Jake Brake Exhaust System

[Paul Severson]

Has anyone installed a jake brake in a 05 Ford or before? Does it work as advertised in the decent on grades? What make is it and did you install yourself? Has it made any difference in mileage per?

I also have the same questions on after market exhaust systems.

I am thinking of installing on my truck and need some sage wisdom from those of you who have completed this project.

[Bill Hill]

Paul,
A number of folks here have exhaust brakes on their diesels, but lighteningjack is the only one that I think did it himself. We have the BD brake on our Duramax and it works great. You can get lots of info on different brands at www.stcperformance.com , these are the folks who installed ours and I've been very pleased.

[sreigle]

Paul, Ford does not like the idea of exhaust brakes and says it will void the warranty IF they feel the problem was cuased by the brake. Same for any aftermarket additions.

That said, have you towed any long downgrades with the new truck yet? We're towing a bit more weight and have been down some serious grades and I just don't see a need for us to invest in an exhaust brake. From previous discussions on this topic I cannot disagree that an exhaust brake provides the maximum braking available but I have not seen the need. With tow/haul engaged we maintain speed downhill far better than did our gas V10 towing the same Montana. Even when not in tow/haul and not towing it seems to slow about the same as our gasser did. I guess the variable geometry vanes in the turbo closing down and causing an exhaust backpressure has a lot to do with eliminating this problem with diesels, or so I understand. Whatevet it is, it works.

If you really want the exhaust brake, no problem with that. Otherwise, you might try it first to see if you still think you need it. I find the tow/haul grade braking to far exceed my expectations.

Paul, this is just my opinion. As I noted above, an exhaust brake will give you even better braking. I just wanted to point out that the builtin capability brakes far better in stock form than our gasser did with the same trailer in tow.

[Paul Severson]

Thanks Steve,
I have now pulled over the grapevine and over some steep grades and also fell that the braking is fine if I go down the hills in2nd gear.

Still would like to hear from some on the gas milaegae. I have pulled at 60 mph and have yet to get much over 10-11 mpg.

[sreigle]

Your mileage will improve with miles on the truck but not a lot when towing. Our previous truck, a 2003 F350 with the 6.0 PSD, averaged about 11.5 overall towing this Montana. It peaked at about 32,000, give or take a thousand. This one is seven months old and will turn 24k this week. Our mileage varies depending on terrain, speed, and wind (why do we always manage to get headwinds???). On relatively flat land at 60mph we'll get 11.5 to 12 if you include stops, starts, towns, etc. If you use the trip computer and only measure constant speed 60mph it will be up around 12-14 depending on the wind. I figure we get 40% to 50% better than we did with our V10 gasser towing the same Montana. Ours scaled recently at 14,360 lbs so I figure the mileage is not too bad. On roads like I-5 over the grapevine the mileage will drop on the uphill side and pick up on the downhill side, naturally. So if you got 10-11 towing over the grapevine, that's probably pretty good.

I hope some other 6.0 PSD owners reply. I'd like to compare mileage.

[sreigle]

Paul, I just noticed your comment about using 2nd gear downhill. You really don't need to do that. I heard but do not know for sure that manually downshifting may override tow/haul grade braking. I'm not positive it actually overrides it though.

When in tow/haul and off throttle, when speed increases 3 or 4, maybe 5, mph, it will automatically downshift. If speed climbs again, it will downshift again. Etc. If you want it to downshift sooner, just step on the brakes for a couple of seconds and it will downshift. It will go all the way down to first gear if necessary. No need to manually downshift. If yours doesn't do this, them maybe it's not working correctly.

[Montana_4025]

Some states prohibit jakes due to the noise so many of the big rigs make when they use them. Although I haven't heard those brakes on a pickup, I don't imagine they're anywhere near as noisy as a semi.

[Bill Hill]

superduty,
You're absolutely right, they are much quieter. You really don't even know they're in use. I'll sometimes forget to switch mine off after running down a hill. I'll only know because it continues to slow me down faster and the lighted toggle switch.

[Bob Pasternak]

I think the difference in noise in Jake Brakes on the big trucks as compared to pick-ups is that in the big trucks, the valve action is changed and it makes a big air compressor out of the engine. On PU's, it just puts a butterfly over the exhaust outlet.