I Currently Own A 99 F-350. Recently We Took Our First Trip Over The Great Smokey Mountains Pulling With Us Our 27 Foot Fifth Wheel Camper. Now,i Have Been Over Mountains Before Though Never Pulling A Camper. I Was Taking It Real Easy So I Thought But I Think I Did Not Have My Camper Brakes Set Up Real Well. So About Half Way Down The Front Brakes On Our Truck Got Hot. I Pulled Over To Let Them Cool While The Kids And I Went For A Hike. We Waited About An Hour Or So And Then When I Started Out Down The Mountain Again(granted,i Realize The Great Smokey Mountains Arent Really All That High..... 5000' Or So) And I Set Up The Camper Brakes A Little To Cut The Edge A Little More. Now By The Time We Got The Rest Of The Way Down I Could Tell They Were Getting Hot Again. Now I Have Had People Tell Me That Once They Get Hot It Takes Quite Some Time To Cool. And I Have Also Heard People Talk About Brake Pads With A Different Composition. I Have What The Brake Equipment Store Tells Me Are The Heavy Duty Pads. What That Means I Dont Know. My Dad Has A 99 F-350 With The Diesel And He Has A Manual Transmission(mine Is An Auto Trans) He Has An Engine (exhaust Brake System) Installed On His And He Says That Helps Immensely! Does Anyone Have Any Real Life Experience With Any Of This Stuff? I Have Heard That The New 6.0 Litre Diesels Can Come With A 5 Sp. Auto Trans. Does That Have Some Kind Of Utility To Help Slow Down The Truck On Mountains Like The Allison Auto In The Duramax Trucks? Thanks In Advance For Any Info!

 

hitchhiking this post. I am new to diesels and will also be towing. I thought we could downshift to 2nd gear to slow down.

How did you know your brakes were getting hot?

The only thing I have seen about exhaust brakes is on I70 there is a sign saying no exhaust brakes at one point I forget where (I just remember it because I never heard of that before).

 

I have no experience with engine brakes, but I can tell you that Diesel engines have quite a bit Less braking effect than spark ignited ("gas") engines. The reason has to do with the Diesels having no throttle plate on the intake- ie the intake valves are pretty much directly open to the air filter.
mike

 

the problem you are refering to is exactly what an exhaust brake is intended for. it increases the engine load, so that u can use the compression to slow yourself, instead of just your brakes. banks makes a nice setup for the psd, not sure about any other brands.

 

I Knew They Were Getting Hot Because I Could Smell Them First Of All,and When I Pulled Over...... It Was The Smoke Coming Out Of The Front Wheel Wells,and The Look On My Wife's Face!

 

Do some searching around this forum and the 7.3l forum. I remember someone talking about a do it yourself exhaust brake by modifying your EBPV.
Mike

On edit: my statement above is a lie. I read about it here . Good website with lots of info. Don't know how much applies to the '99+ trucks though.

 

One thing you should be aware of is that if an exhaust brake causes any engine damage it won't be covered under warranty. I personally think the safest way to have an exhaust brake is to use the existing exhaust backpressure valve. It's obviously built within the tolerances fo the engine since it's installed from the factory. There are several aftermarket kits that you can use that use the existing valve or you can build one yourself for real cheap. Here's a link that includes a wiring diagram:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/contents...xhaust%20Brake

 

Ok, And Can Anyone Respond To The Question I Mentioned After The Fact About The 5 Speed Automatic Transmission Having A Special Feature Such As The Allison Trans. That Helps While Going Down Hill? And I Would Be Interested In The Mod's Mentioned But For The 6.0 Not The 7.3.

 

Not sure I know what the allision does. But the torque shift when in tow haul mode will pop down to the next lowest gear if you tap the brakes. Not quite an exhaust brake but definitely helps.

 

So Is That The 5 Sp Auto In The New Sd?

 

Grumpy:
When you overheated the brakes what gear were you in and how fast?
mike m

 

Yes, it's only available with the Torqshift.

 

Well.... We Were Coming Down Off Of 5000 Feet And I Was In Od Going Like 25mph Which I Suppose, Looking Back On It, Was Probably Just Like Being In Neutral? I Probably Flucuated Between 20 And 30mph. Does The Torqshift Trans Feature Make A Big Diff From What's In My 99'? Otherwise This Truck Really Is Overkill Any Other Time Than When We Use It For Camping. And If It Really Comes Right Down To It That Could Be All We Really Use It For. And If That's The Case, I Was Thinking About Getting A Freightliner Fl70 With A 3126 And A Jake Brake. Because I Plan On Doing A Lot More Traveling And If The Mountains Are Going To Be An Issue I Want A Fix For The Problem.

 

You might consider getting an aftermarket transmission lock that will keep the transmission engaged at lower speeds. Yes, you were probably in "neutral" going down those grades.

 

well.... i could really just drop it down in second gear myself,right? wouldnt that do the same thing as a transmission lock