the exhaust brake engages when you lift your foot off of the accelerator pedal. The downshift to the target gear happens in this mode.
Exhaust switch on/cruise control switch on but cruise not set - in this mode the exhaust brake engages when you press the service brake and stays latch on whether you are on the brakes or not until you depress the accelerator pedal. The downshift to the target gear happens in this mode.
Exhaust brake switch on/cruise control on and set - in this mode with the cruise set when you are coasting with your foot off of the accelerator pedal, the ECM automatically modulates the exhaust brake to maintain your set speed. When your speed reaches the threshold value you set over the set cruise speed the exhaust brakes engages and stays latched until your speed is back withing the threshold range you set. In my case the threshold is set at the minimum 3 mph value. In this mode, the trans does not downshift to the target gear.
Hope you find this info useful. For me this is a MASSIVE improvement in the exhaust brake function and will be even better once I have the target gear changed.
With the cruise set, the exhaust brake does not force a down shift, it ignores the target gear. If it can’t maintain the cruise set speed it will down shift but it’s way mellower and typically only one gear is all that’s required at highway speeds.
If you have your cruise set to “latched” in the ECM, your exhaust brake has to function the way mine is. There is no option to have the cruise interconnected with the exhaust brake and have the exhaust brake function as set up by the mfg.
Well have heard of "seat of the pants" (feel) driving... the "nose knows" method ... that one is new to me LOL...I drive mostly by feel and sounds and smells.
Well - I can definitely smell brakes being worked hard or dragging, clutches being slipped, belts dragging over seized pulleys, and often coolant and oil leaks as well. Sometimes before I can see evidence on the ground. Hot grease and fluids being flung onto the exhaust from driveshafts makes a real nice bouquet also. I'm sure you have experienced one or more of these. Sometimes the first sign of trouble is a suspicious smell.Well have heard of "seat of the pants" (feel) driving... the "nose knows" method ... that one is new to me LOL
(not really.... am exactly the same myself too)
Only comments I have are that you have the “soft” cruise set to yes, I don’t like that setting, it expands the over/under speed tolerance before the ECM adjusts the speed. I find the tolerance pretty sloppy even without that on. The other comment would be that I played with the auto retarder setting and prefer it set to 3 mph, which is apparently the minimum. Even set at 3mph it seems it allows more before it engages the exhaust brake.
So I actually tried 3mph, it wouldn't allow it (humorously giving an error saying 0-10 was the acceptable range). 5 was the lowest it would take, 4 was a no go.
Some versions of CAT ET will give that complaint but still make the change anyway. Try changing it, acknowledge the error, and then switch away from the settings page and back again. I've run into that a time or two. You switch off the page and back again and the setting was programmed in spite of the error it gave you.
Last LORAN station I was at, I used to walk into the transmitter room with my techs, and say OK, go find me the bad circuit breaker. I could smell the slightest wiff of the bakelite plastic housings getting hot a long time before they finally cooked off.. They would search all the panels with an IR gun to find it so we could switch off of it and replace itWell - I can definitely smell brakes being worked hard or dragging, clutches being slipped, belts dragging over seized pulleys, and often coolant and oil leaks as well. Sometimes before I can see evidence on the ground. Hot grease and fluids being flung onto the exhaust from driveshafts makes a real nice bouquet also. I'm sure you have experienced one or more of these. Sometimes the first sign of trouble is a suspicious smell.
The nose knows…Ah yes - I missed the smell of ozone and burning insulation! Such an obvious example. Some of the "enthusiast" vehicles I have occasion to work on often have an "interesting" take on wire management, routing, and shall we say..... "best practices and standards"Last LORAN station I was at, I used to walk into the transmitter room with my techs, and say OK, go find me the bad circuit breaker. I could smell the slightest wiff of the bakelite plastic housings getting hot a long time before they finally cooked off.. They would search all the panels with an IR gun to find it so we could switch off of it and replace it
