What is the difference between Engine Braking mode and Auto Engine Braking mode on a 2019 6.7? didn’t see much explanation in the manual. Maybe I missed it.
thanks,

Jim

 

From the 2017 owner's manual.

There are two engine brake modes, manual and automatic.
Manual Engine Braking
1. Press the button to switch on manual engine braking.
2. Release the accelerator pedal to maximize engine braking.
3. Apply the brakes. The transmission downshifts to lower gears.
Note: The engine braking feature only functions when you release the accelerator.
Note: You can shift the transmission to lower gears with progressive range selection (PRS) or manual shifting independent of pressing the brakes.
Note: You can also use manual engine braking with cruise control to improve grade descent control.
Note: If your vehicle has Adaptive Cruise Control, the speed control system uses the selected engine brake mode, transmission gears, and brakes to maintain the set speed and distance to the vehicle being followed.

Automatic Engine Braking
1. Press the button twice to switch on automatic engine braking.
2. Release the accelerator or brake pedal.
The system remembers your vehicle speed.
Note: This feature offers smoother, less aggressive engine braking during downhill descents. It may not apply braking if the vehicle speed is not increasing, although it will apply full engine braking force when needed to prevent acceleration. The system automatically activates the engine brake and, if necessary, downshifts the transmission to lower gears to not exceed your vehicle's set speed when the brake or accelerator were last released.

 

thanks for that. Maybe I should have looked again in the 2019 manual 😀. I live on a mountainside and the road to the highway has 10% grades in places. I’ve played around with both modes and felt like Automatic seemed more aggressive but I need to experiment more. I also pull a trailer but have not yet taken this truck out west to the BIG mountains. When I do that I’ll get more experience with it.

 

My experience with pulling my 11K toy hauler in the Rocky Mountains is that if I want the maximum benefit, I use Manual mode (one press) and then shift the transmission in Manual mode using the +/- buttons on the gear selector. Part of the reason for this is that I can see what's coming up and the truck can't. I can start slowing the rig down long before the truck would start doing that. That's for the big hills. For everything else, I pretty much use the Auto mode for the exhaust brake.

 

If you’re driving down steep grades while not towing, I find that manual mode works better than auto. Manual mode requires you to tap the breaks to set the speed you want the truck to maintain. Auto mode takes too long to engage and I gain too much speed by the time it kicks in. I’ve tested this out on the same giant hill out at work.

While towing my 12,000lb trailer, both exhaust brake modes seem to work fine for me while I’m using cruise control and tow/haul mode. I don’t have the mountains where I tow my trailer so I’d listen to HRTKD for his method. He knows what he’s doing.

 

If I'm towing and going someplace. I've usually set the cruise at the speed I want. So I press the button twice and just let it hold my downhill speed. I can forget about speed and just watch the traffic.
The trick is to remember that if I crest the mountain pass at 70 mph, I may really want 50 mph as my downhill curve speed. So I have to brake and set the cruise at 50 before setting the exhaust braking.
I use this a lot coming downhill on the Interstate. Parleys Canyon ( I-80 into Salt Lake) is a 75 mph road, but there are a lot of 45 mph curves. So I just slow down as I cross the summit and then set the cruise at the max speed I want thru those curves